Daily LInks
1. Appraisers appreciated as worries over faux luxury items rise: The market for authenticating luxury goods has been growing in recent years due to the diversification of purchasing channels such as department stores, boutiques and outlets making use of online platforms and secondhand transactions. – Read More on Korea JoongAng
2. Mytheresa CEO on luxury spending: Customers are buying “even more luxury items, more timeless luxury items. So, the types of items they buy are at a higher price point.” – Read More on Yahoo
3. Riding Hermès to Record Revenue: Leather is still king, and given the enduring passion for Birkins and Kellys, Hermès works at capacity. Waiting lists for the products are not a function of artificial scarcity, but actual scarcity. – Read More on the WSJ
4. How ‘Dupe’ Culture Took Over Online Fashion: Influencers have an incentive to post and promote popular dupes: through Amazon’s influencer program, creators get a small percentage of sales when people purchase items with their links. – Read More on Rolling Stone
5. Fast-Fashion Giant Shein Plans U.S. Expansion as Sales Climb: Shein’s long fulfillment times have frustrated some shoppers and could become a hurdle as the company tries to sell more higher-price products with fatter profit margins. – Read More on the WSJ
6. H&M Sales Miss Estimates as Retailer Falls Behind Rival Zara: Hennes & Mauritz AB sales declined more than expected over the summer as the Swedish retailer fell further behind rival Zara amid a growing cost-of-living crisis across Europe. – Read More on Bloomberg
1. Why fast fashion is the next Big Tobacco: While faced with incriminating data points that prove every stage of its lifecycle causes devastation to our planet, fast fashion has few regulations, thus enabling behemoths like Shein to become so popular it has more U.S. app downloads than Amazon. – Read More on Fast Co.
2. Luxury Brands Spend More on Marketing, Defying Economic Uncertainty: A number of brands attracted by the luxury sector’s profit margins have also begun attempting to move into the category, leading some more established luxury names to try to move even higher up the ladder. – Read More on WSJ
3. In new era, Ray-Ban owner extends partnership with Armani: The partnership dates back to 1988 when the parties teamed up to bring Armani-branded glasses to a global market. The move is widely seen as driving a revolution that helped to turn glasses into a fashion accessory. – Read More on Reuters
4. How the apparel industry can ADAPT to inflation: The ADAPT model offers a five-component approach to reset margin structures with bold, deliberate actions that could yield competitive advantages in a persistently inflationary environment. – Read More on McKinsey
5. What would it look like to truly transform the fashion industry from the ground up? “The entire clothing system is based on cutting down labor [costs to] as little as possible. We’re going up against so much.” – Read More on Yahoo
1. Zara’s US Clothing Sales Help Swell Top Line as Dollar Surges: The Spanish clothing giant affirmed in June that the American market was the second-largest contributor to revenue. The US is expected to account for 10% of sales in 2022, up from 8% in 2021. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. Where Walmart, Amazon and Target are spending billions in a slowing economy: Investments made by big-spending leaders are likely to result in taking customers from weaker rivals next year, when consumer discretionary cash flow is forecast to rebound from a year-long 2022 drought and revive shopping after spending on goods actually shrank early this year. – Read More on CNBC
3. Luxury Brands Prepare for “Millennial Domination.” Plans revolve around the changing styles and increasing buying power of millennials and Gen Z customers, with Tapestry coining the term “expressive luxury” to describe the new direction for Coach. – Read More on PYMNTS
4. Rent the Runway shares sink as inflation-weary subscribers hit pause: Soaring prices of gasoline and groceries have forced shoppers to curb spending on apparel and other discretionary items, bruising sales of clothing companies that were just beginning to recover. – Read More on Reuters
5. Kanye West Is Done With Corporate America: There are obstacles to a clean break. Foremost are his high-profile, long-term arrangement with adidas to produce sneakers like the Yeezy Boost 350, which expires in 2026, and an agreement with Gap that ends in 2030. – Read More on Bloomberg
1. On Running co-CEOs look to expand in retail in “a long-term, durable way.” The Swiss-based athletic shoe and apparel maker, plans to maintain a steady pace on the road to expansion, including via resale efforts for its own products. – Read More on Yahoo
2. Versace is the latest luxury brand to increase prices: “We think we have the right product. We think we have the right brand heat, and we know that many of our competitors are at substantially higher prices than us.” – Read More on Quartz
3. RELATED READ: Resale is Helping Capri’s Brands Boost Prices Without Consumer Pushback. “Interestingly enough, the resale market has created a comfort level with people in the luxury world that they can not only purchase and enjoy, but they can – they see value in the ability to be able to resell product,” Idol said. – Read More on TFL
4. Roblox’s metaverse future remains murky, Cowen says: It’s too soon to determine whether Roblox is a winner in the metaverse, according to Cowen, which says that it’s overvalued for a distant metaverse future. – Read More on CNBC
5. Global venture capital investments fall more than half in August: The technology, media and telecommunications sector accounted for the largest share of the capital raised in August at 44.4%, followed by the healthcare and industrial sectors at 16.6% and 13.9%, respectively. – Read More on S&P Global
1. Ulta Beauty and Other Retail Stocks That Might Weather Inventory Woes: Many retailers over-ordered products to avoid the out-of-stock headaches that plagued shoppers during the pandemic. Yet spiking inflation led consumers to quickly readjust, particularly to the detriment of categories that had proven popular in recent years. – Read More on Barron’s
2. I’ve Never Been an Impulse Buyer—Until Now: Sometimes, rather than cutting back on big purchases during periods of high inflation, we actually end up spending more. – Read More on the WSJ
3. Macy’s predicts another early start to holiday season shopping: Pandemic-induced disruptions to supply chains prompted consumers to start their holiday shopping as early as Oct. in the last two years on fears that in-demand products would disappear from shelves by the traditional period around Thanksgiving in late Nov. – Read More on Reuters
4. Walmart, Costco Winning, Shopping Centers Losing as Retail Foot Traffic Trends Signal Austere Holiday Quarter: US apparel store visits lag pre-COVID days by 10%, or about 10 million fewer visits per week. – Read More on Forbes
5. Not everyone is raising prices: Sales forecasts strong as Apple skips US price hikes for new iPhone lineup. Analysts were widely expecting a price hike of at least $100 due to the inflationary climate and ongoing component shortages that are still impacting device manufacturers around the world. – Read More on S&P Global
1. How China’s fast-fashion app Shein beat Uniqlo’s market value: Shein’s unconventional approach has propelled the Chinese fast-fashion app to a market value far surpassing that of its closest competitors Uniqlo and Zara. – Read More on Nikkei
2. Luxury fashion houses are funneling millions into the metaverse. But to what end? From Balenciaga selling character skins on Fortnite to Ralph Lauren launching a digital clothing line on South Korean platform Zepeto, luxury brands have rushed into these new and hugely popular digital worlds. – Read More on CNN
3. Roblox fashion is transforming the metaverse fashion industry: Major retail corporations are finding that many people value their digital wardrobes just as much as their physical ones. As a result, fashion brands are jumping on the metaverse bandwagon by investing in Roblox and other virtual worlds. – Read More on PCG
4. Kourtney Kardashian offered a lesson in sustainability by experts after ‘greenwashing’ backlash against latest fast-fashion collection: Boohoo “does not provide any measurable commitment towards its sustainability practices for Kardashian’s collection or any of their collections.” – Read More on Fortune
5. Retail analyst: Consumers trading down ‘could be more prevalent’ in 2022. “We’ve been seeing tradedown in grocery for some time now. But in the past couple of months, as evidenced by what some of our companies said during the second quarter, they started to see more evidence of higher income consumers trading down to more value items.” – Read More on Yahoo
1. Kim Kardashian’s Newest Business Venture: Private Equity. Ms. Kardashian is teaming up with Jay Sammons, who ran consumer investing at Carlyle, to launch SKKY Partners, which will make investments in sectors including consumer products, hospitality, luxury, digital commerce and media as well as consumer-media and entertainment businesses. – Read More on the WSJ
2. Three Things You Need To Know: Emerging Markets—Localization To Boost Luxury Retailing. There are several smaller regions that, while dispersed, present significant potential for the global luxury goods market. While entering these markets requires varying strategies, they present compelling opportunities for luxury brands. – Read More on Core Research
3. Madison Avenue retail activity rising: Vacant storefronts dotted Madison Avenue from East 57th Street to East 72nd Street through last year, as the availability rate of 39 percent was the highest in Manhattan. – Read More on the Real Deal
4. Richemont’s activist victory has a catch: Richemont Chairman Johann Rupert has crushed activist Bluebell Capital’s attempt to get ex-Bulgari boss Francesco Trapani a board director seat to represent A-share investors and counterbalance Rupert’s outsized voting power. – Read More on Reuters
5. Asia’s rich seek safe havens, diversity to ride out economic uncertainty: Asia’s wealthiest are seeking safer assets to ride out the current economic downturn and doubling down on sustainability investments, according to a Bank Lombard Odier & Co. Ltd. study. – Read More on S&P Global
1. Fashion Firms Look to Single-Fiber Clothes as EU Recycling Regulations Loom: Currently, less than 1% of the world’s textile waste is recycled into new clothes, with the bulk ending up in trash heaps. The EU wants to change this, challenging the big players in fast-fashion that may have to retool their design processes and rethink their sourcing. – Read More on the WSJ
2. RELATED READ: European Union Proposes Sustainability Rules in Crackdown on Apparel Industry. The proposed sustainability-focused legislation coming out of the European Union puts forth new requirements for textiles, “setting mandatory minimums for the inclusion of recycled fibers in textiles,” while also banning “the destruction of unsold products under certain conditions, including unsold or returned textiles.” – Read More on TFL
3. Chinese shoppers are ditching London and Paris for home-grown brands: Pandemic restrictions and geopolitical tremors mean Chinese consumers are no longer travelling abroad for luxury goods, but Europe and Hong Kong’s losses have been the mainland’s gain, with Hainan’s duty-free sales more than quadrupling in the past 3 years. – Read More on SCMP
4. Three Ways Data Can Help Retail Power Couples Last: Dozens of merchants, including Target and Ulta, Lowe’s and Petco, Kohl’s and Sephora and Nordstrom and Allbirds, now use the “two power brands are more attractive than one” model to make them destination spots. – Read More on Forbes
5. Carbon capture ‘simply won’t work’ to meet net-zero targets, report says: An Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis report concluded that the majority of carbon capture projects have failed or underperformed, while the few successful projects have mostly contributed to the procurement of fossil fuels. – Read More on S&P Global
1. Serena’s style changed the game in fashion, business: And her retirement from competitive sport is expected to have little to no impact on her brand value – with Nike planning to continue its partnership with the 40-year-old. – Read More on Reuters
2. Will Covid-19 chills and slumping economy keep China from becoming world’s largest luxury goods market? China’s domestic luxury goods sales accounted for 21% of total global luxury goods sales in 2021, according to Bain, and could account for as much as 40% of the world’s market for luxury goods. – Read More on SCMP
3. Amid US retail gloom, Uniqlo shines on COVID-triggered revamp: The flagship brand of Fast Retailing said it’s poised to book its first annual profit in North America – after 17 years of trying – aided by a revamp of its logistics and pricing strategy, introduced during the pandemic, and essentially halting discounting. – Read More on Reuters
4. Chinese E-Commerce Companies Suffer as Economy Sours: In an August call with analysts, Alibaba’s Chief Executive Daniel Zhang cited China’s Covid restrictions for a mid-single-digit decline in total sales value of items sold on its flagship e-commerce platforms, Taobao and Tmall. – Read More on the WSJ
5. What’s next for the fashion industry? The tech startups weaving fresh trends: Traditional fashion brands have hopped onto the live shopping bandwagon. LVMH has signed a commercial partnership with Bambuser for the group’s labels to use their platforms. – Read More on EU Startups
1. How to Invest in Handbags, the Luxury Asset Most Likely to Hold Value: 40% of US consumers had bought or were planning to buy a luxury handbag as of July, helping bolster the category from a global market of $72 billion this year to a predicted $100 billion in 2026. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. RELATED READ: Chanel Bags, Rolexes Make for Inflation-Proof Investments, Per Credit Suisse Report. Watches, jewelry, and handbags – “especially Chanel handbags” – are “clearly standing out as stores of value with low volatility (between 2.5 percent and 5 percent annually) and low drawdowns,” and with annual returns that average between 4.5 and 6.5 percent. – Read More on TFL
3. Pinduoduo Takes Aim at U.S. With Cross-Border E-Commerce Platform: Pinduoduo Inc. is preparing to launch a cross-border e-commerce platform targeting the United States, a move that could help the company hedge against sluggish consumer spending in its home market. – Read More on Caixin
4. Turning talk into action: retail’s path to sustainability. Numerous studies that show that a majority of institutional investors are asking about the ESG (environmental, social and governance) practices of companies when building their portfolios. “Ten years ago, that was close to zero.” – Read More on the Economist
5. Tourists—and Their Wallets—May Finally Return to Japan: One problem is that China, the largest source of visitors to Japan before the pandemic, still maintains strict border controls and there are no clear signs of when its zero-Covid policy will end. – Read More on the WSJ