Daily LInks
1. Chanel Misses Interim Renewables Target in Sustainable Bond: The fashion giant Chanel missed an interim renewable energy target for 2021. Instead of meeting 97% of its electricity needs from renewable sources, it only reached 92%. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. US fashion industry: Bangladesh to get more orders than China, Vietnam over next 2 years. When asked from which countries or regions the US fashion companies planned to increase their sourcing value in the next two years, India led the way, followed by CAFTA-DR region and Bangladesh, with all three selected by more than half of surveyed parties. – Read More on Biz Standard
3. French agency to track impact of clothing industry on climate: The French Agency for Ecological Transition is looking to gather information on the origins of raw materials in clothing, what dyes were used, how far products travelled, and whether factories used solar energy or coal. – Read More on RFI
4. Mexico concerned by Chinese retailer Shein’s use of a Mayan design: The Culture Ministry said some details of Shein’s “Fan-Trim Top with Floral Print” were similar to a traditional huipil embroidery made in 2017 by an artisanal clothing brand from southeastern Mexico. – Read More on Reuters
5. Instagram is fueling a thrifting boom in India, Pakistan, and Nepal: Numerous Instagram-based thrift stores have emerged across India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal over the last three years, making the concept of secondhand fashion popular among young shoppers. These thrift stores have become a lucrative business for many young entrepreneurs. – Read More on Rest of World
1. ESG should be boiled down to one simple measure: emissions. Although ESG is often well-meaning it is deeply flawed. It risks setting conflicting goals for firms, fleecing savers and distracting from the vital task of tackling climate change. – Read More on the Economist
2. Retail bankruptcies still low — for now: S&P estimates that the chances of default — which is measured by share price volatility and country and industry-related risks — are an average of 4.5% for publicly traded retailers. – Read More on Axios
3. Valentino to open first monobrand stores in India after Reliance deal: Though small for a country of its size, India’s luxury market is set to be one of the fastest growing in the industry. It will nearly double in size to almost $5 billion within five years, Euromonitor estimates. – Read More on Reuters
4. Rep. Maloney Introduces the Fashioning Accountability and Building Real Institutional Change (FABRIC) Act of 2022: The bill addresses issues in the apparel manufacturing industry such as the exploitation of essential workers, offshoring, and an aging workforce by implementing measures that would advance workplace rights, protections, and manufacturing incentives to solidify the U.S. as the leader in responsible apparel production. – Read More on House.Gov
5. What Sustainability Risks Are Woven Into Fast Fashion? Companies with brand-led intangible asset economic moats, resulting pricing power, and potential volume leverage are best placed to share pain with their suppliers to weather this risk. – Read More on Morning Star
1. Activist Bluebell wants Richemont to focus on jewelry, watches: “We would like them to focus on what they are good at, which is hard luxury — jewelry and watches,” Bluebell partner Marco Taricco said in a telephone interview, a day after it emerged that the fund was seeking board changes at Richemont. – Read More on Reuters
2. From Gap to GameStop, there’s a retail executive exodus underway — and more departures are coming: “If your stock price has plummeted, if your market value is less than your revenue, you’re going to be a target for activists.” – Read More on CNBC
3. E-Commerce’s Red-Hot Cash-Burn Problem: Once-favorable online retail conditions are reversing as cash-squeezed consumers shift spending away from goods to services and others opt to return to in-person shopping. – Read More on the WSJ
4. US on track to miss Paris pledges after federal climate legislation stalls: With congressional climate and clean energy legislation at an impasse, the U.S. is falling farther behind its commitments under the Paris Agreement on climate change — a scenario that could have global implications, observers warned. – Read More on S&P Global
5. Armani revenues up 20% in H1 after 2021 recovery: Revenues “now constantly exceed the levels achieved in 2019, thus setting the stage for a substantial improvement in operating profitability — subject to certain potential risks.” – Read More on Reuters
6. The Higg Index, some bad press, and the potential of blockchain technology: Created by the Walmart- and Patagonia-sponsored Sustainable Apparel Coalition in 2012, Higg collects and quantifies data regarding textile manufacturing and supply chains from any apparel company willing to share, compiling the information in one place. – Read More on GreenBiz
1. Is luxury retail’s sweet spot? 76% of consumers with an income of $200,000 or more plan to purchase the same or even more luxury items in the next 3 months than they did in the past 3 months. – Read More on Retail Wire
2. Activist Bluebell Sets Sights on Luxury Group Richemont: The activist hedge fund wants to appoint a board representative for A-class shareholders who have weaker voting rights than the company’s B-class shares controlled by chairman Johann Rupert. – Read More on Bloomberg
3. What Second Life and Roblox can teach us about the metaverse: “If you’re worried about your company needing to jump in right this very minute to make your metaverse play, you can stop worrying.” – Read More on MIT Sloane Review
4. RELATED READ: What Lawsuits Over Second Life Tell Us About Trademarks in the Metaverse. The broad language of the Lanham Act – which defines “use in commerce” as the bona fide use of a mark in the ordinary course of trade – may also suggest that the offering up and sale of virtual goods in a virtual world as “use in commerce.” – Read More on TFL
5. How Paper Catalogs Remain Relevant in a Digital Age: For e-commerce retailers without physical stores, catalogs can effectively mimic stores’ sensory experiences to enhance customer affinity. Multichannel retailers can add an effective catalog marketing channel to their store and e-commerce channel strategies. – Read More on HBR
1. Fashion retailer H&M joins TJX, others in exiting Russia: H&M will wind down its business in Russia, a move that will cost almost $200 million and affect 6,000 staff as it joins a growing number of companies fully exiting the country. – Read More on Reuters
2. Cartier style and heritage director Pierre Rainero: “Globally, the buyers are becoming younger under the pressure of Asia because especially there, people have access to wealth at a younger age, so we face younger and younger clients for important pieces, which was not the case in the past.” – Read More on SCMP
3. Retail sales rose more than expected in June as consumers remain resilient despite inflation: Advance retail sales increased 1% for the month, better than the Dow Jones estimate of a 0.9% rise. That marked a big jump from the 0.1% decline in May. – Read More on CNBC
4. Online retailers are feeling the pain as pandemic-driven e-commerce slows: Now that the pandemic-driven e-commerce boom has slowed, small and medium businesses who sell products on Amazon are feeling the squeeze. – Read More on NPR
5. After Corvette Failure, Automakers Tread Carefully Into NFTs: Chevy paired a digital image of a Corvette Z06 in a Blade Runner-style cityscape, with a real-life 2023 ’Vette custom-painted to match the artwork. The automaker’s acid-green duo failed to receive a single bid. – Read More on Bloomberg
1. Chinese fast-fashion company Shein seeks U.S. IPO as soon as 2024, report says: While ESG concerns have not dissuaded large investors such as Sequoia Capital China, IDG Capital, and Tiger Global Management, recent executive moves within Shein appear to focus on improving their ESG appearance in preparation for an IPO. – Read More on CNBC
2. Farfetch: Luxury Fashion Is Likely in Trouble. A risk Farfetch faces is that brands will take their products off the marketplace and go direct to consumers. We have seen this with Nike dropping Foot locker and LVMH not allowing online sales of its products. – Read More on Seeking Alpha
3. Luxury Brands’ Pool of U.S. Shoppers Is Shrinking: Richer customers are still spending despite the stock-market rout and aggressive price increases across the luxury goods industry – but less well-heeled consumers are cutting back. – Read More on the WSJ
4. Amazon acts to end EU antitrust investigations, avoid fine: The European Commission in 2020 charged Amazon with using its size, power and data to push its own products and gain an unfair advantage over rival merchants that also use its platform. – Read More on Reuters
5. ‘Revenge spending’: Demand for fashion defies cost of living crunch. Shoppers are forking out almost a fifth more on clothing than last year, research from Kantar has found, taking the value 1% ahead of the 2019 figure. – Read More on the Guardian
6. People are paying more for clothes even as retailers like Walmart, Gap mark down prices to cut inventory: “A return to getting back out is really what’s driving the apparel growth. This experiential re-emergence that we still didn’t see fully last year.” – Read More on CNBC
1. Europe’s Fashion Industry Has a Long Way to Go on Diversity: A report from the British Fashion Council shows women hold under half of senior posts even though they account for the lion’s share of the industry’s consumers. Leaders of ethnic minority backgrounds make up just 9% of top management positions at the 100 companies surveyed. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. Marketplace Platforms Do Not Guarantee Market Share Growth for the Luxury Sector: An owned DTC channel delivers far greater customer lifetime value and maintains margins, which in a constricting economy can be the single point of difference between profit and loss. – Read More on Forbes
3. Lawmakers eye work on Fashion Act during session recess: Lawmakers are taking the time while out of session to improve the Fashion Act after it didn’t advance out of committee this session. – Read More on Spectrum News
4. RELATED READ: As New York Lawmakers Unveil the Fashion Act, is Larger Reform on The Way? In order for such an industry-wide ESG reckoning to come into fruition (including by way of legislation, such as the Fashion Act), a number of foundational elements must be put into place first. – Read More on TFL
5. From Gap to Dollar General, Retail Chiefs Exit as Challenges Grow: Many U.S. retailers are opting for new leadership or moving ahead with pandemic-delayed succession plans as the industry adapts to challenges beyond the Covid-19 health crisis. – Read More on the WSJ
1. E-commerce: At the center of profitable growth in consumer goods. Explosive growth puts the United States second in social purchasing only to China, where that channel already makes up more than 13 percent of the e-commerce market. – Read More on McKinsey
2. Ouster of Gap CEO Syngal Follows Trend of Women Being Fired Faster: Women in the role step down after an average tenure of 6.6 years, compared with 9.9 years for men, according to data compiled by exechange.com. – Read More on Bloomberg
3. Startups eye metaverse, NFTs, to solve Africa’s economic woes: Mann hopes that metaverse spaces such as his Ubuntuland will be a “job creation tool” where users can showcase their skills or earn online. – Read More on Reuters
4. Most Expensive Bottle of Champagne Sold for $2.5 Million—NFTs Included: The bottle is printed with five NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, and the purchase includes a transfer of the digital ownership. – Read More on the WSJ
5. Twitter faces uncertain future amid legal showdown with Elon Musk: The company’s stock is falling and economic headwinds are coming. Analysts said Twitter will likely need an infusion of cash — either from Musk himself or from new bargain-hunting suitors. – Read More on S&P Global (In case you need the Twitter v. Musk complaint, you can find it here.)
1. How TikTok drives fast fashion: According to a Marketing Charts survey of Gen-Zers, 39% were directly influenced to buy a product after seeing it on TikTok. – Read More on Axios
2. Burberry Director Draws Protest Over Day Job as Danone CEO: A third of Burberry Group shareholders voted against the re-election of board member Antoine de Saint-Affrique amid concerns about directors who also hold other jobs spreading themselves too thin. – Read More on Bloomberg
3. Christie’s Sold $4.1 Billion in Art in the First Half of 2022: Roughly 34% of new global buyers are millennials, many of whom are gravitating to luxury goods like handbags. Christie’s sold a white crocodile Hermès Kelly handbag last month for $239,400. – Read More on the WSJ
4. TikTok is full of shady secret advertisements: With the internet and social media, there is a seemingly infinite supply of content to regulate and almost no transparency, which makes it exceedingly difficult for the agencies charged with enforcing the rules to know when they’re being broken. – Read More on Vox
5. Gap CEO exit opens door for spin-off talks again: The abrupt exit of Gap Inc’s CEO on the back of falling sales and shrinking margins will likely push the struggling apparel retailer to sell one or more of its brands, analysts said. – Read More on Reuters
1. LVMH’s Sephora to sell its Russian subsidiary: Plans for a law allowing Moscow to seize the assets of foreign businesses and impose criminal penalties has prompted some to accelerate their departure, such as Nike, which decided to leave last month after suspending operations in March. – Read More on CNBC
2. Lanvin Group Aims to Acquire Another Brand Next Year: First, Fosun aims to float Lanvin on the NYSE via a blank-check company in October or November, said Joann Cheng, chairman and chief executive officer of Lanvin Group. A potential acquisition would come after that. – Read More on Bloomberg
3. Diesel jeans founder aims to build Italian rival to compete with LVMH and Kering: “It’s not easy, but we are on the lookout for brands that can strengthen our luxury positioning. We will demonstrate to the world that even Italy can have its own luxury conglomerate.” – Read More on the FT
4. Luxury Brands Need to Take Web3 and the Metaverse Much More Seriously: We are at the very beginning of Web3, however the large players in the field are already investing unprecedented sums in shoring up their position in this new reality. – Read More on Jing
5. Burberry Joins Tiffany, Valentino and Coach in Closing Hong Kong Flagship: Burberry cited the lack of customers able or willing to come into the store to make purchases as the pandemic raged on, especially with the rise of eCommerce options in luxury fashion. – Read More on PYMNTS