Daily Links

1. Is Live-Stream Shopping the Future of Retail? Live-stream shopping has yet to significantly take hold in America as it has in countries like China, where smart-phone-based live-stream apps are a popular mode of purchasing. In 2020, Taobao Live, the live-shopping experience that China’s Alibaba launched in 2016, reported a gross merchandise volume (total revenue before fees) of $61.7 billion. – Read More on the WSJ

2. RELATED READ: Livestream Lawsuits Are Landing in Court in China, as Streaming-Induced Sales Continue to Grow. In what is being called a first-of-its-kind case, a Chinese livestream platform has been given similar treatment as a traditional e-commerce site in connection with a trademark squabble between two Chinese brands. – Read More on TFL

3. How AI is Changing Retail Marketing: marketers must take a proactive role by building strategies based on supply chain predictions. With a supply chain management system, business leaders can make accurate forecasts and anticipate demand, and marketers can use this data to inform their strategies. – Read More on Newsweek

4. Christmas Rush? You’re Already Too Late. Retailers Need to Plan Now for 2022: If the strains of 2021 should teach founders anything, it’s that logistics and supply chain can be a competitive advantage, with retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Dick’s Sporting Goods having turned their supply chains and large brick-and-mortar presence into a competitive advantage. – Read More on Inc.

5. Luxury group Kering to ditch fur completely: Four years after its star label Gucci announced it would forego fur, France’s Kering will stop using animal furs in all its collections, joining a growing list of luxury fashion houses to respond to customer demands for ethical and sustainable clothing and accessories. – Read More on Reuters

6. Are gig worker complaints a retail problem? The longstanding debate over employment status of gig workers has been taking place globally. Gig economy companies assert that reclassifying workers as employees would add expenses, cost jobs and reduce the flexibility that their workers prize. Labor activists counter that gig companies are shifting business risk to precarious workers without other employment opportunities. – Read More on Retail Wire

1. Louis Vuitton’s CEO talks resale: Michael Burke says the rise of the sharing economy that extends its bags’ lifespan helps. And while China hasn’t embraced sustainability the same way, it will catch up, he says. – Read More on SCMP

2. RELATED READ: China’s Luxury Resale Segment is Expected to Grow into a $154 Billion Market. “Explosive” growth is on the horizon for pre-owned luxury products. This is only bolstered by the fact that the majority of Chinese consumers are keeping their luxury products for just one to three years, Kering revealed in its 2021 environmental impact report. – Read More on TFL

3. China’s millennials embrace local brands as fast fashion giants like H&M face changing tastes: National pride and skepticism about fast fashion is fueling a growing appetite among young Chinese to buy domestic brands. Chinese labels are big winners from the trend, while international firms like H&M are finding themselves on the wrong side of it. – Read More on SCMP

4. French luxury group LVMH seeks 25,000 young staff in recruitment drive: The European luxury sector has seen a fast pace of growth in recent months, as stores reopened following lockdown periods and consumers drew on money saved during periods of confinement to splash out on pricey goods. – Read More on Reuters

5. 70% of Consumers Say Addressing Climate Change is a Key Issue, Fueling Resale Growth: “What used to seem like a cheap, cheerful, fun little trendy purchase, people are starting to see actually comes at a pretty high cost environmentally and needs to be rethought.” – Read More on PYMNTS

6. Inside Amazon’s Department Store Plans: High-Tech Dressing Rooms, Its Own Apparel Brands. The retailer has attempted to build out its fashion business by giving customers more options on how and where to buy. It has had a tougher time, though, scaling the high-end fashion business, with few luxury brands selling on its website. – Read More on the WSJ

1. Apple and Target retail guru Ron Johnson: Commerce at home will change the way we shop. As we start to look beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear to me that the way we shop will never be the same. A recent  survey found that 75% of U.S. consumers have tried new shopping behaviors during the pandemic. This heralds a sea change for the retail sector. – Read More on Fortune

2. Luxury Retail Evolution Requires Seamless Blending of Digital and Physical: Digital is expected to become the main channel for luxury purchases by 2025. Therefore, it is not surprising that physical stores are shifting from transactional to experiential. – Read More on Chain Store Age 

3. China’s Secondhand Business Is Booming: Instead of spending at the mall, shoppers are increasingly buying and selling the secondhand stuff piling up in their closets and drawers. In the first half of 2021, about 202 million users bought and sold secondhand goods via China’s online platforms, up from 183 million for all of last year. – Read More on Bloomberg

4. U.S. retail industry seeks 90-day lead time on COVID-19 rules: The Retail Industry Leaders Association and the National Retail Federation strongly encouraged OSHA “to provide a 90-day implementation timeline to allow retailers and other employers to create the systems necessary.” – Read More on Reuters

5. RELATED READ: Brands Face Legal, Logistical Questions and Potential PR Impacts in Light of Biden Vaccine Mandate. A survey revealed that roughly 1 in 3 consumers (34 percent) would be “more likely to buy products from companies that adhere to Biden’s plan, compared with 12 percent who said they would be less likely to purchase from those businesses.” – Read More on TFL

1. How the NFT Boom and Luxury Fashion Brands Are Aiming for Success: Currently, the best example of NFT is when it is sold as a twin (digital product) of a physical one. “The winning bidders will receive the corresponding real-life dresses, and both the NFTs and the physical garments are one-of-a-kind.” – Read More on Forbes

2. RELATED READ: From Royalties to Resale Restrictions, What Would Tying NFTs to Luxury Goods Look Like? While “the tokenization of physical items is not yet as developed as their digital counterparts,” blockchain platform Ethereum states in a “use case” report that NFTs “can be used to represent ownership of any unique asset in the digital or physical realm,” and asserts that “there are plenty of projects exploring the tokenization of real estate, one-of-a-kind fashion items, and more.” – Read More on TFL

3. China wealth plans threaten European luxury stocks’ post-COVID boom: Demand for high-end products in the world’s most populous nation is the main driver for the sector, accounting for a third of European luxury goods makers’ sales in 2019 and 28% in 2020, according to UBS analysts. – Read More on Reuters

4. Giorgio Armani Says Company’s Independence Is Essential: The independence of the Armani fashion house is “an essential value,” designer Giorgio Armani, founder and sole shareholder of the company that bears his name, said in connection with enduring reports (including from this site) that his company may be looking for a buyer. – Read More on Bloomberg

5. RETRO READ: Giorgio Armani Hints at an Acquisition, Could Exor N.V. Be the Buyer? A push by Exor into luxury makes sense in light of the sheer depth of Exor and the Agnelli family’s understanding of – and connections in – that sphere. As we previously noted, the expertise that the group has built as a result of its majority ownership of Ferrari – which operates more in the luxury space than the traditional auto market – is integral to Exor’s quest to build time-tested, valuable companies, and could easily be applied to building more fashion-oriented luxury brands. – Read More on TFL

6. ‘Circular’ fashion: Greenwashing myth, or attainable goal? “Circularity is an exciting opportunity, where it is genuine – but it has been hijacked. For example, there is this idea that plastic is infinitely recyclable, and that’s just not the case.” – Read More on the Guardian

1. Next deal keeps Gap brand alive in the UK: The move will preserve some of Gap’s physical presence on the High Street after Gap announced in July it would close all of its UK stores. It is a similar deal to one signed with clothing brand Reiss earlier this year. – Read More on BBC

2. Nirvana ‘Nevermind’ Baby’s Lawsuit Raises Hard Questions: Spencer Elden, now 30 years old, is the baby who was featured on the cover of Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album. He argues that the image is pornographic and that, as an infant, he was forced to engage in commercial sex. – Read More on Bloomberg

3. China’s luxury market is more resilient than you think: In late August, Chinese President Xi Jinping took his government’s regulatory campaign a step further, calling for “common prosperity” and “wealth redistribution.” The directive suggested that another clampdown might be on the way; one that would rein in Chinese consumers’ penchant for luxury goods. – Read More on Fortune

4. Why fashion models have a stake in Adult Victims Act: The bill would make it easier for the adult victims and survivors of sexual abuse to file lawsuits by opening a legal look-back window. Based on a similar law for childhood victims, this proposal has stalled in the state Assembly. – Read More on Spectrum

5. Fast fashion in the U.S. is fueling an environmental disaster in Ghana: Many Americans donate their used clothing to charities when they are finished with it, under the assumption that it will be reused. But with the increasing amount of items being discarded, and the poorer quality of fast fashion, less and less can be resold, and millions of garments are put into bales and shipped abroad every year. – Read More on CBS

6. Amazon Is Doing It. So Is Walmart. Why Retail Loves “Buy Now, Pay Later.” Shoppers spend more at Macy’s when they use installment plans offered through Klarna Bank AB, Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette said on a recent earnings call. Klarna also is helping the retailer attract younger customers, he said. – Read More on the WSJ