Daily LInks
1. Buy now, pay later is not a boom, it’s a bubble, Harvard researcher says: Now, 4 in 5 U.S. consumers use BNPL on everything from clothing to cleaning supplies, according to Experian, and most shoppers said buy now, pay later could replace their traditional payment method (likely, credit cards). – Read More on CNBC
2. Shannon Abloh Steps Up: The late Abloh’s wife Shannon, will assume the mantle at Virgil Abloh Securities, a company started by Mr. Abloh as his “creative corporation” that is now dedicated to “spreading his ethos and essence globally.” – Read More on the New York Times
3. Digital Trends Alter Fashion Industry in Indonesia: Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy is now continuing to collaborate to encourage the domestic fashion world and strengthen the Indonesian fashion ecosystem with two things, namely technological innovation, and a sustainability agenda. – Read More on OpenGov
4. Getty to Sell NFTs in Multiyear Deal with Fanatics-Owned Candy: Getty Images Inc. has signed a multiyear deal with Candy Digital, the digital collectibles firm owned by Fanatics Inc., as the provider of news and stock photos breaks into the nonfungible-token business ahead of its plans to go public. – Read More on Bloomberg
5. Some factories might leave China, but in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter much: “From China’s perspective, the movement out of local manufacturing is not going to be significant enough to really alter the nature of China’s role in the overall supply chain.” – Read More on CNBC
1. Mytheresa CEO Says Luxury’s Online Shift Growing, Resilient: “We grew our GMV double-digit, we expanded our customer base healthily, our top customer base has become even stronger and all this against an extraordinary growth of 47% in last year’s quarter.” – Read More on PYMNTS
2. European shares slide as weak China data stokes recession woes: Industrial stocks were the biggest drags on the STOXX 600, while luxury firms, which derive a chunk of their demand from China, fell with Louis Vuitton-owner LVMH down 1.3%. – Read More on Reuters
3. Environmental Impact Assessments Could Undermine Sustainable Fashion: “Materials [are] developing rapidly, so impact assessment needs to be done dynamically and repeatedly–it needs to be a continuous and somewhat integrated assessment to guide the R&D process.” – Read More on Forbes
4. How K-Pop Group aespa Is Making the Metaverse Their Home: Like Marvel or DC Comics, SM Entertainment is creating an interconnected world in which all of its artists will exist—with complex backstories, narrative arcs, villain threats, and more. It is still something of a sketch. – Read More on Time
5. Marketing: 44% of Marketers Plan to Run Campaigns in the Metaverse. 57% of marketers of all levels of experience said that ideally leveraging cryptocurrency will be a part of their marketing plans this year. – Read More on BeinCrypto
1. Harrods imposes sanctions on Russian shoppers: The Knightsbridge department store has contacted Russian customers warning that it will no longer sell them “luxury goods” worth more than £300. – Read More on the Telegraph
2. What Europe’s 2 pending tech laws mean for different Big Tech players: A pair of proposed laws from the European Union — the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act — both target big tech firms, but they will target different companies in different ways. – Read More on S&P Global
3. Shein’s Breakneck Growth Slows, Testing $100 Billion Valuation: The online-only retailer of inexpensive apparel has become a global phenomenon, with a following of mostly tweens and teenagers in the West making its app one of the most downloaded in the world. – Read More on Bloomberg
4. Roblox expects losses for ‘foreseeable future’ as pandemic demand wanes: Roblox, one of the world’s most popular gaming sites for children, is starting to feel the pinch from easing COVID restrictions that have allowed kids to spend more time outdoors. – Read More on Reuters
5. Driven by Gen Z, the boom of faux fur: Faux fur is in the midst of a boom. According to data from the retail tracking firm Edited, retail sales of genuine fur styles fell 44% from 2020 to 2021 while sales of luxury faux fur items increased 72%. – Read More on SCMP
1. How Luxury Can Navigate China’s Zero-Covid Policy: Compared to the first wave of pandemic lockdowns in 2020, China’s latest wave has impacted luxury’s more bankable higher-tier cities, like Shanghai and Beijing, and is much more stringent. – Read More on Jing
2. After Covid-era boom, newly public tech stocks hit first major hurdles: Tech companies are often especially vulnerable during an economic downturn, because most of these early-stage enterprises aren’t profitable, relying instead on venture capital investments to cover expenses while they focus on rapid growth. – Read More on CNBC
3. Luxury Brand Tapestry Reports Positive Q3: Tapestry noted a double-digit growth in all of its brands for the third quarter of fiscal 2022, which ran for three months up to April 2, and 13% overall revenue growth, according to the company press release on May 12. – Read More on PYMNTS
4. U.S. inflation simmers, worst of price gains likely behind: Consumers got some relief, with apparel prices falling 0.8%. The biggest drop there since May 2020 ended six straight months of increases. – Read More on Reuters
5. How U.S. Companies Are Supporting Workers on Abortion: When Texas last year banned procedures after the six-week mark, some companies in the state condemned the move, arguing that it would deter top talent, and offering assistance to workers seeking abortions. – Read More on Bloomberg
1. Chinese fast fashion giant Shein now has more monthly app downloads than Amazon Shopping: From January to April, Shein had 13.8 million app downloads, up 50% year-over-year. Amazon Shopping had 13.3 million and 13.2 million downloads during those periods respectively. – Read More on Business Insider
2. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand Will Introduce the First Federal Fashion Bill: The Fashioning Accountability and Building Real Institutional Change (FABRIC) Act aims to extend the anti-wage theft principles of SB62 nationwide and offer incentives like tax exemptions and grant programs for brands looking to manufacture in the U.S. – Read More on Vogue
3. Western luxury brands squeezed by Ukraine conflict may look further east: The Gulf region has strong purchasing power, with personal luxury sales reaching $9.7 billion in 2021, outpacing pre-pandemic level by 23% vs 2019. – Read More on DW
4. What Would It Take for a Truly Ethical Clothing Industry? “In the absence of well-enforced regulations that adapt to the practices of fast-rising global ecommerce companies, the burden of making fashion more ethical will continue to rest largely on individual consumers—a strategy sure to fail. – Read More on Wired
5. Ferragamo CEO promises quick turnaround despite China hit: Gobbetti says that a strong performance in the United States and Europe helped Ferragamo to reduce its dependency on the Chinese market, where it made 30% of its sales last year. – Read More on Reuters
1. The invincible business of counterfeit goods: When people would rather buy a more expensive genuine article than a cheaper fake – even if the two items look almost identical – it’s because they are buying not just the product’s tangible qualities, but also its intangible ones. – Read More on the Guardian
2. Pro-military symbols adorn shop windows of western brands in Moscow: Salvatore Ferragamo and De Beers branded stores were decked out with pro-military symbols to mark Russia’s annual Victory Day parade on Monday, demonstrating how little control high-end retailers have over how their goods are sold in the country. – Read More on Reuters
3. The Great Unsubscribe: With in-person shopping opening up and inflation skyrocketing to levels not seen since the 1980s, consumers are looking closely at their monthly expenses and reconsidering subscriptions that they signed up for when times were different. – Read More on Forbes
4.. Meta’s first store aims to lure consumers to the metaverse: The company formerly known as Facebook is using the space to introduce consumers to the products that will help it realize Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of the metaverse. – Read More on CNBC
5. U.K. Retail Sales Hit by Cost of Living Shock in April, BRC Says: U.K. retail sales are falling for the first time since January 2021 as the cost of living crisis crushes consumer confidence and puts the brakes on spending. – Read More on Bloomberg
1. Coty raises annual profit outlook on resilient luxury demand: Demand for luxury goods has held up as higher prices of everyday essentials have not affected the spending power of the affluent, updates from cosmetics group L’Oreal and Birkin bag maker Hermes have shown. – Read More on Reuters
2. Private Labels Are Flooding Retail: Rising prices, high inflationary pressures, and an uncertain economic environment are forcing many retailers to be creative and introduce new private brands to serve their customers. – Read More on Forbes
3. How Web3 Is Changing Commerce and Governance: Web3’s ability to attach value and incentives to almost every part of human activity has radical implications not only for how businesses engage with their customers, but also for how people can self-organize to drive social change. – Read More on HBR
4. Do Chinese Consumers Want Hyper-Luxury or Hyped Luxury? Offering early or first access to upcoming co-branded products can drive up conversations surrounding their release. – Read More on Jing
5. RETRO READ: As Co-Branding Continues to Prove Effective in China, Here’s What Brands Need to Consider. Through co-branding collaborations, companies have successfully reached more consumers and found new streams of revenue and other mutual benefits. – Read More on TFL
1. Shopify president: The future of retail is not just online. “The brands that are going to do really well, that are be really successful– they will sell wherever their consumer wants to buy, be that online or offline, in an app like our Shop app, or on a social media platform.” – Read More on Yahoo
2. Redefining “Sustainable Fashion.” We are going to use “responsible fashion,” a term that refers to a world in which all players, from the consumer to the CEO, the manufacturer and the farmer, take responsibility for their part in the supply chain and the creative process, and for the choices they make. – Read More on the New York Times
3. Under Armour profit to take hit from higher costs, China curbs; shares tank: Shipping delays and labor shortages have also pressured Under Armour’s ability to get its hoodies and shoes to stores, forcing it to cancel orders. – Read More on Reuters
4. The luxury market needs to hedge against China: A shift in spending habits in Asia and a crackdown on wealth by Beijing threaten a profit squeeze for high-end brands. – Read More on the FT
5. $800,000 for Skateboards: China’s Gen Z Collectors Upend the Art Market: Young collectors half-a-world away in China are poised to set the pace for a new Sotheby’s auction, as they compete remotely for everything from high-end watches to dinosaur artifacts to Andy Warhol. – Read More on the WSJ
1. Hong Kong Retail Sales Plunge Again in March on Virus Curbs: Hong Kong’s retail sales plummeted 13.8% in March, the first back-to-back contraction in more than a year as stringent virus restrictions weighed heavily on the economy and crushed consumer spending. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. Inside Shein’s Sudden Rise: In a recent 12-month period, the Gap listed roughly 12,000 different items on its website, H&M had about 25,000, and Zara had some 35,000. Shein, in that period, had 1.3 million. (Every day, Shein updates its website with, on average, 6,000 new styles.) – Read More on Wired
3. EBay and Etsy drop on weak guidance as e-commerce crunch continues: Etsy and eBay reported better-than-expected first-quarter results, but the companies gave weak guidance for the current quarter that suggests the e-commerce sector is cooling off after a pandemic-fueled boost. – Read more on CNBC
4. Zalando posts first decline in sales since founding: “The main issue is that people just aren’t into buying fashion,” said co-Chief Executive Officer Robert Gentz with a view to high inflation and the war in Ukraine. – Read More on Reuters
5. The case for circular fashion: Why retail needs an urgent reckoning. If we don’t curb fashion industry waste, mountains of clothing and accessories will continue to pollute the environment and end up in landfills. – Read More on Fast Co.
6. Crypto Is a Luxury Good: Other examples abound, some companies are building in the metaverse and minting branded NFTs. The play, though perhaps risky, is that crypto has made a lot of people very wealthy, and the crypto rich may be inclined to patronize businesses that affirm the industry. – Read More on Coin Desk
1. Why can’t Gen Z—the world’s most eco-conscious generation—quit fast fashion? In the U.S., 75% say a brand’s sustainability is important when making a purchase, and 62% prefer to buy from sustainable brands. – Read More on Fortune
2. Moncler sales beat expectations in first quarter ahead of investor day: Overall revenues for the three months to end March totaled $622 million, up 60% from the same period a year ago and above an analyst consensus for 564 million euros provided by the company. – Read More on Reuters
3. Are NFTs the Future of Fashion? With the number of mobile-augmented-reality users expected to be in the billions by 2023, and with hands-free AR glasses predicted to become ubiquitous in a few years (Apple is expected to launch its own AR headset this year), digital fashion is just getting started. – Read More on Elle
4. How customers typically cope with inflation: Some firms shrink the package while keeping the price stable. People are getting the brand they want at the price they are prepared to pay, they are just getting less of it. – Read More on Biz Journals
5. Britain’s Boohoo targets increased sourcing from near-shore markets: Boohoo is targeting increased sourcing from the near-shore markets of the United Kingdom, Europe and northern Africa to reduce supply lead times. – Read More on Reuters