Daily LInks
1. SHEIN Solidifying Fast-Fashion Lead Over Amazon, Rivals: Resourceful rivals are doing their best to level set apparel economics currently favoring SHEIN’s hard-to-duplicate global fast-fashion model, similar to brands like H&M, UNIQLO and Zara. – Read More on PYMNTS
2. Secondhand Luxury is Key for China’s First Time Buyers: Consumer attitudes towards buying secondhand luxury have softened considerably in China, with millennials and Gen-Zers far less bothered by the idea than their older peers. – Read More on Jing Daily
3. RELATED READ: China’s Luxury Resale Segment is Expected to Grow into a $154 Billion Market. While the sale of new luxury goods on the Chinese mainland continues to command the focus of brands and analysts, alike, China’s resale market warrants increased attention, “as young and internet-savvy consumers, who are also environmentally conscious, are looking for affordable high-end goods through secondhand luxury trading platforms.” – Read More on TFL
4. Apparel brands like Abercrombie and Birdies are betting on athletic wear: Last year, activewear apparel was up 37% in year-over-year sales, and sport-leisure footwear like lifestyle sneakers captured over a third of all footwear revenue in 2021 and was the most popular shoe subcategory. – Read More on Modern Retail
5. Putin’s $14,000 coat, Zelensky’s green T-shirts, Macron’s air force hoodie send a message to the world: “Remember that how power is displayed changes over the years and can be quite different from one era to the next.” Perhaps we are witnessing one of those shifts. – Read More on SCMP
1. The direct-to-consumer craze is slamming into reality: A gloomy confluence of rising Facebook ad prices, worsening ad measurement, soaring shipping costs, newly-sober public markets, and smaller-than-anticipated customer bases are dealing DTC companies a harsh blow. – Read More on CNBC
2. Kering names Gianfilippo Testa as CEO of Alexander McQueen: Testa – who replaces Emmanuel Gintzburger who will become CEO of Italian fashion house Versace – will be tasked with “accelerating expansion of the British luxury house to tap its full potential,” Kering said in a statement. – Read More on Reuters
3. Can the Death of Skinny Jeans Save Retail? Clothing retailers, whether luxe or low-priced, should be cheering the new look because it is likely to stoke some demand in an industry that badly needs it after a year of being pummeled by the pandemic. – Read More on Bloomberg
4. Amazon Loses Round One of Indian Retail Battle Royale: Amazon is staring at an embarrassing defeat after fighting a drawn-out legal battle to block India’s most valuable firm, Reliance Industries from buying the country’s number two retailer. – Read More on the WSJ
5. New data underscores a slowing e-commerce market: Slowing growth means that it will be harder to grow at prior levels, as outperforming the market segment enough to wow venture capitalists will become more difficult. (But certainly not impossible.) – Read More on TechCrunch
1. The Retail Metaverse is Heating Up. Here’s How Small Businesses Can Benefit: As a first step towards blurring the lines of the physical and digital, many online retailers have already added augmented reality to their e-commerce platforms. – Read More on Forbes
2, Greenwashing UK fashion firms to be named and shamed by watchdog: “According to our research, something like 60% of people had said they were either likely to or fairly likely to be willing to pay more for products.” – Read More on the Guardian
3. RELATED READ: Greenwashing Within the Fashion Industry is the UK’s Next Target. The CMA indicated that it will investigate fashion industry marketing statements that relate to environmental friendliness of apparel and footwear, including claims, for example, that articles of clothing are “environmentally friendly” or “sustainable.” – Read More on TFL
4. How Miu Miu Made the World’s Skimpiest Luxury Outfit a Viral Success: The Miu Miu set is an interesting case study of fashion that syncs with youth-led internet culture, rather than speaking to the same old clients who generally shop at high-end boutiques. – Read More on the WSJ
5. Inflation: A ‘retail ice age’ is emerging, expert says. All retail categories are inflated in the US Department of Commerce. So, it was up 3/10 of a percent overall. – Read More on Yahoo
6. Alexa Chung to close fashion label, citing ‘challenging’ conditions: Despite being stocked in Selfridges and Bergdorf Goodman, supply chain issues hit Chung’s business during the pandemic. – Read More on the Guardian
1. Shoppers Reach Their Limits on Some Price Increases: Roughly 43% of consumers surveyed by NPD in February said that if prices continue to rise, they will delay less-important purchases to stick to a budget. “We are seeing less demand as consumers pay higher prices.” – Read More on the WSJ
2. Tencent poised to lead China’s charge into the metaverse: Despite regulatory hurdles, Tencent has several advantages when it comes to developing a metaverse offering, including a hefty cash balance, a leading position in the local gaming industry, a vast social network, and financial technology services that include a payment platform. – Read More on S&P Global
3. RELATED READ: Brands Should Consider China in Metaverse Strategy Even if Beijing Takes Tough Stance. Even though its Facebook and Instagram apps are blocked in China, Meta still “generates $5 billion a year in revenue from China.” – Read More on TFL
4. H&M takes on internet rivals with external fashion brands: It is selling external fashion brands on its core brand’s hm.com website for the first time in Sweden and Germany, with the intention of adding more brands and markets. – Read More on Reuters
5. Investments flood into Africa’s B2B e-commerce startups: In the past few months alone, companies, including Wasoko, MarketForce, Twiga, Maxab, Sabi, and Omnibiz, have raised over $400 million in venture capital and debt financing. – Read More on Rest of World
1. Zara Parent Inditex Continues Digital Transition, Expects 30% eCommerce in 2024: Inditex announced online sales of 7.5 billion euros ($8.25 billion) in 2021, good for a 14% increase over 2020. Online revenues rose 77% from 2019 to 2020, starting at 14% of the company’s revenue in 2019. – Read More on PYMNTS
2. China Lockdowns May Delay Orders From Platforms Like Amazon: Orders placed with global e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Walmart may be delayed by virus lockdowns and restrictions in some of China’s key manufacturing hubs, according to an industry body. – Read More on Bloomberg
3. Discount Stores Are Awash in Merchandise Thanks to Shipping Delays: Disruption creates a unique buying opportunity for off-price retailers, primarily for packaway inventory. As the supply chain disruptions persist, full-price retailers will need to decide whether or not to accept late orders.” – Read More on the WSJ
4. How Glossier founder Emily Weiss’ tech dreams derailed the hottest millennial beauty brand: Staff turnover has become commonplace, with 10 out of 24 executives leaving the company between 2020 to 2022, 5 left after working there for 16 months. Last year, Glossier’s US gross sales fell by 26% year over year. – Read More on Business Insider
5. U.S. retail sales slow, huge savings likely to provide a cushion against inflation: Overall, consumers are being cushioned by at least $2.5 trillion in excess savings accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic. – Read More on Reuters
1. Why high fashion finds this functional footwear brand irresistible: Birkenstocks may seem incongruous with luxury, the brand has become a magnet for high fashion labels — even more so since the beginning of the pandemic, when consumer appetites shifted toward extreme comfort. – Read More on CNN
2. Retail sales will grow this year, but at a slower rate than in 2021: Retail sales are expected to grow between 6% and 8% in 2022, as consumers spend more on services instead of goods and cope with inflation, the National Retail Federation said on Tuesday. – Read More on CNBC
3. Luxury goods sanctions seen testing Italian solidarity: “There are 20,000 companies in Italy that trade with Russia, and not all of them can absorb the blow easily.” Luxury entrepreneurs across the country seem to be among the most worried. – Read More on EU Observer
4. RELATED READ: Russia May Look to the Grey Market as Supply Runs Low Amid Sanctions, Boycotts. Aside from a potential spike in the availability of illicit goods and services – from fake designer handbags to branded sneakers (and maybe even the unauthorized operations of makeshift “Starbucks” outposts), there will likely also be an influx of grey market goods. – Read More on TFL
5. As COVID Spikes in China, Could Luxury Sales Stumble? Naturally, some brands have been affected: Prada, which had planned to open a special market in Shanghai, has now canceled this event. Apple will also likely be impacted due to its supplier, Foxconn, halting factory production in Shenzhen. – Read More on Jing Daily
1. Companies Leaving Russia Don’t Know If and When They’ll Return: The chaotic unwinding has left companies wondering whether they’ll ever return, how they’ll pay for workers and assets left behind, and whether they might recoup the value of their abandoned businesses in a country that has almost overnight become the world’s most sanctioned nation. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. RELATED READ: In an earnings call on Monday, Prada Group management confirmed that its stores are currently closed in Russia and “indicated their interest in continuing to operate in Russia if the situation allows in future.” – Read More on TFL
3. Former Disney chief Bob Iger enters metaverse through investment in Genies: Genies, popular among celebrities such as Rihanna, Lil Nas X and Jennifer Lopez, said it owns 99% of the celebrity avatar market share and includes Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group as clients, for whom it also makes NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. – Read More on Reuters
4. Is the African Fashion Industry Ready for the Metaverse? “Intellectual property for African fashion brands appears to have a promising future in the metaverse, which will usher in new types of intellectual property rights. However, the present legal framework is grossly inadequate and there’s an urgent need to review the existing IP regime across Africa to meet the needs of the fashion industry.” – Read More on OkayAfrica
5. Amazon’s Share of US eCommerce Sales Hits All-Time High of 56.7% in 2021: Nearly 60% of all online retail purchases in the U.S. were done on Amazon last year, reflecting the company’s tightening grip on eCommerce sales and a continuation of the stair step market share advance it has made over the past twenty years. – Read More on PYMNTS
1. Investment company HLD in talks over buying majority stake in fashion company ba&sh: Investment company HLD said it was in talks with L Catterton – the private equity firm backed by LVMH boss and French billionaire Bernard Arnault over buying a majority stake in the fashion company ba&sh. – Read More on Forbes
2. Rihanna’s Lingerie Company Weighs IPO at $3 Billion Valuation: Savage X Fenty is working with banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, said people close to the matter. A listing could happen as soon as this year, one of the people said. – Read More on Bloomberg
3. Apps and Oranges: Behind Apple’s ‘Bullying’ on Trademarks. The scale of the company’s campaign amounts to “bullying tactics, and they are unnecessary for Apple to protect the public from confusion,” said Christine Farley, a professor at American University’s Washington College of Law. – Read More on the NY Times
4. Commerce Restricts the Export of Luxury Goods to Russia and Belarus and to Russian and Belarusian Oligarchs and Malign Actors in Latest Response to Aggression Against Ukraine: the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security imposed restrictions on the export, reexport, and transfer (in country) of luxury goods to all end users in the Russian Federation (Russia) and Belarus and to certain Russian and Belarusian oligarchs and malign actors located worldwide. This action is in response to Russia’s brutal, continuing invasion of Ukraine (as substantially enabled by Belarus) in flagrant violation of international law. – Read More on commerce.gov
5. Forget Quality and Sustainability: High Price Drives Consumer Demand for Luxury Brands: “Luxury high price is not about tangible benefits. Price is simply not a cost or quality cue. It also is a source of satisfaction or pride.” – Read More on Forbes
1. Dapper Dan Collaborates with Gap: As someone who operated outside of the mainstream almost his entire career, becoming the face of an American heritage brand presented a powerful possibility. – Read more on Vanity Fair
2. Did Amazon Fail at Physical Retail? Amazon has also opened its share of physical stores through the years. But like many brick-and-mortar retailers, it has seen sluggish sales from its physical stores. And so now, it’s making plans to shut them down. – Read More on Motley Fool
3. What to Know as U.S., Allies Put Sanctions on Russia: Economic sanctions, export controls and other measures became the main tools of retaliation for the West after President Biden said that the U.S. wouldn’t send troops to defend Ukraine, which isn’t a member of NATO. – Read More on the WSJ
4. RELATED READ: Luxury Goods, Crypto May Be Impacted By New Rounds of Russian Sanctions. Sanctions are expected to impact companies’ abilities “to do business with some existing business partners, to negotiate payment terms with Russian entities, and to transfer payments to and from the Russian Federation.” – Read More on TFL
5. Five Things That Could Keep China from Becoming the Largest Global Luxury Market: Luxury brands can no longer ignore the rise of these new status symbols, as they could trigger revenue losses and jeopardize their market positions. Undeniably, slower sales and revenue growth from these and other trends and incidents could stop China from becoming the world’s largest luxury market in the future. – Read More on Jing Daily
1. Uniqlo Pressured to Halt Russia Sales After CEO Vows to Stay: As retailers and other multinationals pull out of Russia, Uniqlo vows to remain open. Russia has largest number of Uniqlo stores outside Asia. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. After unprecedented Russia boycotts, corporate boardrooms will face a much trickier, longer-term global end game: Is it a short-term pause; a demonstration of the greater, maybe lasting, influence of ESG in the C-suite; or a significant reshaping of corporate strategy and the economy around the theme of de-globalization? – Read More on CNBC
3. RELATED READ: As Brands Continue to Do Business in Russia, What About ESG? Continued business could raise issues from an Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) perspective with investors that may not look kindly on a business-as-usual approach as Russia escalates its attack on Ukraine. – Read More on TFL
4. Sneaker e-commerce platform Kicks Crew raises $6M Series A: The funding comes at a time when the global sneaker resale market is thriving, with an expectation to reach $30 billion by 2030. – Read More on TechCrunch
5. Luxury carmaker Ferrari suspends production of vehicles for Russian market: “Given the ongoing situation Ferrari has taken the decision to suspend the production of vehicles for the Russian market until further notice,” the Italian company said in a statement. – Read More on Reuters
6. Mastercard Feb Retail Sales Data Reflect Underlying Consumer Desire for Normalcy: The credit card giant’s research, which includes in-store and online shopping, showed the biggest annual advances were seen in Luxury (+55%), Apparel (+37%), Department Stores (+26%) and Jewelry (+22%). – Read More on PYMNTS