Daily LInks
1. Ukraine invasion chills IPO market: Chinese fashion retailer Shein has put its plan to list in the United States on hold due to volatile capital markets, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said. – Read More on Reuters
2. Global Consumers’ Surprising Resiliency Is Tested Anew by War: Energy and food prices, both key forces behind inflation, may be pushed even higher by the conflict. That will ripple back to households across Europe and the U.S., where shoppers have already faced sticker shock on no shortage of goods. – Read More on Bloomberg
3. Japan’s E-Commerce Giant Rakuten Launches NFT Marketplace: The marketplace also features a “one-stop” platform providing intellectual property holders with the ability to build their own website for the issuance and sale of NFTs, the company said. – Read More on Blockworks
4. How Your Brand Should Use NFTs: Recognize that releasing collectables is a good place to start, but it’s also just a first step. Next, look for ways to tie your NFT project to your brand and core product. Finally, experiment, but with authenticity. – Read More on HBR
5. Will China’s Blockchain Help or Hurt Luxury’s Counterfeit Problem? China sanctions could force luxury brands to tag a product with an NFT at the point of sale rather than at its origin, by which time there’s already been ample opportunity for counterfeiting. – Read More on Jing
1. U.S. Consumer Spending Rose 2.1% in January & Inflation Accelerated Amid Omicron Wave: After adjusting for inflation, consumer spending was up 1.5% in January while household income after taxes was down 0.5%. – Read More on the WSJ
2. Alibaba shares decline as earnings show slowing e-commerce growth: Alibaba had previously warned about the negative impacts of competition and the macroeconomic landscape during its prior earnings report, when the company lowered its full-year forecast. – Read More on MarketWatch
3. The New Rules of Data Privacy: After two decades of data management being a wild west, consumer mistrust, government action, and competition for customers are bringing in a new era. Firms that generate any value from personal data will need to change the way they acquire it, share it, protect it, and profit from it. – Read More on HBR
4. RELATED READ: Do Fashion Brands Need Chief Privacy Officers? With e-commerce continuing to grow as a proportion of total retail spending, and with such personalization and predictive benefits in mind, companies are increasingly seeking out greater data points. At the same time, many customers are exercising heightened caution about sharing data. – Read More on TFL
5. Robust consumer spending, core capital goods orders highlight U.S. economic strength: U.S. consumer spending increased more than expected in January, offering the economy a strong boost at the start of Q1, but price pressures continued to mount. – Read More on Reuters
1. Retailers seek real-world profits in the metaverse: Instead of having stores in every city, a major retailer might build a global hub in the metaverse that is able to serve millions of customers. “How you present yourself or how you allow your brand to be utilized in this environment is critical.” – Read More on the FT
2. OPINION: The Metaverse is a Dead-end for the Fashion Industry. We have to ask whether acquiring digital clothing is a sincere move into the future, or simply the behavior of a few opportunistic players wanting to cash in on the latest digital hobbyhorse. – Read More on Newsweek
3. Yeezy x Balenciaga Collection Is Gap’s Second Chance at Luxury: Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga is the latest drop from Yeezy, the apparel business of Kanye West, now known as Ye, with eight items available on YeezyGap.com and Farfetch. – Read More on Bloomberg
4. Agility or Cost Advantage: A Supply Chain Dilemma for the Fashion Industry. Fashion retailers must now shift focus and bring permanent changes to their supply chain strategies to build resilience, avoid inventory pile-up and streamline operations. – Read More on EuroMonitor
5. Allbirds shares fall as sneaker retailer reports widening losses, despite 23% jump in sales: Retail store openings and the bulking up of its headcount led to higher expenses year over year, the company said. Other headwinds included logistics costs and temporary labor shortages due to the Covid-19 pandemic. – Read More on CNBC
6. Estée Lauder Suspends Executive John Demsey After Backlash Over Instagram Post: Mr. Demsey’s posts include fashion images and numerous memes poking fun at heiresses, celebrity women who date younger men and poorly applied eyeliner, to jokes about being unmotivated and depressed. – Read More on the WSJ
1. The Future is Metaverse: Gartner predicts that about 25% of people by 2026 will spend at least one hour on the Metaverse doing everyday things ranging from shopping, socializing to education and work. – Read More on Digital Info World
2. The Global Glut of Clothing Is an Environmental Crisis: The U.S. throws away up to 11.3 million tons of textile waste each year—around 2,150 pieces of clothing each second. “The single biggest concern in the fashion industry is that there is too much clothing.” – Read More on Bloomberg
3. Fashion set heads to Milan for live shows — for real this time: Carlo Capasa, chairman of Italy’s national fashion chamber, acknowledged the “uncertainty” that still weighed over the sector. But the 58 physical shows and nine digital offerings for Fall/Winter 2022/2023 are “a strong sign of optimism and positivity, which infuses new momentum into the industry.” – Read More on France 24
4. Why an LVMH Acquisition of Ralph Lauren Is a Good Idea: LVMH has also demonstrated the unique skill of maintaining the luxury level of its owned brands without cheapening their market position to generate short-term gains. The practical implication is that Ralph Lauren’s earnings, when added to LVMH’s, will make the LVMH stock price go up immediately. – Read More on Forbes
5. Meta’s Zuckerberg unveils AI projects aimed at building metaverse future: Zuckerberg is betting that the metaverse, a futuristic idea of virtual environments where users can work, socialize and play, will be the successor to the mobile internet. – Read More on Reuters
1. LVMH flirts with Ralph Lauren merger: Luxury giant LVMH has held exploratory discussions with Ralph Lauren over the past couple of years about a possible acquisition of the U.S. fashion brand, according to several sources familiar with the situation. – Read More on Axios
2. After expanding in 2021, fast fashion may be squeezed again: High-end labels are relatively immune to economic turmoil. People who can afford their frocks may take a knock in a recession but seldom end up shirtless. The same cannot be said of less luxurious fashion houses, but they, too, have had a good run of late. – Read More on the Economist
3. Macy’s earnings top estimates, retailer says it won’t spin off e-commerce from stores: Digital sales rose 12% year over year and increased 36% on a two-year basis. E-commerce represented 39% of net sales. The company cited strong performance in categories including home, fragrances, jewelry, watches and sleepwear. – Read More on CNBC
4. Louis Vuitton Blends Products and Politics at Workshop Opening: A throng of 70 visitors toured the two facilities, where Louis Vuitton will be making a variety of bags and eventually create 400 jobs. – Read More on Bloomberg
5. Chinese beauty brands woo Southeast Asian customers on TikTok and Shopee as saturated home market stagnates: Over the last two years, Chinese cosmetics companies that sell online have been eyeing neighboring markets like Japan and Southeast Asia for expansion before trying their luck in more competitive Western markets. – Read More on SCMP
1. Inside the Luxury Fashion Industry’s Big Sustainability Push: What was needed was “a reframing of the entire economic growth model and the relationship between company and society. We wanted to instill purpose into the company at every level. – Read More on Vogue
2. Amazon is planning to open its first fashion storefront: According to the company’s announcement, the store will focus on apparel, shoes and accessories selected by “fashion curators and feedback provided by millions of customers.” – Read More on CNBC
3. China objects to U.S. inclusion of Chinese e-commerce firms in ‘notorious markets’ list. China does not agree with the U.S. government’s decision to include some e-commerce sites in its “notorious markets” list, calling the action “irresponsible,” the Chinese ministry of commerce says. – Read More on Reuters
4. RELATED READ: Amazon Escapes “Notorious Markets” List, AliExpress, WeChat Added. The Notorious Markets list highlights online and physical markets that “reportedly engage in or facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy,” and this year, identifies 42 online markets and 35 physical markets. – Read More on TFL
5. NFTs, Cryptocurrencies and Web3 Are Multilevel Marketing Schemes for a New Generation: “It’s a siren song as old as the promise of attaining financial freedom by selling herbal supplements, cosmetics or leggings from the comfort of your home, enhanced and refined by the ways in which modern communications systems can rapidly elevate ideas and movements from the fringe to the center of national and global conversation.” – Read More on the WSJ
6. Meta tells advertisers mixed reality could be a few years away: Technology that merges the virtual and physical worlds could start to become a reality for consumers in a few years, Facebook owner Meta has told advertising agencies, giving more details of its vision for the creation of the metaverse. – Read More on Reuters
1. Luxury’s Top Stocks Share Parisian Glamour but Little Else: Slower growth at Hermès is more a reflection of its unusual business model than shaky demand. The company can’t expand rapidly as popular products like its Birkin purse are fully handmade, unlike at most other brands. – Read More on the WSJ
2. Fashion’s new generation puts upcycled and digital clothes on the catwalk: “Lateral design is a promising business model, because there are so many clothes in the world already. It’s a different way of doing things, and the only way to figure out if we can scale this business is to try.” – Read More on the Guardian
3. The fashion industry generates tons of waste. These companies are helping brands change that: “Previously, brands had no control over the experience or revenue from their products circulating online.” Resale initiatives are helping to change that. – Read More on B2
4. How Farfetch Is Ramping up Their Bets in China: When it comes to observing the share of the online business, China continues to grow strongly with brands and platforms investing in the online field, expecting to reach 30 percent of the China market in 2022 with a growth rate of about 56 percent. – Read More on Jing
5. E-Commerce Lost Market Share in 2021: U.S. e-commerce penetration decreased in 2021 because offline retail grew faster than e-commerce for the first time in history, and the online shopping boost from the Covid-19 pandemic cooled off. – Read More on Marketplace Pulse
1. Livestreaming: The Sales Driver That Hard Luxury Brands Are Missing in China. 73 percent of China’s active livestream shoppers are millennials and Gen Zers (between the ages of 20 and 40), and China’s livestreaming market is poised to surpass RMB 80 billion ($12.5 billion) in 2021 and RMB 100 billion ($15.7 billion) by 2023. – Read More on Jing Daily
2. Luxury Brands Raise Prices, Betting Wealthy Won’t Mind: With affluent customers who accept—and in some cases seek—hefty price tags, luxury brands are typically able to raise prices without affecting demand. That is in contrast with many mass-market consumer brands, which face tricky decisions about whether to pass costs on to price-sensitive customers. – Read More on the WSJ
3. Walmart Says Business Is Increasingly Digital: “The business model is changing. I think that’s the headline. We’ve got a business that is becoming increasingly digital, the eCommerce business, first party, third party, is growing and it gives us the opportunity to grow things like advertising income.” – Read More on PYMNTS
4. There’s still a lot of pent-up demand for fashion and apparel, says analyst of bullish Macy’s call: Evercore ISI’s Omar Saad says the Street is underestimating the retail giant. – See More on CNBC
5. Does Your Company Need a Chief ESG Officer? CEOs and boards of directors are under increasing pressure to address ESG issues. To support them, companies like C.H. Robinson, Royal Caribbean, and Verizon have recently appointed chief ESG officers. – Read More on HBR
1. Americans Shrug Off Inflation with Some Retail Therapy: retail sales surged 3.8% in January, the most in 10 months and well above the 2% median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. Looking good in the metaverse. Fashion brands bet on digital clothing: “There’s only one metaverse, but there are many metaworlds just like within the internet you have many websites. And it’s not only virtual, it also encompasses the physical world. It’s the convergence of the physical and the digital.” – Read More on NPR
3. Hasbro and Mattel have very different visions for the future: Mattel is projecting that consumers will accept new price increases and continue to buy at the same volume and velocity that they have been doing during the pandemic. – Read More on CNBC
4. Saks Shows up Fashionably Late to Raging TikTok Party: After an initial drop of nine videos fronted by four content creators, the Saks TikTok page had collected about 1,500 followers, received 1,300 likes and had nearly 20,000 views in its first day. – Read More on PYMNTS
5. China adds more companies to an industry body designed to develop the country’s metaverse: On Wednesday, the state-backed China Mobile Communications Association’s metaverse committee added another 17 companies. A total of 112 companies or individuals are in the industry body. – Read More on CNBC
1. We Need Universal ESG Accounting Standards: ESG accounting is a mess. Competing initiatives mean there’s no uniform set of standards for measuring a company’s progress on sustainability. – Read More on HBR
2. RELATED READ: As New York Lawmakers Unveil the Fashion Act, is Larger Reform on The Way? One of the most pressing roadblocks to implementing regulation in the fashion and apparel space (and every other industry when it comes to monitoring environmental and social factors) is the current lack of uniform ESG data standards. – Read More on TFL
3. Why Couldn’t Anybody Cancel Dolce & Gabbana? D&G’s survival despite social-media opprobrium is something of a case study in corporate crisis management. It shows how D&G has been able to leverage its semi-outlaw status to invite people who otherwise might not be considered by the fashion insiders as worthy of attention into its influencer fold. – Read More on the Cut
4. As e-commerce gets cool, brands need smart shoppable strategies: The e-commerce market is due to keep ballooning (by another $10.87tn in the next few years) and consumers are more open to buying on channels outside established shopping platforms, especially social media. – Read More on the Drum
5. Disney names executive to oversee metaverse strategy: Mike White has been named to the new role of senior vice president of Next Generation Storytelling and Consumer Experiences, where he will help define how consumers experience Disney’s coming metaverse. – Read More on Reuters
6. Which luxury products do US shoppers buy in-store? While luxury shopping is very much still an in-person activity, 2 in 5 US adults who had bought luxury items in the past year did so online. – Read More on eMarketer