Daily LInks
1. India’s Future files new case against Amazon in top court over $3.4 bln retail deal: India’s Future Retail on Saturday filed a new case against Amazon.com at the Supreme Court in its latest effort to seek clearance for its $3.4 billion retail assets sale, which the U.S. firm has challenged. – Read More on Reuters
2. ‘Nationalist consumption’ boosts Chinese fashion industry: A nationwide shopping spree has turned the Chinese sportswear maker Erke from an also-ran to one of the hottest brands in the country, highlighting how the trend for “nationalist consumption” has changed China’s retail landscape and put pressure on Western companies. – Read More on Nikkei
3. Debunking the Hemline Index: The theory was developed in the 1920s and posits that the length of dresses can be an indicator of where the economy is headed, with shorter cuts pointing to good times and longer ones signaling a downturn. – Read More on Bloomberg
4. Retailer-fashion brand matchups thrill Wall Street but often fail: Target’s shares rose about 50 precent between the beginning of March and the middle of July, compared with an increase of 18 percent in the S&P Retail Industry Index for the same period. But the odds are good that Target and Levi’s linkup will come and go without leaving any appreciable impact on the company’s long-term performance. – Read More on Forbes
5. Chanel buys up more jasmine fields to safeguard famous No. 5: The luxury group said it had bought up an extra 100,000 square meters of land, adding to the 20 hectares it already exploits in partnership with a local family near the town of Grasse, known for its surrounding flower fields. – Read More on Reuters
6. RETRO READ: The Battle for the World’s Most Famous Fragrance: Chanel No. 5. The war over the rights to Chanel No. 5 dates back to 1924 when Ms. Chanel, herself, joined with French businessmen Pierre and Paul Wertheimer to expand the distribution of her fragrance business, which, at the time, was only available to clients who visited her Parisian atelier. – Read More on TFL
1. Re-engineering the fashion retail experience: The pandemic has accelerated changes in how we shop — and localization and unique offerings figure to be part of the plan to save the bricks-and-mortar trip. – Read More on the FT
2. Interest in designer collabs grows as Gen-Zers view luxury goods as assets: “[Designer collabs are] desirable partially because they’re scarce limited editions. It’s not like next year there’ll be a very close version of that product coming to market, which can be the case with other releases. That creates hype,” says StockX CMO Deena Bahri. – Read More on Morning Brew
3. Resale stays hot as platform powering Lululemon valued over $200 million: Trove Recommerce, a maker of online platforms for brands such as Lululemon and Patagonia to sell used goods, raised $77.5 million from investors trying to get in on the hottest part of the apparel market. The Series D round, led by G2 Venture Partners, brings the company’s total funding to $122.5 million. – Read More on Bloomberg
4. RELATED READ: Are Buyback Programs the Future of the Luxury Market? To date, “Most brands have [failed] to capitalize on the booming resale market,” according to Luxe Digital. While there are certainly some exceptions, such as Gucci and Stella McCartney, for instance, both of which have teamed up with San Francisco-based resale giant The RealReal, luxury brands “have been hesitant to encourage resale by fear of cannibalizing sales of new products and diluting the exclusivity of their brands.” – Read More on TFL
5. Coty bets on fragrance rebound for return to sales growth, shares soar: The company said it has a “robust launch” scheduled for the first half of the current financial year, adding it would also roll out touchless fragrance testers across the globe. – Read More on Reuters
1. Shein’s low prices are setting fast fashion on fire: Shein may be one of the most successful clothing brands that you’ve never heard of. The fast-fashion giant is where Gen Z shoppers go to find cheap, trendy clothing. Over the course of the pandemic, the brand managed to bring in nearly $10 billion in sales. – Read More on Globe & Mail
2. Ulta Beauty raises 2021 outlook on ‘recovery’ for beauty products retail: The company’s performance reflects “the recovery of the beauty category,” Chief Executive Dave Kimbell said in a statement. “Our value proposition is strong, and we are evolving and innovating to lead in the new beauty landscape, capture additional market share, and drive profitable growth.” – Read More on MarketWatch
3. Post-Rana Plaza: Why is the fast fashion industry still growing? In the last 20 years, there has been a 400% upsurge in clothing consumption. With low-cost garments and online shopping beginning to take off, the fashion industry proves itself to be a key contributor to climate change and a global threat. – Read More on OAG
4. Dick’s Sporting Goods, other retailers crack code of driving up profits: The company’s CEO echoed a theme of many retailers this quarter: Widening margins, as consumers go on a spending spree and companies learn how to operate a more efficient e-commerce business. – Read More on CNBC
5. ‘They fear the factory can’t last’: Pandemic takes local fashion from boom to bust in Sydney. “If you send manufacturing overseas it adds micro-complexities within the supply chain,” and this can lead to issues like quality control and lags in delivery times. – Read More on the Guardian
1. Michael Kors parent Capri’s stock jumps after Jimmy Choo vet named CEO: “We believe Capri is undergoing key transformations across each of its brands and Mr. Schulman is a timely addition to accelerate brand momentum and refresh at Michael Kors,” analysts said. – Read More on MarketWatch
2. Luxury’s Gray Market Is Emerging from the Shadows: “Traditionally, plenty of luxury brands either turned a blind eye to or even indulged in sales from the gray market as it meant quick cash and a chance to beautify their reported numbers from wholesale retail partners, especially on non-moving or excess stock. But in recent years that attitude has had to change as the market morphs into something that has become more and more difficult to control.” – Read More on the New York Times
3. RELATED READ: As Prices Continue to Grow and the Government Hints at a Wealth Crackdown, Parallel Imports in China Warrant Attention. “Banning parallel imports may have detrimental effects on a manufacturer’s profitability,” whereas “allowing parallel imports constitutes a simple mechanism by which the retail price does not fall dramatically when the state of demand turns out to be low,” while also “providing incentives to retailers to place larger orders than they otherwise would.” – Read More on TFL
4. Signals of change: After a year in which the fashion industry as a whole posted record-low economic profits, business leaders are now seeking to drive a perceived consumer desire to retire at-home wear and renew retail habits for looking good and feeling good in clothes that mark a sense of occasion. – Read More on the Drum
5. Virtual dressing room startup Revery.ai applying computer vision to the fashion industry: Unlike its competitors that use 3D modeling or take an image and manually clean it up to superimpose on a model, Revery is using deep learning and computer vision so that the clothing drapes better and users can also customize their clothing model to look more like them using skin tone, hair styles and poses. – Read More on TechCrunch
1. What’s bothering US consumers? Even absent highly restrictive new measures related to the spread of the virus, delayed return-to-office plans, mask mandates in schools, and potentially altered travel plans all serve as reminders that the virus remains with us. – Read More on Yahoo
2. Amazon Vs. Walmart: The Epic Battle of the Retail Kings Gets Hot. Each company has its own set of advantages. Walmart, the behemoth of brick-and-mortar discount stores, has the most outlets of any retailer. About 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart. On the other hand, Amazon, the giant of online shopping, owns about 40% of the e-commerce market. – Read More on Investors
3. Shenzhen tells local ‘made in China, sold on Amazon’ vendors it will stay neutral in their disputes with the US e-commerce giant: While questionable practices like paying for positive reviews often go unchecked on Chinese e-commerce platforms, Amazon kicked off in May an extensive clean-up campaign targeting such activities. The crackdown has affected thousands of merchants. – Read More on SCMP
4. RETRO READ: In an Already-Crowded Trademark Landscape, Amazon Sellers Are Changing Game. In 2014, Amazon enabled China-based entities to sell directly to its members in the West, and in the process, grew its sales by a whopping 20 percent in a single year, prompting its total revenues to blaze past the $100 billion mark for the first time. – Read More on TFL
5. What role will our clothes play in adapting to a warming planet? The apparel and footwear sectors produce more than 8% of total global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2018 Quantis report, with emissions projected to increase by more than 60% by 2030. – Read More on Fashionista
1. What Happens When China’s Bling Binge Comes to an End? The delta variant and government interest in “common prosperity” may soon threaten consumption in China. That’ll hit the luxury industry hard. – Read More on Bloomberg
2, From #BamaRush to #MadeMeBuyIt: What does a fashion brand need to go viral on TikTok? In the ‘00s, it was the celebrities with brand deals that could boost a fashion label’s sales. In 2010s, came the influencers, with highly-curated Instagram feeds that could skyrocket an emerging name to cult fame with a single #ad post. Now, it’s TikTok that has the ability to make a label go viral in an instant. – Read More on R29
3. ‘Fashion industry has been playing lip service’ to sustainability: Allbirds co-founder. “I think the consumer is starting to demand that businesses and manufacturers in every sector make products that are more environmentally thoughtful and apparel is no different. Synthetic materials are not the future.” – Read More on Yahoo
4. RETRO READ: Fashion’s “Sustainability” Endeavors Need to Be About More than Fabrics, Recycling. The fast fashion business model, in particular, is the very antithesis to sustainability, and yet, fast fashion retailers continue to claim efforts related to sustainability. – Read More on TFL
5. NYC Shoppers Shun Madison Avenue as Swanky Boutiques Depart: Foot traffic on the stretch of Madison from 57th to 72nd streets was at just 71% of 2019 levels the week of Aug. 8. That’s lagging behind Upper Fifth Avenue just a block away, and Soho, which is seeing more shoppers than before the pandemic. – Read More on Bloomberg
6. What can fashion brands do to address their environmental impact? “It’s not going to happen in my lifetime, but the narrative needs to change to everybody doing whatever they can to ameliorate the climate crisis, with the concept of buying less and looking after what you got.” – Read More on the Drum
1. Selling Luxury Goods in a More Socialist China Becomes a Problem: A wealth-redistribution push in China is potentially bad news for the luxury industry. Some 10,000 people generate around a quarter of all luxury sales to the Chinese, and are now the industry’s most important shoppers by nationality. The risk of higher taxes and party disapproval may curb these big spenders. – Read More on the WSJ
2. European stocks skid as luxury-goods makers and commodity producers tumble: European stocks slumped on Thursday, as luxury-goods makers dived on worries over China’s efforts to tackle income equality, with mining stocks losing ground after minutes from the last Federal Reserve interest-rate-setting committee indicated it was soon going to start reducing the rate of bond purchases. – Read More on MarketWatch
3. New Luxury Brands See Opportunities to Expand Post-Pandemic: Experiential retail has been on the rise across the sector as brands and merchants find themselves looking for ways to bring consumers in-store. – Read More on PYMNTS
4. Depop Made Sustainable Shopping Cool for Gen Z: Depop seems to have recognized what the e-commerce industry as a whole has missed: it’s not just about the clothes, it’s about the experience. With a change to be an influencer, Depop sellers model their wares on Instagram and TikTok in hopes of building large followings, and Depop does what it can to encourage this practice. – Read More on Time
5. How Primark makes money selling $3.50 T-shirts: Primark has doggedly stuck to a stack-it-high-sell-it-cheap approach to retailing that would feel familiar to the manager of its first store, opened in Ireland in 1969. The strategy has limitations, particularly when it comes to new growth. But for now—and notwithstanding the odd pandemic—it is proving its worth. – Read More on the Economist
1. Old Navy overhauls plus-size fashion line for women to win sales in $32 billion market: Old Navy will soon offer sizes 0-28 and XS-4X for all of its women’s styles in its stores, and up to size 30 online. On its website, the Gap Inc.-owned brand will create a single destination for all women’s clothing. Models will appear in sizes four, 12 and 18. – Read More on CNBC
2. Supreme’s Growth Hasn’t Uprooted its History: “’Insider only’ brands are invariably confronted with a decision at some point. Either they fade away or they get bigger. Supreme has retained its essential ethos. That isn’t easy.” – Read More on Hypebeast
3. RELATED READ: As Luxury-Level M&A Continues to Unfold, What’s Goodwill Got to Do With it? To date, conversations have largely centered on the impetus for these tie-ups, the deals that may still in the making, and what this wave of consolidations means for the industry as a whole. One thing that has not been discussed with the same frequency is the topic of goodwill and brand equity, and how these are impacted by M&A activity. – Read More on TFL
4. Are knockoffs really so bad? As copying increases and increases, it helps kill the trend by making the design too ubiquitous for early adopters. They drop off and start picking up on the next trend that copying is helping to set. Copying is part of what drives the fashion cycle, and the fashion cycle is what makes money for the fashion industry. – Read More on Business of Home
5. Luxury brands find their place in the retail revolution despite the pandemic: The sale of luxury products has largely weathered the COVID-19 storm and luxury brands have played a big role in this retail revolution. Over the last 10 years, they have grown and recent estimates put the value of the sector at over 320 billion euros. – Read More on EuroNews
1. Fast fashion spurs bleach-like pollution of Africa’s rivers – report: Global brands could force better practices, but so far their presence in Africa has done little to stem rife pollution, water hoarding by contracting factories or even ensure adequate water and sanitation for factory staff. – Read More on Reuters
2. Why brands need to enter the race for transparency: “If you don’t know what you’re buying, where it comes from and under what social, economic and environmental conditions it’s being produced, it’s almost guaranteed to lead to public scrutiny.” – Read More on Forbes
3. Allbirds launches activewear line ahead of planned IPO: With its activewear launch, Allbirds positions itself as a closer rival to behemoths Nike, Lululemon and Under Armour. Several other retailers, such as Levi Strauss, have invested in the category, too. – Read More on CNBC
4. RELATED READ: Allbirds is One of the Latest Brands Facing a Lawsuit Over its Sustainability-Centric Advertising. Sustainability claims are not inconsequential, Dwyer argues, as they add value to the products in connection with which they are attached, and enable companies to charge more. “Had [she] and the proposed class members known the truth [about Allbirds’ products], they would not have bought the products or would have paid less for them.” – Read More on TFL
5. Retail sales drop worse-than-expected 1.1% in July as rising Covid fears hit consumers: Shoppers in the U.S. cut back their purchases in July even more than expected as worries over the delta variant of Covid-19 dampened activity and government stimulus dried up. – Read More on CNBC
1. Retail’s latest lures include treadmills in the fitting rooms and virtual legos: Physical retail sales around the world will grow 6% this year in dollar terms after slipping 2.8% in 2020, but will again lose share to e-commerce, according to eMarketer, a research firm. – Read More on the WSJ
2. How in-store tech will transform retail: The so-called frictionless store has become the new gold standard in the retail world. However, the term is a bit of a misnomer. The goal is to use digital technology to meet consumer expectations of flexibility, instant gratification, convenience, immersive shopping, safety, and speed. – Read More on MIT Management Review
3. Verified Valentino: eBay fashions new campaign spotlighting luxury handbag authentication. By assuring shoppers that the products they purchase are verified as legitimate, the effort could help the e-commerce platform further accelerate the sale of luxury goods – an area in which it’s seen massive growth of late. – Read More on the Drum
4. RELATED READ: eBay Has Expanded its Authentication Services from Watches and Sneakers to $500-Plus Handbags. eBay is expanding upon its existing authentication efforts to include certain handbags in addition to $2,000-plus watches and sneakers with price tags of upwards of $100, as sales within its “luxury categories continue to gain momentum” as indicated by “recent quarter-over-quarter growth.” – Read More on TFL
5. After brief mid-summer surge, malls threatened by fresh headwinds: While indoor malls saw a nearly 29% drop in visits this past February compared to the same period in 2019, consumers have been steadily returning as the year has progressed and COVID-19 concerns have lessened. In June, indoor malls saw only a 9.3% drop in visitors compared to 2019, and last month, visitor numbers were relatively even between 2019 and 2021. – Read More on PYMNTS
6. U.S. retailer Target defies bricks-and-mortar doubters: Store investments have helped push market value above $130 billion while rivals have struggled. – Read More on the FT