Daily LInks
1. Hugo Boss sees China booming despite boycott call: German fashion house Hugo Boss expects sales in mainland China to keep growing fast despite calls for a boycott of Western brands by Chinese consumers launched in late March over Western accusations of forced labor in Xinjiang. – Read More on Reuters
2. RELATED READ: What Does Chinese Backlash Against Brands like H&M, Nike Mean from a Social Credit System Perspective? The sweeping backlash against these Western companies does not stop there, though. It could potentially result in another – quieter – form of punishment, by putting a marked dent in their ratings under China’s Corporate Social Credit System, which enables the government “to penalize companies with poor compliance records by reducing their access to the market and subjecting them to public censure via ‘blacklists.’” – Read More on TFL
3. Zara Unveils Cosmetics Line in Push into Beauty Products: Several of Zara’s fast fashion competitors already sell cosmetics, including its larger European rival Hennes & Mauritz AG. Asos Plc and Boohoo Group Plc do as well. The trend follows a trail set by luxury retailers, including Burberry Group Plc, which have been selling cosmetics for several years. – Read More on Bloomberg
4. PayPal sees record earnings, volume amid sustained e-commerce surge: “The really interesting thing is that we not only saw the strongest quarter in our history, but as we look forward, we’re continuing to see elevated levels of digital spend,” per CEO Dan Schulman. “We now believe the shift in consumers’ digital behavior is going to remain essentially unchanged in a post-COVID world.” – Read More on MarketWatch
5. Anticipating the Next Wave of Retail Bankruptcies: “As it relates to the retail industry, there’s now also a fair amount of pent-up consumer demand. There’s going to be almost a bridge period, where some retailers are going to be propped up by this outpouring of consumer desire to go to a store and try on a pair of jeans.” – Read More on Yahoo
6. Under Armour to pay $9 million to settle SEC charges: U.S. sports apparel maker Under Armour Inc has agreed to pay $9 million to settle SEC that it misled investors about its revenue growth by failing to disclose to investors that it employed a sales tactic to accelerate or “pull forward” a total of $408 million in existing orders in the second half of 2015. – Read More on Reuters
1. The Biggest Opportunity in Retail Right Now: The enormous amount of data that is generated at retail is why it’s the perfect place to prove out artificial intelligence and machine learning. Every time you look at a product in a store, pick it up, put it down or buy it, data is generated that software can analyze. In the past, that information was lost. – Read More on Forbes
2. Fifteen Black-Owned Fashion Brands on What it Takes to Run Their Businesses: Like all business owners, they have had to determine how best to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. “We had a very, very hard time justifying releasing product.” – Read More on Elle
3. How to pitch billion-dollar retailers like Target, Whole Foods on stocking your million-dollar idea: Retail partners will look at sales and social media presence, and national retailers like to see proof of the popularity of a brand on social media, at least 10,000 followers on Instagram, as an example. – Read More on CNBC
4. What Retail Workers’ Attire Communicates to Customers: Shoppers were almost twice as likely to interact with a formally dressed employee as one who was informally dressed, believing that the more formally dressed employees had more expertise than their casually dressed peers. This raised their expectations of getting better service. – Read More on HBR
5. Think twice before choosing a blue logo. Here’s why: Like any visual asset, color carries plenty of meaning. When you’re launching a new brand, or relaunching an existing one, it’s tempting to use these codes as a way of being quickly understood. Color can be a powerful shortcut. – Read More on Fast Co.
6. RETRO READ: How Difficult is it to Successfully Claim a Color as Your Trademark? The ability to rely on trademark protection – a form of intellectual property protection that applies to “any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof” that is used to “identify and distinguish” one’s goods or services from those of others – when it comes to colors is not a novel phenomenon. – Read More on TFL
1. U.S. retailers scramble to crack the code on livestream shopping events: Amid the pandemic-fueled rise in online commerce, retailers are giving livestream shopping a more serious look in the U.S., along with other innovative tools like shoppable features on social media apps, which have become increasingly valuable, as retailers aim to connect virtually with their customers who are stuck at home and glued to their phones and tablets. – Read More on CNBC
2. Japan’s clothing industry emits 95 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, estimate shows: About 5 million tons of carbon dioxide came from the burning of unsold clothes and energy used for laundry, while a total of about 510,000 tons of clothes were disposed of in Japan last year without being recycled or reused, according to the ministry. – Read More on Japan Times
3. Luxury Retailers Report Signs of Recovery: “The affluent consumers that these brands depend upon have done well financially through the pandemic, so they still have money to spend and because they were not traveling, they were able to indulge some of the travel savings into luxury goods.” – Read More on LA Business Journal
4. To engineer virality, brands are making their own mystery boxes: Mystery box products have largely migrated to the U.S. from China, where the phenomenon ballooned into a multi-billion-dollar business over the last few years. One of several data points attesting to the success of mystery boxes in China: in 2018, 300,000 people bought blind box toys on the resale site Xianyu. – Read More on Modern Retail
5. Investment Crowdfunding: Is Buying $100 in Equity in Your Favorite Shoe Brand Worth It? Republic’s model resembles that of the popular entrepreneurial crowdfunding site Kickstarter, but instead of buying a product on spec, users are scooping up a very small share of a company itself. – Read More on the WSJ
1. Appraisers sift China second-hand luxury market for fakes: It’s the world’s biggest market for luxury goods — and their counterfeits — so an expert eye for telling a bona fide Chanel handbag from a bogus one is a skill set in hot demand across China. – See More on AFP
2. Luxury Fashion’s Rental Market Is Ready for Takeoff: “For some brands, rental is attractive as it provides a more accessible price point to a new Millennial audience, as well as a sustainable solution and marketing narrative. For others, resale is a more appropriate solution, as they know there is recurring value in their brand stock.” – Read More on Yahoo
3. ‘Pre-loved’ fashion moves from niche to mainstream as retailers join the fray: Research in the US, for resale site ThredUp, suggests that 70% of women were prepared to buy secondhand fashion in 2019 compared with 45% four years earlier. It predicts that the resale market will be bigger than fast fashion by 2029 as traditional charity shops sell more items and the for-profit resale market balloons. – Read More on the Guardian
4. New AI Regulations Are Coming. Is Your Organization Ready? The FTC, for example, released an uncharacteristically bold set of guidelines on “truth, fairness, and equity” in AI — defining unfairness, and therefore the illegal use of AI, broadly as any act that “causes more harm than good.” – Read More on HBR
5. U.S. says China has fallen short on ‘Phase 1’ intellectual property commitments: China has made amended its Patent Law, Copyright Law and Criminal Law and published several draft regulatory measures on IP. “However, these steps toward reform require effective implementation and fall short of the full range of fundamental changes needed to improve the IP landscape in China.” – Read More on Reuters
1. Shoemaker Allbirds reportedly in talks with banks for IPO as public market heats up: Consumer-facing brands such as Jessica Alba’s Honest Company are now readying a debut. The eyeglass retailer Warby Parker and Panera’s parent company JAB Holdings are also reportedly looking to go public amid mounting investor enthusiasm post-pandemic for retail and restaurant brands. – Read More on CNBC
2. Why Patagonia, Gucci, and Timberland are making a big bet on farming: Kering, which owns Gucci, Balenciaga, and other luxury brands, has launched a regenerative fund together with Conservation International. It plans to transform a million hectares of farmland that produce raw materials for fashion to use regenerative-agriculture methods in five years. – Read More on Fast Co.
3. Changing fashions: Retailers are dealing with deadstock more openly. Prior to the pandemic, retailers tended to over-order on seasonal buys, selling half at full price while the rest is discounted in end-of-season sales to attract a lower-price customer. For both fast fashion and couture clothing production, it is cheaper to double volumes with a factory and deal with excess later. – Read More on Fortune
4. RELATED READ: LVMH Has Partnered with a Deadstock Startup to Offer Up its Brands’ Excess Textiles. LVMH is getting into the resale business – albeit not by way of pre-owned garments and accessories but in the form of deadstock materials from its roster of luxury brands. – Read More on TFL
5. How Far Away Are We From Downloading Our Clothes? We’re not quite there yet. Today, 3D printers are available for at-home hobbyists, but cost thousands of dollars and require advanced computer know-how. Not to mention, they use plastic to print which can be extremely harmful, particularly to sea life and ocean environments. – Read More on R29
6. Maxine Bédat Urges the Fashion Industry to Make a Change Now, Not in 2030: “Futuristic” circular solutions—the kind built on recycled materials or future recyclability—are getting significant buzz, but they truly are of the future. Right now, there are actually no scalable solutions for turning most of our old clothes into new ones. – Read More on Vogue
1. Gucci, Ralph Lauren and other labels join voucher schemes at Hong Kong luxury malls: Luxury malls are offering vouchers to shoppers to encourage them to spend more, but much of their cost is borne by the brands at whose stores they spend them, leaving luxury brands caught between a rock and a hard place. – Read More on SCMP
2. Travelers are ‘all in’ at duty-free stores, snapping up luxury goods as air travel returns: “We’re noticing that travelers who are shopping are buying high-ticket, luxury items, including jewelry, high-end handbags, sunglasses, and wallets. Things we wouldn’t expect pandemic passengers to buy.” – Read More on NBC
3. RELATED READ: Price Gaps Between Luxury Goods in China, Other Markets is Likely to Boost International Spending Post-COVID. While the percentage of luxury goods acquired each year by Chinese consumers outside of the Chinese Mainland may not return to the previously-observed 60 percent figure, the “persistent high price gaps between China and Europe” is likely to get these coveted luxury buyers shopping abroad again. – Read More on TFL
4, The $4 billion problem designers can’t shake: Broadly speaking, U.S. law actually enables copycats. Designers can secure patents and copyrights, but those offer a limited period of exclusivity. Then the design belongs to the public and anyone can copy it. “The status quo is there is nothing wrong with copying another company’s product.” – Read More on Fast Co.
5. Luxury Retail Evolves in Wake of COVID-19 Pandemic: “Actually I think it’s more of a luxury experience to be able to buy remotely from your sofa with a glass of wine rather than having to run across town to a store,” according to Lyst founder and CEO Chris Morton, who says that consumers “expect to do anything with their smartphone,” comparing it to a remote control. – Read More on Yahoo
1. Pandemic-inspired ‘revenge spending’ and explosive sales in China saved the luxury market in 2020 and changed it forever: The Chinese started to shop for luxury goods at home, brands became more comfortable with going online, and new customers who were pent up for months in lockdown and unable to spend money splashed out on luxury pieces. These changes are here to stay, experts say. – Read More on BI
2. Birkenstock Adds Rare Default Protection Clause in Bond Deal: The provision makes it harder for investors holding net short positions with credit default swaps contracts to trigger a default or accelerate one. It’s only the second instance of a company including such a term in Europe, following theme-park operator Merlin Entertainments’ debt deal more than a year ago. – Read More on Bloomberg
3. Shoppers Return to Malls, With an Urge to Spend: Foot traffic at a representative sample of 52 malls in March was up 86% from the same month last year. Customers are spending more on casual wear, accessories, jewelry and watches, analysts say. – Read More on WSJ
4. Crocs sales soar in fashion comeback: The shoe-maker reported record sales in the first three months of the year and raised its revenue outlook for 2021. Sales rose 64% to $460 million in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, with demand for Crocs being “stronger than ever” across the world. – Read More on the BBC
5. Stitch Fix sells $1.7 billion of clothes each year. Now, its visionary CEO is passing the baton: The founder and CEO of Stitch Fix is handing over the reins of her company to Elizabeth Spaulding in August, in one of very few female-to-female transitions of power at a public company. – Read More on Fast Co.
1. A Company Paid $1.8 Million for Yeezy Sneakers So You Can Afford Them: The sneakers weren’t purchased by a footwear-loving collector. Instead, they were acquired by the company Rares, which plans to fractionalize pieces of the shoes as an investment. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. RELATED READ: Are Birkin Bags Really a Better Investment than Stocks and Gold? One Company is Actively Testing That Theory. The alternative investment industry is expected to grow by 59 percent by 2023, reaching $14 trillion in assets, with institutional investors, as well as high-net-worth individuals and ultra-high-net-worth individuals, looking to “safe-haven alternatives where they can be almost certain that a financial or equity market correction will not dent their returns. – Read More on TFL
3. From McNuggets to Louis Vuitton, K-pop’s BTS notch up marketing deals: “As disparate as their businesses might seem, McDonald’s and Louis Vuitton share a need to onboard new generations of consumers.” Asia – and especially China, where K-pop is also popular – provides major markets for luxury brands, and has fueled sales bounces as COVID-19 restrictions ease. – Read More on Reuters
4. Western brands tested by China amid forced labor allegation backlash: “Fundamentally, this is really about values and belief systems.” And while China may represent a growing market for retailers, socially-conscious millennials and Gen Z shoppers in the U.S. and Europe also represent a “numerically significant” demographic that can’t be ignored. – Read More on CNBC
5. Amazon poised to beat Q1 Street estimates, provide e-commerce insights: Analysts expect the Seattle company’s first-quarter revenue to grow nearly 39% year over year to $104.65 billion, on the higher end of Amazon’s guidance, according to S&P Capital IQ estimates as of April 26. – Read More on S&P Global
1. China’s Demand for Luxury Goods Gets Own Cargo Route: Cainiao’s move to bring more handbags and watches into China as shoppers clear out high-end boutiques comes as companies rush to pivot their strategies to take advantage of the more than $110 billion of luxury spending trapped on the mainland. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. Britain’s Boohoo may link executive bonuses to improved worker rights: British online fashion retailer Boohoo is considering linking bosses’ multi-million pound bonuses to Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) improvements, including workers’ rights, it said this weekend. – Read More on Reuters
3. RETRO READ: As Fast Fashion Gets Faster and Cheaper, the Giants Behind it Are Facing Scrutiny. The consumer outrage and the financial consequences that have followed from the reports of abuse within Boohoo’s supply chain have been swift and significant. Yet, the allegations, themselves, are hardly unheard of when it comes to this specific – and relatively new – breed of fast fashion companies. – Read More on TFL
4. Kardashian SKKN Launch, Covergirl Revamp Mark New Coty Strategy: The moves mark the latest efforts to rejuvenate a company that had been trying to turn things around even before the rise of mask-wearing last year hurt demand for makeup. After acknowledging in 2019 that some of its brands had become stagnant, Coty has invested in businesses from members of the Kardashian family and revamped its own leadership team. – Read More on Bloomberg
5. 3-D Printing Stocks Are Still Running on Hype: The buzz around the 2013 3-D printing craze turned out to be a stock-market bust. While the design potential of the technology is certainly alluring, it remains to be seen whether the industry’s products are ready to go from prototyping objects to mass production. – Read More on the WSJ
6. The rise and fall of Victoria’s Secret, America’s biggest lingerie retailer: It achieved explosive success in the late 1990s and 2000s but has struggled in more recent years and been accused of losing relevance. – Read More on BI
1. Vestiaire Sees Asia’s Luxury Shoppers Warm to Secondhand Gucci: The reseller’s orders volume doubled in a year when retailers worldwide were crippled by the pandemic — much of that thanks to Asia, where the number of new secondhand sellers jumped 98% and orders surged by 122%. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. Can a fairer fashion industry emerge from crisis? “Not enough has changed in the past year. I can’t think of a single big multinational company that is doing something bold. The greenwashing has amped up 150% but the actual change that is required to make the system one that can sustain itself has not happened.” – Read More on the Guardian
3. Greenwashing Fashion: “The fact that these companies continue to overproduce while claiming to be working towards sustainability is just ridiculous.” Zara, for example, offers around 20 new clothing collections each year, and the company’s founder was briefly the richest person in the world in 2017. – Read More on the Nation
4. RELATED READ: Fashion’s Buzzy Tech Initiatives, Alone, Won’t Solve its Sustainability Issues. A small – but heavily advertised – recycled capsule collection from a fast fashion titan, here or certified circular series of items from a multi-billion dollar company, there, is mathematically immaterial. – Read More on TFL
5. Two Defunct Retailers Are Plotting Comebacks—Here’s Why One Is More Likely to Survive: Century 21 and department store Lord & Taylor are among the retailers that shut down in 2020 only to announce plans to reopen months later. They both have big plans for 2021. – Read More on AdWeek
6. Right now, retailers are writing their own rules on climate action. Does that need to change? Heightened pressure from the executive order and increasingly eco-conscious consumers have propelled retailers to set varying sustainability goals. But because corporate response to the climate crisis remains unregulated, experts warn that companies often end up making misleading claims — otherwise known as greenwashing. – Read More on Retail Dive