Daily LInks
1. Amazon Reviews Alleging Counterfeit Products Can Get Sellers Kicked Off Platform: How Amazon treats third-party sellers is at the heart of a recent House Judiciary Committee report concluding that big technology companies often abuse their power over smaller partners. The committee’s recommendations include providing adequate recourse to sellers and eliminating forced arbitration clauses from contracts that deprives them from filing a lawsuit. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. On Alibaba’s Singles Day, Chinese consumers look to spend more, shift away from American brands: “It’s a genuine advancement on the part of Chinese manufacturers. They’re getting more sophisticated in their marketing of luxury products.” – Read More on CNBC
3. The Startups Building a Future of Zero Fashion Waste: Most brands typically overproduce by 30-40 percent, and of the more than 100 billion new garments produced every year, 20 percent are never sold at all. One way to address the problem of overproduction is to flip the production model on its head. – Read More on Forbes
4. ‘Every day is casual’: How Kohl’s is betting on the wellness movement to become permanent. Expect to see fewer handbags in Kohl’s stores in the future — and more laundry detergent and yoga pants. It’s part of the new strategic framework Kohl’s announced last week, in which the department store chain said its focus going forward is to be the leading retailer for shoppers looking for products to support an active and casual lifestyle. – Read More on Modern Retail
5. Lenders Cracking Down on Mall Owners Behind on the Mortgage: Some lenders are now worried about fast-falling retail property valuations, which around the country are plunging by as much as 75 percent. Lenders say they are compelled to conduct foreclosure sales to recoup what is owed them. – Read More on the WSJ
1. Want to Be the Next Big Thing in Fashion? Nah: Fashion is not dead, though tired ideas about the business — who owns it, what drives it, where it meets its consumers — are slumping toward the scrap heap, trailing a tight little cadre of panjandrums who controlled it for too long. If, not so long ago, a designer’s career goal was to create the next mega-label, the small-is-better approach is increasingly seen as preferable to the seductive fantasy of becoming an internet unicorn. – Read More on the New York Times
2. Can Gap Escape the Whirlwind? New CEO Confronts Years of Decline: Ms. Syngal said she is pushing executives to take risks by forming partnerships and moving faster to get ideas to market. A sense of urgency was evident in how quickly Gap launched a teen line this spring. Gap also swiftly enlisted Kanye West’s Yeezy brand to produce a Gap collection. While the partnership holds the potential to deliver younger consumers, it also thrusts Gap into the unpredictable celebrity and political worlds. – Read More on the WSJ
3. RELATED READ: From J.W. Anderson & Converse to Telfar and Gap, Big Brand x Creative Collabs Are Coming Under the Microscope. this course of action of essentially removing the creatives from the picture – whether it be Gap simply giving Telfar the boot or Converse opting to ultimately turn the designs of its creative collaborators, who tend to be some of fashion brands’ biggest assets, into house-brand staples – really the most effective way forward for brands? The cost savings are certainly clear but so, too, is the potential for reputational damage. – Read More on TFL
4. Teenage consumers are the most eco-conscious generation in history, with 87% of British teens ‘worried or extremely worried’ about climate change; yet, they buy mountains of ultra-cheap clothes, wear them once or twice on social media and then discard them. This conundrum has branding work out how to target an age group they can’t quite get the measure of. – Read More on the Telegraph
5. Renting clothes is a silver bullet for fashion: Social media has normalized dropping serious coin on a fashion items simply for the digital clout – but fashion obsessives are also savvy, and are reluctant to spend thousands of dollars on an item they’re liable to think is tragically uncool in two months’ time. The true value of renting, as far as I see it, is to get out of the wedding market and start filling this gap. – Read More on the Guardian
1. The RealReal’s head of retail details his brick-and-mortar strategy and explains why in-person sales are still a big part of the $26 billion luxury consignment market, even during a pandemic: According to Cowen, “resale luxury could eclipse new luxury over the long-term” as a growing number of Americans discover high-end consignment both online and in physical stores. – Read More on Business Insider
2. Why Porsche and BMW are Gunning For Hoodie-Wearing Teens: For the 2020 partnerships, selling a car is not, the only (or even primary) objective; for the automobile brands, it’s also about targeting a young demographic that could someday evolve into a reliable customer base. – Read More on the WSJ
3. RETRO READ: A Look at How Automakers Use Fashion to Profit and to Plan Ahead. Not only do these “brand extensions by luxury automakers [enable them to] maintain customer loyalty between car purchases,” they also help brands to set themselves up for the future by potentially capturing “aspirational buyers years before they can afford the cars themselves.” – Read More on TFL
4. The 25 most spectacular branding fails of the last 25 years: In 1995, there was Steven Meisel’s campaign for Calvin Klein, which combined young models, with the basement-amateur-porno vibes, and sparked enough backlash that it forced the Justice Department to open an investigation. And do not forget the famously poorly-reviewed Gap logo redesign of 2010 … or Pepsi’s 2017 ad with Kendall Jenner. – Read More on Fast Co.
5. RELATED READ: As Brands Continue to Tweak Their Logos, the Gap’s Failed Rebrand is an Important Lesson. Consumer response to the rebrand was swift and striking: they hated it, and “Gapgate” was born. Faced with extensive negative feedback from the consuming public, Gap was prompted to make what media outlets called “an embarrassing U-turn,” scrapping the new logo, and reverting back to its trusty graphic. – Read More on TFL
6. The Container Store’s Netflix partnership hints at the future of streaming-based retail: As brand sponsorships become more encompassing and data-driven, TV shows are beginning to look a lot more like retailers. – Read More on Modern Retail
1. Hermes, Not Gucci, Is the Chic Choice Right Now: One takeaway from the third-quarter earnings we’ve seen so far is that consumers are still spending — and they’re reaching for big, well-known brands for everything from food to face cream. With fewer occasions to dress up, as well as an increasing awareness of fashion’s environmental costs, shoppers may decide to buy less, but buy better. This favors luxury houses steeped in heritage, such as Hermes. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. American Express Sees Higher Consumer Retail Spending: “We really look at the fact that non [travel and entertainment] spending is up year over year as illustrative of the way consumers and small businesses have just learned to adapt to the new world.” – Read More on the WSJ
3. American Apparel “used fake comments to fuel founder’s bad boy image.” A former employee reveals she would leave approved fake – company-approved – comments under salacious articles about Dov Charney on celebrity media blogs such as Gawker and Jezebel, in order to manufacture his reputation as predatory. “It was about attention. It was also because we were advertising on these blogs and we wanted people to click on our ads.” – Read More on the Guardian
4. RETRO READ: American Apparel – The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of an All-American Business. For much of the brand’s life, its racy ad campaigns received the vast majority of press coverage – at least until recently, but arguably even more noteworthy is the rise and subsequent fall of this affordable fashion empire, complete with the ouster of its founder and chief executive officer Dov Charney, a handful of ugly sexual harassment lawsuits, two Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings, and its subsequent delisting from the New York Stock Exchange. – Read More on TFL
5. Fast-Fashion Heiress Asks Shoppers to Buy Less in Green Push: Sustainable fashion is a sliver of the $1.8 trillion global apparel industry, which has ballooned over the past decade amid a boom in low-cost, quick-to-market clothing championed by the likes of Zara. – Read More on Bloomberg
6. Beauty boom: L’Oreal sales rebound after lockdowns ease. The biggest improvement came not at L’Oreal’s best known make-up brands like Maybelline, but from its active cosmetics division with labels like Vichy, La Roche Posay and CeraVe, which it bought in 2017. – Read More on CNBC
1. The Newest Thing in Fashion? Old Clothes. After years of pushing only new, new, new (while behind the scenes scouring flea markets for inspiration), fashion brands are beginning, finally, to publicly embrace the old. Upcycling is reaching critical mass. It may be the most concrete shift in the fashion system to come out of the pandemic: the one real product to emerge from all of the industry talk about change and sustainability and value systems. – Read More on the New York Times
2. Business “Luxury Sector Ripe For Consolidation,” says GAM’s Swetha Ramachandran. “This is a sector that is ripe for consolidation. It’s highly fragmented. If you look at the soft luxury sector the top three brands have less than 5 percent market share each, which is why this gap between the winners and the losers is set to polarize further as we continue. These companies that have sort of kept their powder dry understood what it means to operate under the aegis of a lockdown. This will provide meaningful opportunities for consolidation.” – See More on Bloomberg
3. Hermès and Kering add to signs of luxury goods recovery: The sector is grappling with its worst downturn in decades as the pandemic prompts wealthy consumers to delay purchases and hampers usually free-spending Chinese tourists from travelling to Europe. Analysts have predicted sales will fall as much as 30 percent this year and take up to three years to recover. – Read More on the FT
4. RELATED READ: Hermès Says it Will Increase Offerings Online as e-Commerce is Now its “Biggest Store.” The brand’s chief financial officer Eric du Halgoüet says that Hermès’ e-commerce platforms are now the group’s “biggest store,” with online sales up by nearly 100 percent across the globe for the first nine months of the year. – Read More on TFL
5. Gap shares hit 52-week high on plans to close stores, focus on e-commerce and off-mall retail:Its online sales grew by 95% and it gained 3.5 million new customers in the second quarter ended Aug. 1. Athleta was the only brand within Gap to report an overall increase in sales.– Read More on CNBC
6. Louis Vuitton web traffic surpasses pre-pandemic levels as luxury makes a comeback: Louis Vuitton’s average Alexa Rank, a measure of website popularity, increased by 50 percent over the last six months, as online shopping became the norm. Nonetheless, its operating profit declined 68 percent in the first half of the year, despite cutting spending on store leases and slashing hiring and advertising budgets. – Read More on ThinkNum
1. Online Thrift Shop ThredUp Files Confidentially for U.S. IPO: ThredUp – which is targeting a listing early next year and could raise $200 – $300 million – is part of a growing number of e-commerce sites selling used goods and competing against consignment shops and Salvation Army Thrift Stores. The digital resale market is poised to grow 27% this year to about $9 billion in sales and could quadruple that total by 2024. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. Resale platforms gain steam as they grapple with business model: Resale platforms are attracting users, but the it’s still unclear what their path to profitability will look like. Between competing with retailers’ own secondhand sales ventures and subsidizing sellers’ shipping costs, fine tuning their margins could prove difficult. – Read More on Modern Retail
3. RETRO READ: Counterfeits or Control: What is the Real Issue Between Brands and Amazon? To a large extent, the potential that brands are conflating the sale of unauthorized goods with counterfeits (either intentionally or mistakenly) just might make sense. In fact, such an alleged pattern sheds a lot of light on the changing distribution landscape that brands are currently faced with, one that looks markedly different than it did just a decade ago. – Read More on TFL
4. The overall rise in retail and food services sales was led by consumer spending on clothing and clothing accessories, sporting goods and motor vehicles and parts. Clothing and accessories registered a month-on-month increase of 11% in sales to $19.48 billion in September. Spending at sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument and book stores rose 5.7% from a month earlier to $7.71 billion. – Read More on S&P Global
5. The Digital-Piracy Dilemma: In the world of film, one of the most important things copyright owners can do is market their content online to increase awareness and revenue. At the same time, they have to protect their content from internet piracy, which chips away at sales. This is an often-discussed dilemma — but these two goals may not always be in tension. – Read More on HBR
6. Pandemic is rolling back conditions in Asia garment factories: “Workers are extremely vulnerable and factories are vulnerable to agree to conditions with brands that don’t allow them to ensure proper working conditions,” said Tara Rangarajan of the ILO’s Better Work program. – Read More on Reuters
1. Why American luxury fashion doesn’t sell in China – an ‘ordinary’ image, weak marketing, and few social media influencers: “European brands enjoy the advantage of their historic heritage, and being perceived as iconic,” but Chinese consumers see U.S. fashion brands like Michael Kors as lacking cachet, and because their marketing is not tailored to the China market, they struggle to project the right image. – Read More on SCMP
2. People are buying luxury goods again: Sales in China — the only major economy expected to grow this year — have experienced a rebound, but can’t carry the entire business. Sales of luxury goods are also closely tied to international tourism, which LVMH Chief Financial Officer Jean Jacques Guiony said is poised to remain muted until there’s a Covid-19 vaccine. – Read More on CNN
3. The sustainable sneaker start-up Allbirds is launching a t-shirt, sweater, and puffer jacket: “Does the world really need another T-shirt?” co-founder Tim Brown asked during an interview. “The fashion industry doesn’t need another T-shirt unless it’s better.” Allbirds last month landed $100 million in a Series E funding round, valuing the start-up at $1.7 billion. – Read More on CNBC
4. Influencers Are the Retailers of the 2020s: We want to hear from people, not corporations. A person who will tell you exactly what they love about a sweater—the softness of the cashmere, the length of the sleeve, the drape of the body—and show you (hopefully a few) ways to wear it. Unless you happen to like the way a retailer has styled that sweater on its website, likely on a headless model, all you’ll get is a brief product description and fabric breakdown. It’s almost entirely transactional. – Read More on Vogue
5. Life after liquidation: Why some brands thrive after closing shop and others don’t. Customer data alone could help propel the reborn brand. “It’s that data that is so powerful to these advanced modern digital marketers. The more data they have, the more understanding of what you buy, where you buy it, at what promotional level you are incented to buy — the more they have, the more effective they can be to get you to buy stuff.” – Read More on Retail Dive
6. RELATED READ: From Addresses to Purchase Histories, Customer Data is Driving Retail Bankruptcy Acquisitions: Real estate and IP is only part of the draw. A driving force that is enticing bidders to put up cash for ailing businesses goes beyond that. In many of these big bankruptcy sales, a significant asset that changes hands is a slew of customer data points – from shoppers’ addresses to things like demographic characteristics and their purchase histories with that particular company. That is what experts say is at stake in a lot of these headline-making acquisitions. – Read More on TFL
1. “When people see second-hand clothes, they think poverty.” China has millions of tons of discarded clothing no one wants. China’s love for fast fashion sees 26 million tons of clothes and footwear thrown away every year, less than one per cent of which is reused or recycled. – Read More on SCMP
2. What Kind of Retail Job Is Growing? Online Associate, Consultant. What’s happening at Neiman Marcus and other chains is part of a wider acknowledgment that the Covid-triggered boom in online shopping has made the need to stand out even greater. And one way to get there is by offering an experience that gives clients the undivided attention of a sales associate and captures some of the emotional warmth found in person. – Read More on Bloomberg
3. COVID-19 Killed Maximalism: This era of “more is more” is coming to an end, and the pandemic is to blame. Enter minimalism, which is making a comeback, but with a twist. Consumers’ aesthetic sensibilities shifted almost as soon as lockdowns began. – Read More on Fast Co.
4. Boohoo loses fifth of value after confirming auditor will leave: The company has since published an independent review by Alison Levitt, QC, which found it did not profit from the “widespread” underpayment of workers but knew about it and did not act quickly enough. – Read More on the FT
5. RELATED READ: Labor Abuse Reports Cut Boohoo’s Share Price in Half, Why Hasn’t H&M Suffered the Same Fate? Dull as it may sound, H&M’s embrace of HRDD enabled the company to address the incident quickly and lent it credibility at a difficult moment. By comparison, Boohoo’s approach to human rights has long been criticised by NGOs, and the retailer was slammed by investors as having an inadequate response to the exploitation claims. – Read More on TFL
6. The rise and fall of Juicy Couture. The silhouette of what would become Juicy’s signature tracksuit was created with the same purpose as the original Juicy V-neck: to be as flattering as possible. The zip-up hoodie was designed with front pockets to hide any stomach pooch and cut with an hourglass shape to nip in your waist. It also had custom hardware: a J-pull zipper that branded every tracksuit as uniquely Juicy Couture. – Read More on Business Insider
1. ‘Made in Iran’ Thrives in Economy Trump Tried to Crush: Small companies are filling the vacuum for consumer goods as tens of millions of Iranians struggle to buy foreign brands. A dearth of competition from global brands and low labor costs keep prices affordable and their margins healthy. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. China’s turbo-charged online fashion takes on Zara and H&M: China’s Shein has reached a total of 229.4 million downloads globally for its mobile app, versus H&M’s 123.5 million and Zara’s 90.6 million, the data shows. Aiming squarely at the “Gen Z” social-media generation, it is using influencers on Instagram and TikTok, and discount codes, to attract younger shoppers in an increasingly crowded fashion market. – Read More on Reuters
3. RETRO READ: Shein, the Burgeoning E-Commerce Company Selling Cheap Dresses & Swastika Necklaces to Millennials Across the Globe. Despite its robust business, Shein’s name has not garnered the same level of consumer recognition as fellow digitally-native fast fashion entities like Fashion Nova or Missguided, and instead, has been grouped in with other low-cost, low-quality Chinese companies like Romwe, DressLily, ModLily, and Zaful, among others. – Read More on TFL
4. LVMH Is Firing on the One Cylinder That Matters: Louis Vuitton and Dior are the group’s biggest profit engines, with the lucrative fashion and leather division generating around two-thirds of total operating profits in normal times. There are problems in every other part of the business, however. A slump in travel retail hit sales of watches and jewelry, as well as LVMH’s perfume and cosmetics brands. – Read More on the WSJ
5. RELATED READ: LVMH Says Rihanna’s Fenty Clothing Line Is a “Work in Progress.” LVMH CFO Jean-Jacques Guiony says, “On Fenty fashion, we are obviously still in a launching phase and we have to figure out exactly what is the right offer. It’s not something that is easy. We were starting entirely from scratch.” – Read More on WWD
6. A millennials love affair: China’s second-hand luxury goods market booms. Chinese consumers have traditionally shunned second-hand goods, though that has undergone a shift over the past decade or so led by younger, more environmentally conscious consumers looking for affordable high-end goods. – Read More on Reuters
1. LVMH offers glimmers of hope to luxury sector: The world’s biggest luxury goods maker – which returned its biggest business to double-digit sales growth in the third quarter, as strong demand for Louis Vuitton and Dior helped offset steep declines elsewhere caused by the coronavirus pandemic – delivered 12% comparable revenue growth at its fashion and leather goods unit to reach €5.9 billion, far better than the 1% decline expected by analysts. – Read More on the FT
2. Justice Department sues author of Melania Trump tell-all book, says Stephanie Winston Wolkoff broke nondisclosure agreement: The DOJ is suing the author of a book about first lady Melania Trump, claiming that Stephanie Winston Wolkoff broke an NDA that barred her from revealing confidential information obtained during her work for the president’s wife. – Read More on CNBC
3. Wealthy shoppers in China more confident in luxury spending outlook than U.S. counterparts: “Americans and Chinese always spend differently. The Americans spend more on experiences, such as dining, travel and alcohol, and not so much on luxury goods like the Chinese, who like spending on beauty, fashion, watches and jewelry. Such categories have seen a rapid recovery in China.” – Read More on SCMP
4. The 100 Most Sustainably Managed Companies in the World: Companies, such as Kering, the French luxury house that owns Gucci, which took the number 26 spot on the overall list, have been working on quantifying environmental impacts through their products’ life cycles. Kering was second in the business model and innovation category of the WSJ ranking, which captures how companies integrate environmental and social factors into their value-creation processes. – Read More on the WSJ
5. Archive, 1996: Alexander McQueen, the bull in a fashion shop. “By all accounts, McQueen was offered the job, and the six-figure salary that goes with it, weeks [before the 1996 announcement]. Any previous doubt surrounding his appointment stemmed from the fact that he might just turn it down.” – Read More on the Guardian