Daily LInks
1. Gap Turns to Texas Market to Test Store Reopening Strategy: Gap Inc. will use Texas as an initial proving ground for reopening as the retailer emerges from an almost two-month shutdown of physical stores prompted by the coronavirus outbreak. Employees will wear face masks, registers will have Plexiglass partitions and signs throughout the store will remind everyone to follow social distancing measures. The retailer is also making curbside pickup available at 75 locations. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. Shape of post-COVID-19 retail: The physical locations that survive this extended pause will likely reopen with a focus on high-touch clienteling and luxury service, where shop visits are appointment-only or tightly controlled and restricted, and oriented around consumer experience rather than pure sales. – Read More on American Marketer
3. Retailers Canceling Apparel Orders Amid Coronavirus Torments Clothes Makers: Factories in Asia find few options in battling fashion companies making last-minute purchase changes because of falling sales, demonstrating “the increasing leverage of fashion brands and retailers over garment factories, as the fashion business is becoming more buyer-driven.” – Read More on WSJ
4. Ray-Ban’s Owner Enters Crisis With Blurry Vision: A sales slump at the world’s biggest eyewear company hasn’t prompted feuding executives to put their differences aside. Yet, it is clearer than ever why French lensmaker Essilor and Italian sunglasses business Luxottica, which struck a troubled merger in 2017, are better off together. – Read More on WSJ
5. RETRO READ: Meet EssilorLuxottica, the Biggest Player in the Luxury Eyewear Game. To put the parties’ $50 billion merger in perspective, most of the industry’s eyewear – save for in-house manufactured glasses (and those are quite rare) – will now come from a single source, even more so than they already do. – Read More on TFL