🎙The Retail and product daily
Your daily resource for the retail, fashion and product business news and information. Three of the top retail, brand and fashion stories, about five minutes, every weekday. (3 - 5 - 5 ). We keep it short and insightful. Not every piece of news makes it in - only what's notable.
When you visit an online site, data about your behaviour is abundant. Powerfront's avatar makes it visually accessible to customer service reps. The platform creates profiles of shoppers' moods, which they identify as "sentiments".
Digital-first brands seems to be the winners of 2019, but they still face headwinds like a noisy online environment and building connections. We have a couple of ideas of how to overcome them. Vacant Fifth Avenue spaces still get holiday windows as traffic increases by Rockefeller Centre. And CPG brands like Unilever and P&G are taking small steps to lower their plastic usage. And Loop refills for you. But it's not enough.
The future of the model is urban, greener, and has a smaller department store footprint. MAPIC has ended and we've got five takeaways we're sharing with you. There is now a 100 per cent carbon-neutral national shipping carrier in the United States: Sendle. Tiffany brings 5 things to LVMH. Are they worth $16.2 billion?
Gucci has consistently been delivering double digit increases, in part by giving employees a similar experience to that of their customers. Amazon admits to culling sellers data on its site. The first products in the Prada and adidas collaboration hit stores December 4.
Vasquiat is introducing a new way to think about demand planning. The e-commerce site is trying to minimize markdowns at the end of the season while still feeding into the current consumer demand for a discount.
"Ok Boomer" has stiff competition at the patent office in the US, but can you even trademark it?
Walmart might be winning the grocery delivery game with it's integration of physical and digital stores, Delivery Unlimited program, and focus on freshness. The divide between major luxury powerhouses like LVMH and Kering, and independent brands like Burberry is growing. Is digital responsible? Ikea's partnership with Doi Tung shows how a diversified supply chain can be good business, and good for local economies - sustainably.
Amazon isn't monitoring its sellers for accurate product descriptions, even as they court manufacturers directly. How will you deliver on sustainable solutions for your customer this Black Friday and Cyber Monday? And Berlin company Jandorf Holding relaunches luxury brands.
Premium fashion labels are starting to feel some consumer uncertainty as Hugo Boss, and Ted Baker issue statements suggesting they will miss their quarterly targets. This underscores a larger shift that is showing a reduction in consumer spending in the middle markets.
At the mass consumption end of the price market, have customers hit peak happiness? Morgan Stanley analyst Geoff Ruddell says they have - at least in clothing. Clothing sales in developed countries have been stagnant or declining.
And we are missing one week of "holiday shopping" this year between American Thanksgiving and Christmas. How to manage?
Luxury handbags are no longer the status symbol of choice for many consumers. Blame it on the resale market, consumer values shift away from leather, and the growth of altheisure as a status symbol.
LVMH may be the bellwether for how unrest in Hong Kong will affect retailer results. Some estimate the protests could affect business of global brands by up to 2 percent this year. Fast Retailing reports strong results. Target leans into inclusive and adaptive kids wear, and partners with Disney, and Toys'R'Us.
Dick's Sporting Goods is weighing whether or not to make a strategic shift out of the gun business, after destroying $5 million in automatic weapons this last year. And teen spending is slowing, but footwear has peaked with Gen Z. And H&M buys Sellpy, a resale company, as it marches towards its goal of becoming a circular company.
Jetblack, the personal shopping service available to consumers via text, is losing $15,000 per member annually. But Walmart continues to invest in the company as an R&D expense as it looks to build its future capabilities. Target will have solar panels on more than a quarter of it's stores in a month. Shiseido acquires clean beauty and skincare Drunk Elephant, a brand that has grown to $100 million annually.
Marks & Spencer is consciously shifting its assortment to meet the market decline in suiting and changing menswear fashion preferences. Kardashian Kloset launches, and it's terribly done. Plant subscription services are launching across the globe - and doing well.