For many shoppers, the most sustainable action is to buy less, per Morning Consult research.
FINANCE
Etsy (USA) has injected fresh capital to support Depop (UK) after the second-hand fashion marketplace fell to an £85 million ($94 million) loss last year. Etsy purchased Depop in June 2021 for $1.6 billion.
Superdry (UK) is in talks with its banks to renegotiate up to £70 million ($77.6 million) of debt. The company rebounded to profitability in fiscal year 2022, from a loss of $41 million to a $20 million profit.
Naver Corp. (S. Korea) is acquiring Poshmark (USA), the online resal, site for $1.2 billion in an all-cash deal. The acquisition is expected to generate “significant revenue and cost synergies,” per a company statement.
FASHION RETAIL
Startups Start to Lose Their Sparkle
No profits? No problem… until one day it was.
After nearly two decades of easy money raining on startups, executives at established brands and retailers were starting to wonder how long the party would last.
Seemingly overnight, priorities have shifted from ‘scaling’ and top line growth to a sharp focus on the bottom line.
Brands that were riding high on round after round of venture capital scrambling to get to profitability as funding becomes scarce. READ MORE
PODCAST
What We Can Learn from Super Apps that Could Revolutionize Our Business
You might be wondering “what is a super app? And why is this relevant to my business?”
Turns out that the things that make these apps so attractive to so many people – and keeps them loyal – can be applied to almost any business.
In this podcast Kevin Shimota, a leading expert on digital technology in China, a former senior executive at WeChat and then Director of Platform Strategy for Accenture, gives us a behind-the-scenes look at what makes these apps so powerful.
You’ll Learn:
- What differentiates China’s super apps from anything that exists in the West.
- Why user value is the biggest moat that any brand can build around its business.
- The massive benefits of heavy investment in customer goodwill.
- Why KPIs tend to measure the wrong things – and can lead companies away from long term success.
RETAIL
GU (Japan), a sister brand of Uniqlo, is opening a pop up store in New York City to measure consumer interest in the U.S. market. The brand said it looks to open larger stores and grow its footprint in the U.S.
Radley London (UK) is partnering with Simon Outlet Properties (USA) to expand its retail fleet in the U.S. The accessories retailer now has 5 stores in the U.S. and plans to open 4 more by year-end. Five to 10 more stores are planned for 2023.
The U.S. retail vacancy rate fell to 6.1% in Q2, its lowest in 15 years. Rents were up 16% over 2017 levels.
- Online retail sales hit a peak of 16.4% in the second quarter of 2020, then settled back to 14.3% in the first quarter of 2022, per the Wall Street Journal.
What executives are saying, market insights, financial performance – all in our FASHION RETAIL October report. Read more
MARKETS
Unexpectedly strong American job numbers in September raised expectations that the Federal Reserve will continue to increase interest rates aggressively.
Eurozone central bankers raised fears that inflation could become a permanent feature as they announced their largest-ever increase in interest rates in late September, per minutes from their recent meeting.
Beijing reported a 5.4% year-on-year increase in retail sales during the recent Golden Week holiday, according to data from the Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau. The increase was seen across both ecommerce and physical retail, including malls and department stores.
Germany’s August retail sales fell 1.3% month-on-month, as high inflation cut consumers’ purchasing budgets, according to Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) data.
- Annual consumer inflation rose to a new peak in September, hitting 10%, according to provisional data.
Italian retail sales fell 0.4% in August from the month before, per ISTAT data showed, following a 1.3% rise in July. Sales rose 4.3% in unadjusted year-on-year terms in August, ISTAT said.
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