Weekly News Brief
BETTER, FASTER, STRONGER
Fast fashion's tight control over their supply chains has been a historically winning strategy. Yet while they might enjoy their current dominance in the market, it's no time to be complacent. As always, Amazon surfaces as a looming threat. The e-commerce goliath has a cutting edge, on-demand apparel manufacturing system in the works that would allow the company to be that much better and faster in clothing production than their fast fashion competitors.
There's no doubt that Amazon means serious business in its quest to conquer fashion. The question is, can fast fashion keep up?
BETTER BRING YOUR UMBRELLA
Getting drenched over here. Through this great retail storm, the Atlantic zoomed in on three key reasons for the crisis:
- Cheap, easy and risk-free online (and growing mobile) shopping
- Over-supply of American malls and the declining performance of anchor tenants
- Shift of consumer spending to experiences
The article also entertains the possibility of self-driving cars changing the face of retail. We love the idea of stores coming to our doorstep. What do you think?
DISCOUNT DESTINATION
While the Chinese market's voracious appetite for luxury goods is seemingly insatiable, they are not blinded to the fact that prices for luxury goods are significantly cheaper in Europe and the US. Quartz talks about how Chinese shoppers get their luxury fix on a bargain: by flying to the West for international shopping sprees and by utilizing "daigous" (shoppers based in Europe and the US that buy goods for clients from mainland China).
PRICING IT RIGHT
What are consumers willing to pay for products? With the Internet, it has never been easier to conduct comparison shopping. The fact that the modern consumer has been trained to expect sales compounds this problem and does little to benefit retailers' margins. How can retailers recover? By taking the data of consumer shopping habits online (web browsing history = so. much. data) and translating them into pricing strategies that can vary from person to person and day by day. Read more about how pricing strategies have shifted in retail in this comprehensive analysis by the Atlantic.
For a lighter read, we talked about personalized pricing not long ago right here in our blog.
☀️ THIS WEEK'S BRIGHT SPOT ☀️
Despite their lack of e-commerce, business is booming for Primark, who plans to open another 29 stores in 2017 and expand outside of the UK. Walmart has also been aggressively expanding their fashion offerings (ModCloth, MooseJaw and ShoeBuy) and are in final talks to acquire menswear company Bonobos. It's full speed ahead for these folks!