Retail Diary - Week of March 1st
It's been a year. Let me say that again - IT HAS BEEN A YEAR!! We are hearing so many recaps about what we have gone through in the past year together - but apart. Many brands and retailers have had to shutdown completely, others have pivoted and seen success and some are still holding on by a thread. I hope this newsletter has helped you stay up to date but also find new gems and businesses to support. Here is the recap of what I've found this week.
This Week's Topics:
Store, Brand and Influencer News
New Launches
Trending - Sneaker and Streetwear Stories
Data Dive - Etsy Sales
Personal favorites from the week
Store, Brands and Influencer News
How brands are handling the pandemic and the impact on their business:
Deep dive on The Row and how they are fairing during the pandemic and the loss of a massive retailer - Barneys.
Ministry of Supply how a workwear start-up pivots in a stay at home pandemic.
Urban Outfitters is launching a membership program for their brands to boost loyalty. "Members of paid membership programs are 60% more likely to spend on a brand after subscribing, compared with only 30% for free loyalty programs, consulting firm McKinsey & Company found in a survey on loyalty programs last year. "
Nordstrom partners with fitness equipment brand Tonal to open 40 shop in shops. This will help drive in more traffic that wants to check out the at home workout brand.
Amazon Fashion has a new President and Nicola Glass is leaving as Kate Spade Creative Director.
Madison Reed's gross sales grew 130% YoY and was over $100m in revenue. They recently secured $50m in funding. Madison Reed has raised just under $200m in total funding and this latest round was led by True Ventures where Madison Reed Founder Amy Errett is also a partner.
Retail icon Fred Segal passed away at age 87. He opened his first boutique, a designer denim shop, in 1961 in West Hollywood.
The latest in the saga between The RealReal and Chanel includes TRR counter-suing Chanel. What was interesting in this claim is that Chanel has made an investment in Farfetch, which does sell second-hand, and while Chanel has sued TRR and other second-hand retailers like What Goes Around Comes Around, they are not going after Farfetch.
Kering leads a $216m round in luxury resale site Vestiarie Collective. Vestiarie is now valued over $1 Billion.
New Launches
Lively launches at Target. The bras cost $25 and they have options for a range of sizes.
Black owned plus-size brand Zelie for She launches in Nordstrom.
The Lauren Look is Ralph Lauren's new rental business that has launched.
Trending - Sneaker and Streetwear Stories
This article in Bloomberg was super interesting on the off market sneaker sales. The article centers on Joe Hebert who dropped out of college to run his business. Example, buying 600 Yeezys with support from his crew to turn around and sell for a profit through his own channel. The story on its own is super interesting but then it takes a turn to dive into Hebert's mother.
Hebert's mother was an Executive at Nike that stepped down this week after the article broke. She had been there for 25 years and it sounds like she had disclosed her son's business. However, perhaps some new information came out with the article that led to her stepping down after a recent promotion.
Data Dive - Etsy Sales
This Retail Dive article shared insights on Etsy's sales.
fourth quarter gross merchandise sales rose nearly 118% year over year to $3.6 billion as revenue rose 129% to $617 million.
Masks drove 4% of sales
the number of active buyers was up 76.7% year over year to 81.9 million.
The company added twice as many new buyers in 2020 as it did in 2019
The meme of Bernie Sanders and his mittens at the Inauguration drove $1.9 million in sales of mittens and related items.
Personal Favorites From This Week
Love this WSJ video on the discovery aspect of Costco and their formula for success.
I added so many of these suggestions to my must read list.
The icon Martha Stewart was featured in Harper's Bazaar this month. The whole March 2021 Bazaar, with new EIC Samira Nasr touch is fantastic. I'm also excited to read the article The Mighty,Mighty Birkin by Leah Chernikoff.
What do you do when it is the Golden Globes but you have a broken arm? Prada makes a sequin cast for actress Sarah Paulson.
Loeffler Randall does a croc
Love Jessi Hempel’s interview style and poignant questions. Her interview with Rebecca Minkoff is
What's Next?
Adweek's round-up of Challenger brands and what it means to disrupt. So who is ready to do a little disruption?
Thanks for reading Edition 77.
Sarah Shapiro