The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
"Might Apple Have a Future as a Fashion Conglomerate?" (CNET)
"Lately, Apple has been hiring the tasteful from another world. First it was Paul Deneve from Yves Saint-Laurent. Then it was Angela Ahrendts from Burberry. This week, it was Patrick Pruniaux from Tag Heuer. Are these style-conscious people all working to dress up Apple, as Apple prepares to dress us up?"
"Adidas Joins Wearables Stampede With Fitness Tracker" (The New York Times)
"Paul Gaudio, the general manager of digital sports at Adidas, is aware of the tumult in the wearables market, but he does not seem daunted. On Wednesday, Mr. Gaudio is introducing the company's Fit Smart fitness tracker at a wearables conference in San Francisco."
"RetailNext Raises Another $30 Million to Track In-Store Data" (TechCrunch)
"In the world of brick-and-mortar retailing, few companies have been as successful at marketing analytics services to customers as RetailNext, which is expected to announce a new $30 million in financing today. The round, led by Nokia Growth Partners, includes investments from strategic corporate investors like Qualcomm Ventures, Tyco, and AMEX Ventures — the venture capital arm of credit card giant American Express."
"Tech Titans Take Their Fight to the Mean Streets of Same-Day Delivery" (Wired)
"Over the past several years, Amazon has foregone profits to fund massive new 'fulfillment centers' within range of the largest metro areas in the US. Once reluctant to set up operations in states such as California that would force it to collect sales tax, Amazon is now betting that proximity to its customers will lure them into ordering more, enticed by the sheer speed with which their every shopping whim can be fulfilled."
"Learning the Secrets of E-Commerce in China" (The New York Times)
"The online market includes both local competitors like DHGate, which sells goods for export from China, and international sites selling directly to Chinese consumers — including Amazon, which is beginning to gain mainland customers after a slow start. There are at least three major differences between American and Chinese online sales. Those differences illustrate both the challenges and the potential for growth in China."
The nature of livestream transactions makes it hard to identify and weed out counterfeits and fakes despite growth of new technologies aimed at detecting infringement.
The extraordinary expectations placed on the technology have set it up for the inevitable comedown. But that’s when the real work of seeing whether it can be truly transformative begins.
Successful social media acquisitions require keeping both talent and technology in place. Neither is likely to happen in a deal for the Chinese app, writes Dave Lee.
TikTok’s first time sponsoring the glitzy event comes just as the US effectively deemed the company a national security threat under its current ownership, raising complications for Condé Nast and the gala’s other organisers.