LONDON, United Kingdom — Over the course of the last decade, traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, from Neiman Marcus to Macy’s, have seized the digital opportunity and built impressive online businesses, with web sales of apparel and accessories currently growing faster than any other e-commerce product category and expected to reach $40.9 billion in 2012, up from $34.16 billion in 2011, in the US alone, according to eMarketer.
Moda Operandi Screenshot | Source: Moda Operandi NEW YORK, United States — ‘Pre-tail’ fashion start-up Moda Operandi, which enables women to pre-order designer pieces straight off the runway via limited-time online trunk sales, announced today that it has raised $36 million in a Series C round of funding led by RRE Ventures, with the participation of existing investors New Enterprise Associates, New Atlantic Ventures and Condé Nast, as well as strategic investors
Savigny Luxury Index May 2012 | Source: Savigny PartnersLONDON, United Kingdom — The Savigny Luxury Index (“SLI”) slid 5.2 percent in May, underperforming the benchmark MSCI World Index (“MSCI”) by almost 2 percentage points. Strong results mixed with an increasingly glum outlook for Europe and indications of a slowdown in China resulted in some profit taking as investors exited the sector. All the stocks in our index ended the month negatively. Big news Although the sector delivered
NastyGal.com | Source: socialcommercetoday.comLONDON, United Kingdom — It wasn’t so long ago that many technology analysts made bold predictions on the potential of so-called ‘F-commerce,’ the practice of using Facebook as a direct sales channel. Some even speculated that transactions conducted on Facebook, the world’s most visited website, could threaten e-commerce giant Amazon. But, thus far, selling directly on Facebook has failed to take off. Indeed, in the
Westgate Mall, Nairobi | Source: kamalkaur.netNAIROBI, Kenya — In recent weeks, the media hype around Africa has been remarkable, with several articles in major publications proclaiming the continent “the next Asia.” In fashion, Franca Sozzani even dedicated the entire May issue of L’Uomo Vogue to “rebranding Africa,” while this year’s IHT Luxury conference will discuss “the potential of Africa, both as a producer and ultimately consumer of luxury goods.” But to what extent is
