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.
Last week, fashion start-ups as diverse as Warby Parker and ThredUp showed they could not only lay out a path to profitability, but stick to it. This week, the biggest fashion tech play of the last decade has its turn under the microscope.
Like those other companies, Farfetch is making moves to regain the market’s faith. It’s shaken up its executive team, cut back on marketing spend and, most crucially, is inching toward completing its tie-up with its biggest competitor, Yoox Net-a-Porter. Its fourth-quarter results, reported in February, showed a smaller decline in revenue than analysts were anticipating.
The halo, such as it was, didn’t last. Farfetch’s share price hit an all-time low on May 1. For now, the YNAP deal is one more source of uncertainty (the fact that the luxury e-tailer Farfetch is taking on also operates at a loss doesn’t help). The focus this week will likely be on nuts and bolts: reducing inventory, revving up sales in China and finding ways to get Americans to shop online that doesn’t involve delivering truckloads of cash to Instagram’s ad sales department on a daily basis.
The company will face a tough audience when it reports first-quarter results on May 18. Investors who bailed on DTC brands and fashion tech platforms last year are staying on the sidelines; most of the companies that reported stronger-than-expected results last week got a small bump to their share price at best. After so much balance sheet carnage, a quarter or two of shrinking losses or a smaller-than-expected drop in sales isn’t enough to change the narrative.
For that to happen, Farfetch and other fashion e-commerce companies need to show they’ve turned a corner, and allow their new business plans to shine. It helps to have a leading market position and enough cash to see a turnaround plan through. Farfetch has both of those things, especially once the YNAP deal is complete. The question is whether it will be enough.
Monday
International Woolmark Prize winner announced in Paris
Australian Fashion Week begins
Tuesday
Gucci Cruise show in Seoul
Cannes Film Festival opens
On reports earnings
US retail sales data for April released
Wednesday
TJX, Macy’s, Watches of Switzerland report earnings
Eurozone April inflation data released
Thursday
Ross, Burberry, Canada Goose, Farfetch report earnings
Friday
VF Corp, Foot Locker report earnings
Saturday
The Week Ahead wants to hear from you! Send tips, suggestions, complaints and compliments to brian.baskin@businessoffashion.com.
The 35 year-old former racecar driver — son of designer Miuccia Prada and chairman Patrizio Bertelli — is restructuring the Milanese group from the inside out. ‘Everything’s changing so that everything can stay the same,’ said the BoF 500 cover star about readying Prada for its next chapter.
Shares jumped 4 percent following a Milan Fashion Week outing which saw Sabato de Sarno hone the brand’s universality and upscale appeal. Critics were left wanting more in ways both good and bad.
BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed speaks to veteran modelling agent Chris Gay to understand the shifting power dynamics in the modelling industry and how models can build a career that stands the test of time.
The late designer’s archive of nearly 20,000 pieces ranging from Madame Grès and Schiaparelli to Comme des Garçons and Gaultier is like a ‘real-life backup disk of 20th century fashion,’ writes Laurence Benaïm.