What: The NRF NXT is a webinar series covering the future of digital retail.

Why it is important: This week’s topic covered the future of flagship stores in the new era of

retail and how technology is being leveraged to create lasting experiential memories.

NRF NXT Webinar

Watch the replay here

What: The Fashion Tech Breakfast presented 4 fashion tech start-ups in clientelling, connected garments, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality.

Why it is important: IADS is spotting innovation in fashion and making sure the right and interesting ideas are communicated to members.

Fashion Tech Breakfast: 5th Edition

What: A very dynamic, monthly conference to introduce 3 startups selected by The Forge and Bain in one hour.

Why it is important: IADS is spotting innovation and making sure the right and interesting ideas are communicated to members.

What: The online event evaluates the future of ‘buy now, pay later’ solutions.

Why is it important: The rise of ‘buy now, pay later’ services has changed how people shop online. Within a few years, these start-ups have gone from virtually unknown to an integral part of e-commerce, opening up the concepts of credit lines and instalment plans to millions of consumers.

Attendees: Cathaleen Chen, Correspondent at BoF, Albert Saniger, Founder & CEO at Nate, Nathan Romano, Co-Founder at Onia.

Moderator: Brian Baskin, Deputy Editor at BoF.

Nate is a universal shopping app which navigates websites in the same way humans do. It understands web code and decides where to click and what to fill out. Share an item with Nate from any website, and tap buy. Nate launched a BNPL solution on the app.

Onia is a swimwear company. Women from 20 to 35 year-old are using Klarna, the BNPL option offered on the website. Klarna is mostly used for purchases under USD 100. The company doesn’t push customers to pay with instalment plans and doesn’t advertise about them. For a retailer, Onia confirms BNPL solutions are more expensive than credit card solutions, but the process is seamless comparing to archaic bank process. Klarna services, reporting and dashboards are very clear and efficient compared to what banks and credit cards companies are offering.

BNPL to grow bigger 

While BNPL solutions will develop even more in the future and become a regular payment method, participants all agree that they won’t replace credit cards even though younger generations don’t want to own one anymore.

The payment solution is already everywhere online and will develop more and more in stores. Afterpay has a set a partnership with Simon Property Group to develop BNPL solutions in its malls and stores. For retailers, it will also be an opportunity to offer a new version of their store credit card.

Through department stores offering BNPL options, luxury is also made accessible to younger customers in an unprecedented way but luxury companies are still reluctant to offer such payment solutions even considering the business opportunity they represent. BNPL will develop more and more in the luxury area as company won’t have any other choice.

Fintechs have more ambitions than offering BNPL solutions. For instance, Klarna is now a real bank in Europe. It’s fair to ask what those companies will become in the future: new Visa companies or new JP Morgan or Chase banks? Banks have data but they don’t have the tech mindset to develop innovative solutions: while they merge with fintechs?

Regulation is coming

Klarna’s app is designed to attract younger customers (it’s pink, its gamified…). But teenagers and young customers don’t understand the late payment and the potential fees that might occur. In that sense, more regulation is coming to protect immature customers. More regulation will also come to protect privacy.

Payments will be all digitalised

The future of payment is digital with no more in-store cash registers needed in the future (payments going through sales associates phones and tablets. This will be an opportunity for retailers to rethink stores as it will save space to be used in a better way.

GDSS 2021 website

GDSS 2021 website

What: A very dynamic, monthly conference to introduce in one hour 3 startups selected by The Forge and Bain.

Why it is important: IADS is spotting innovation and making sure the right and interesting ideas are communicated to members.

Why it is important: Passion is what unites leaders in that industry, and this should be communicated to the younger generations, as the retail career remains more exciting than ever, even when compared to other ones.

What: The half-day event offered advice, new perspectives and alternative models and strategies for the fashion and beauty industry facing up to the sustainability challenge.

Why it is important: Startups, investors and politicians joined in the dialogue to offer solutions and give innovative, outsider viewpoints and inspiration, rather than a platform for brands to promote their own initiatives.

What: With stores closed and tourists absent in key markets, the pandemic presented an opportunity to initiate relationships with local customers and strengthen digital ties with remote clients.

Why is it important: Attendees share how they’re continuing to cultivate these connections and discuss what ‘experiential’ luxury looks like in a post-Covid world.

What: BoF brought together a host of experts to break down how sales of tweets, memes and other digital

assets may change the possibilities for the fashion industry.

Why it is important: It is important for IADS members to understand the implications of this rapid changing

technology as it becomes ingrained in the fashion industry.

What: A very dynamic, monthly conference to introduce in one hour 3 startups selected by The Force and Bain.

Why it is important: IADS is spotting innovation and making sure the right and interesting ideas are communicated to members.

What: Journal du Luxe and Centric Software have organized a webinar to decipher the opportunities of Fashion Tech.

Why it is important: At a time of hyper-acceleration of digital uses, technology has never been so present in the luxury and fashion sector.

What: 2 days of conferences on the current state of business in a period where the end of the crisis is in sight, but not confirmed yet.

Why it is important: IADS attended 2 conferences related to topics of interest for its members:

What: FIRA organised a virtual gathering to get an update from markets

Why it is important: All presentations from various federations are available here, including the presentation made by IADS as a guest speaker

FIRA decided to organise a virtual meeting due to the impossibility to meet face to face in the current context, and the need to have an update on the evolution of the situation in each country.

• IADS presented its views of the current situation: fragmented, complex, requiring agility to adapt to a ‘permanent state of crisis’. Observing its members’ behaviour, IADS explained that there was a general trend towards organisational simplification, to adapt to new scenarios, leading to new ways to interact with customers (‘from stores networks to retailers ecosystems’), who are increasingly (and by necessity, local). This impacts several operational topics, such as sourcing, margin control and CSR.
• IDV ( Brazil) explained that, in spite of a challenging situation in the country, overall retail increased by +1.2%, lead by grocery, pharmacy and e-commerce. Retail is undergoing a transformation in the country thanks to an increased attention to “made in brazil” ecosystems development (led by retailers) and digital payment platforms (being deployed by the central bank). IDV believes that those 2 aspects will be key for Brazil’s recovery in the coming years.
• ESEE (Greece) gave a presentation on the state of small businesses in the country (which are overrepresented in the country compared to larger retailers). Overall, state support allowed such businesses to go through the crisis, and they are now looking at the domestic value chain due to a complexity at the global level. Retail decreased -3.9% in 2020, while e-commerce grew +25%. Retailers are in majority pessimistic about the impact of the crisis (88%) and it is estimated that 35% of businesses are now at risk (from 18% pre-crisis).
• Alibaba gave a keynote about the ecosystem of businesses and services it has built.
• NRF (USA) explained the supportive measures it brought to its members in the US  : lobbying actions, best practices conference calls, information and idea sharing.
• EHI (Germany) presented the difficulties and hurdles caused by the second lockdown which started in December 2020 and was still in place at the time of the meeting. They had to adapt their business model to provide blended formats of events to their members, precising that in-person meetings are needed in their economic model.
• RCC (Canada), which represents 74% of the retail industry in Canada, described the perceived disconnection between the federal and state/province practices and messages, leading to tension and frustration. RCC had to take on a lobbying role, which gave it visibility and credibility, and replaced in-person events by new partnerships and tools, such as studies co-developed with the Boston Consulting Group, more media-oriented actions and public presence. This led to a +17% membership growth and a +45% revenue growth for the RCC.
• Behv (Germany) introduced a study  co-developed with the Copenhaguen Economics, about the benefits and disadvantages of e-commerce. In Germany alone, e-commerce represents 1.2 million jobs. For every 100 new jobs in e-commerce, 66 are created in the supply chain. On average, large Germany companies sell between 19 and 21% of their total turnover online.

FIRA AM21 Meeting Minutes

Bevh Presentation (Germany) 

ESSE Presentation (greece)

IADS Presentation (France)

IDV Presentation (Brazil)

NRF Presentation (USA)

RCC Presentation (Canada)

You can watch the video below:

You can watch the video below:

What: Simon Sinek shares his ideas on leadership and the present day workplace.

What: A snapshot of the state of multi-brand retail, 1 year after the beginning of the pandemic

Why it is important: Even though it is claimed that the system is “broken”, it appeared clearly from speakers that the alternatives on the table (dropshipping) are not answering the key issue: customer-centricity and the purpose of a multi-brand business to bring an eye and a curation, not to display the full assortment of a brand.