What: Retailers are adapting to a prolonged Black Friday season by leveraging digital channels, targeting Gen Z, and shifting away from aggressive discounting.

Why it is important:The evolution of Black Friday highlights the need for retailers to balance digital innovation, targeted marketing, and value-driven strategies to remain competitive.

Black Friday has evolved from a single day of in-store frenzy into a multi-week, omni-channel event, fundamentally reshaping the retail landscape. Retailers now launch promotions weeks in advance, with major players like Best Buy, Target, and Walmart starting their campaigns as early as late October. This shift is driven by the growing dominance of e-commerce and mobile shopping, with online revenue surpassing $10.8 billion in 2024 and over half of digital spending occurring via smartphones. The new Black Friday playbook emphasises seamless mobile experiences, buy now, pay later options, and efficient order fulfillment, as retailers seek to meet heightened consumer expectations for convenience and value. However, macroeconomic challenges such as tariffs, federal shutdowns, and potential subsidy losses are increasing price sensitivity and complicating demand forecasting. Retailers are also intensifying efforts to capture Gen Z’s substantial spending power by investing in TikTok and influencer partnerships, recognising that this demographic’s shopping habits are reshaping marketing strategies. Meanwhile, the risks of aggressive discounting are prompting a move toward layered promotions and loyalty-driven offers, as brands aim to protect margins and long-term equity.

IADS Notes: December 2024 reports from VMSD and Techcrunch confirm the shift to a multi-week, omni-channel Black Friday, with record online sales and 55% of digital spending via smartphones. Macy’s July 2025 press release highlights the extension of Black Friday promotions into the summer, reflecting the expanded promotional calendar. October 2025 coverage in Forbes details the impact of tariffs and economic uncertainty on retail strategies, while September 2025 articles from Forbes and The Robin Report discuss how inflation and weak job growth are affecting forecasts and inventory planning. The strategic focus on Gen Z and TikTok is supported by January 2025 (Inside Retail), February 2025 (Retail Week), and October 2025 (BCG/WWD) sources, emphasizing the influence of younger consumers and digital platforms. Finally, November 2025 (Inside Retail) and July 2025 (WWD) document Macy’s and Amazon’s shift away from aggressive discounting toward more targeted, value-driven promotional strategies.

The death of the traditional Black Friday: how retailers can adapt

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Brands are no longer confined to their original product categories. Instead, they are increasingly expanding their reach into new brand territories, ranging from additional product categories to sports, culture, and entertainment, redefining not just what they sell, but what they represent. This diversification is not about opportunistic line extensions. It’s a calculated repositioning aimed at opening new revenue streams, for sure, but also deepening consumer engagement and embedding brands into broader lifestyle ecosystems. Whether through launching cosmetic lines, furnishing homes, associating with sports performances, staging cultural experiences or producing films, brands are reimagining their roles in consumers’ lives, moving from product providers to curators of aspirational living.

From that perspective, Louis Vuitton, a critical brand for any luxury department store, is probably the most striking example, ticking all the boxes of a brand that has transformed into a lifestyle ecosystem. While many other brands are expanding their territory, department stores need to adapt to welcome these new brand expressions.

Lipstick logic: When brands turn to beauty

The most usual way to expand brand territory is to venture into new product categories. At a time when the beauty and wellness industry has been booming, brands have recently ventured into the coloured cosmetics category. Hermès is a significant example in the luxury price bracket. While they first launched fragrances in 1950, the Perfume & Beauty ‘only’ represented 3.5% of the brand’s total revenue in 2024 (in comparison, Chanel’s beauty business is estimated to represent 35% of the total revenue in 2024). It took Hermès 70 years to initiate a careful foray into colour cosmetics in early 2020 during Covid, with disappointing results. Since then, the Perfume & Beauty division has built up, doubling from €263 million in 2020 to €535 million in 2024, growing 9.3% YoY. While it’s a very significant achievement, it represents limited growth compared to the rest of the business. In 2024, Hermès achieved a consolidated revenue of €15.2 billion, marking a 14.7% increase over the previous year.

On its side, Louis Vuitton began by relaunching its perfume division in 2016. This initiative marked a return to the brand’s historical roots, as Louis Vuitton had released its first perfume in 1927, though it was quickly discontinued. After fragrances, Louis Vuitton will debut colour cosmetics in fall 2025 with the British makeup artist Dame Pat McGrath as its creative director. The line, which will be called La Beauté Louis Vuitton, is the fashion house’s first foray into cosmetics since the 1920s, when it offered a range of powder compacts, brushes and mirrors.

The market is crowded with prestige and luxury brand new beauty lines: Prada, Celine, Rabanne and Dries Van Noten have all debuted cosmetics in the past years. But not only does luxury follow this trend. In 2023, Ecoalf’s founder, Javier Goyeneche (a guest speaker at one of the recent IADS CEO meetings), expanded into sustainable beauty products, seeking to bring its environmental ethos to everyday personal care with Ecoalf Wellness. Assuming customers would be seduced by the brand’s circular principles applied to skincare and hygiene, the brand eliminates single-use plastics and drastically reduces water-heavy formulations, delivering powder-based shampoos, deodorants, and more enclosed in reusable aluminium containers that can last over twenty years.

Not all ventures are successful, though. In 2019, Birkenstock launched a skincare line including eye cream, anti-wrinkle cream and more. While Birkenstock’s surprising move into the beauty sector could represent a natural yet bold progression from its DNA of wellbeing to a broader vision of self-care, these products didn’t sell because offering products such as eye cream was probably too far-fetched. Closer to its DNA and core business, Birkenstock ventured again into beauty in 2024 with Care Essentials, a short and focused foot care line that aligns more closely with the brand ethos. Overall, this transformation highlights a broader trend in which heritage labels utilise their domain expertise to expand into adjacent lifestyle categories, hoping to deepen consumer engagement and open new revenue streams.

Living the brand: How fashion brands furnish everyday life

Brands are not only venturing into beauty but also embracing home design. The first brand to truly venture into furniture, lighting, and home accessories is Armani, which introduced the Armani/Casa label in 2000. This strategy to integrate domestic life continues with the Louis Vuitton Objets Nomades collection, introduced in 2012. Initially conceived as a series of travel-inspired furniture pieces, the collection has since evolved into a substantial home design portfolio, featuring collaborations with recognised designers such as Patricia Urquiola, India Mahdavi, and the Campana Brothers. These limited-edition objects are presented as collectables, elevating Louis Vuitton from a fashion house to a purveyor of high-art domestic experience.

Fast fashion brands also account for successful forays in the home categories. Zara, H&M, and more recently Primark have each undertaken significant strategic expansions into home products to capture a rapidly growing homeware market shaped by post-pandemic lifestyles. Starting in 2003, Zara Home leveraged the same fashion calendar and just‑in‑time logistics that made apparel successful, but uses relatively low discounting compared to apparel, maintaining a premium feel. Financially, the division has matured into a significant revenue driver, with 2018 figures reaching approximately €830 million out of the €16.62 billion total revenue.

H&M adopted a similar but later strategy, first entering the home arena in 2008. Initially sold online and later in stores, the business rationale for H&M Home followed a clear logic: leverage a trusted mass-market retail infrastructure to capture lifestyle spend while maintaining price accessibility, mirroring its “fashion for the many” ethos. In doing so, H&M strengthened its omnichannel ecosystem, using home products to increase basket size and frequency of visits.

Finally, Primark’s entrance into homeware has taken a different trajectory, rooted in physical retail dominance. The retailer began testing its homeware range alongside clothing before making a decisive strategic shift in 2025. The retailer opened its first dedicated Primark Home store in Belfast, showcasing small furniture, bedding, ceramics, and travel essentials in a standalone environment.

Temporary territories: When department stores catch the zeitgeist

There is also an agile way to catch customers’ attention and a share of their wallets. Selfridges and Le Bon Marché offer vivid examples of how department stores have opportunistically tapped into lifestyle trends by temporarily expanding their product ranges to capture additional revenue streams. Following Covid, Selfridges identified an unexpected yet powerful consumer behaviour toward nature, gardening and wellbeing. By mid-2021, its London, Manchester, and Birmingham stores had introduced pop-up garden centres offering a variety of plants and tools, compost, and related apparel. The effort helped Selfridges capture a surge in “green-fingered” spending, translating consumer leisure budgets into in-store impulse purchases on plants and horticultural expert consultations. While Le Bon Marché had the same initiative, this pivot exemplifies how a temporary trend can be monetised through short-term, high-impact product ventures. These initiatives were also incredibly smart in attracting more local consumers, especially at a time when tourism was halted.

Le Bon Marché took an agile approach to pet products in early 2025 by transforming its permanent pop-up spaces into a canine playground under the exhibition banner “Je t’aime comme un chien!”. The initiative mixed dog-centric products, from designer collars, bowls, bespoke toys, treats, spa and grooming services, to a café, workshops, personalisation and photo booths, with immersive visual installations such as big prop bones throughout the store. This thematic takeover capitalised on a widely observed surge in pet spending. Generating high traffic and engagement, Le Bon Marché found the right way to bring dogs and their owners into the shopping journey, strategically steering discretionary spending toward products that align with a momentary yet powerful cultural obsession.

These initiatives are less about permanent transformation and more about momentary alchemy. Selfridges’ plant pop-ups and Le Bon Marché’s dog-themed extravaganza both illustrate a modern department store strategy: not just selling things, but staging culturally resonant experiences that trigger new purchasing behaviours. By reading the zeitgeist and moving fast, with highly curated inventory and thematic environments, these stores created agile revenue plays that capitalised on emergent consumer trends at just the right moment.

Gold, speed, and symbolism: Luxury meets global sports events

Brands venturing into sports is nothing new. Yet Louis Vuitton’s involvement in Formula 1 and the 2024 Olympic Games reflects an increasingly assertive strategy to position the brand at the centre of contemporary cultural spectacle. Over the last decade, Louis Vuitton has steadily moved into the realm of global prestige events, not as a traditional sponsor, but as a supplier of symbolism. In 2021, the brand unveiled a bespoke monogrammed trophy trunk for the Formula 1 World Championship. Its repeated presence on the podium reinforced the brand’s authority and symbol of positive rituals and victory. The move into Formula 1 coincided with a generational shift in the sport’s audience, the sport’s blending of technology, drama, and internationalism offering the brand a stage that mirrored its own values: precision, control, spectacle, and heritage. In early 2025, Louis Vuitton announced a new 10-year significant partnership with Formula 1, beginning with the title sponsorship of the March 2025 Australian Grand Prix. This initiative capitalises on Formula 1’s growing popularity, which attracted six million race attendees and 1.5 billion TV viewers last year, with particularly strong growth among women and youth demographics. The partnership will enable Louis Vuitton to offer unique hospitality experiences for top clients while reaching new audiences. It’s a compelling example of the brand’s broader transformation from a traditional luxury retailer to a cultural powerhouse.

But Louis Vuitton’s ambitions in the sports ecosystem are not isolated. In 2024, the brand expanded its reach further by becoming an official partner of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, joining LVMH’s broader role as a premium sponsor of the event. As part of this engagement, Louis Vuitton designed and produced custom-made trunks for the Games medals. Similar to Formula 1, this foray signals a brand strategy anchored in recruiting new middle-class consumers. In both cases, the brand builds the physical artefacts through which these moments are staged. By embedding itself within the most visible and emotionally charged moments in sport, Louis Vuitton has redefined the boundaries of luxury participation. No longer solely anchored to the runway or its store network, the brand now lives elsewhere, and (already) everywhere.

Beyond commerce: Art as identity

Over the past three decades, luxury groups have moved far beyond fashion and retail to establish a lasting presence in contemporary art and culture. Similar to sports, this shift is not simply an act of sponsoring but a repositioning of luxury as a global cultural force. LVMH, Kering, and Richemont have each established cultural ecosystems to give their brands artistic legitimacy. For LVMH, this began with the 1990 creation of the Prix LVMH des Jeunes Créateurs, followed by the launch of the Fondation Louis Vuitton in 2014, which has become a cultural landmark in Paris. The Fondation has hosted major exhibitions drawing over a million visitors annually and positioning LVMH not just as a backer of the arts, but as a producer of major cultural events on par with the world’s leading institutions.

On its side, the Pinault Collection, distinct from the Kering group, represents one of the most ambitious private interventions in the contemporary art world. Long before the 2021 opening of the Bourse de Commerce in Paris, Pinault had already established two major cultural outposts in Venice, marking a sustained engagement with art. The Bourse de Commerce not only embodies a private collector’s vision but also illustrates how the resources of the luxury sector can be redirected to create enduring cultural institutions that have a lasting impact far beyond fashion.

Richemont has taken a more classical route, yet no less ambitious. The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, established in 1984, predates most other luxury group initiatives and stands out for its consistent, long-term engagement with artists across disciplines. Located in Paris, it recently announced plans to move to a larger site near the Louvre, underlining its institutional ambitions.

The logic here is not transactional but foundational: art and culture are not marketing vehicles but narrative extensions of what luxury is presumed to be: timeless, intellectual, emotional, and transformative. In embedding themselves into art, luxury groups are not just financing creativity, they are quietly recasting themselves as cultural institutions in their own right. This repositioning elevates their brands beyond fashion cycles, resonating long after a runway show ends.

Fashion cinematic turn: there’s no business like show business

As the boundaries between fashion and entertainment continue to dissolve, a growing number of luxury houses are entering the film industry not as sponsors or costume collaborators, but as producers and curators. Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent, and AMI Paris have each taken distinct yet strategically aligned steps into the film industry, using cinema as both a storytelling device and a cultural amplifier. In 2023, Louis Vuitton launched 22 Montaigne Entertainment, a dedicated production entity. Unlike earlier iterations of fashion-film collaborations, which often blurred into extended commercials, 22 Montaigne Entertainment aims to finance and develop projects. In partnership with Superconnector Studios, this division will be responsible for identifying opportunities for LVMH brands to collaborate with entertainment entities to co-develop and co-produce entertainment properties across film, television, and audio. However, it is likely that LVMH also has an eye toward producing larger, more mass-entertainment offerings, such as The House of Gucci movie, which grossed $166 million worldwide at the box office.

Saint Laurent, by contrast, has made the most direct and structurally ambitious move into filmmaking. In 2023, the house launched Saint Laurent Productions, becoming the first luxury brand to create a registered film production company. Its debut collaborations with auteurs such as Pedro Almodóvar and David Cronenberg made immediate headlines at major festivals including Cannes and Venice. Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez movie was a particularly striking example: it co-produced the entire feature, collaborating closely with the other movie-producing companies. The result is not mere branding, but active, creative authorship, with Anthony Vaccarello, Saint Laurent’s creative director, serving as a credited producer on the project.

AMI Paris’s entrance into the cinematic world took a more institutional turn in 2024 with the creation of the Grand Prix AMI Paris de la Semaine de la Critique, an award presented during the Cannes Film Festival that celebrates emerging filmmakers. Founded by AMI Paris’s founder and creative director Alexandre Mattiussi, the prize is designed to support the kind of filmmaking that aligns with AMI’s cultural positioning.

Together, these three brands represent different yet converging models for how fashion intersects with cinema. Louis Vuitton approaches it as a narrative architecture surrounding the brand’s universe, Saint Laurent treats it as a parallel industry in which to operate and AMI Paris uses it to enhance the brand’s emotional temperature. Each strategy points to the same conclusion. In a saturated visual economy, luxury no longer communicates through clothing alone. With its emotional depth, films offer a medium through which to project identity, build mythology.

As brands move beyond their traditional domains, a clear ambition emerges: catching all consumer life moments. Louis Vuitton’s ventures outside of its traditional categories are more than secondary revenue streams. They are expressions of the brand’s DNA and values, only reinforcing its position as a global cultural arbiter. Collectively, these moves signal a profound shift in the role of brands, from product makers to global cultural forces. In extending their territory, brands are not just chasing growth, they are shaping the consumers’ lives, raising questions about their cultural and emotional dominance.

For department stores, these new brand territories certainly require adaptation, but they also represent unprecedented opportunities to attract new consumer groups, making stores more exciting and livelier. Boring retail is, more than ever, dead!

Credits: IADS (Christine Montard)

What: AI-powered agents are transforming e-commerce by automating shopping decisions and shifting the focus from human shoppers to algorithm-driven efficiency.

Why it is important: The rise of AI agents demands that retailers overhaul their digital infrastructure to remain visible and competitive in an algorithm-first marketplace.

The retail landscape is rapidly evolving as AI-powered agents begin to dominate e-commerce, fundamentally changing how purchase decisions are made. These autonomous bots, acting on behalf of consumers, prioritise efficiency, structured data, and real-time information over traditional emotional cues and branding. As a result, the visual and experiential elements that once influenced human shoppers are becoming less relevant, while machine-readable trust signals, such as verified reviews, live inventory, and transparent return policies, are now critical. Retailers must adapt by optimising their backend systems, ensuring product feeds are accurate and up to date, and implementing standardized schema markup to enhance AI discoverability. The emergence of “Bot Battles,” where retailers’ AI agents negotiate with third-party bots, signals a new era of competition based on data integrity and operational transparency. In this algorithm-driven environment, commercial, digital, and marketing leaders must prioritise AI readiness to secure their place on the digital shelf, as efficiency and data quality become the primary drivers of success.

IADS Notes: Recent industry developments, such as Amazon’s legal action against Perplexity in November 2025, highlight the urgency for retailers to adapt to AI-driven commerce, as the balance of power shifts from traditional platforms to algorithmic intermediaries. Reports from the Financial Times and Journal du Net in September and November 2025 emphasize the need for brands to recalibrate their data infrastructure and engagement strategies for machine readability, while Forbes in February 2025 underscores the rapid adoption of autonomous AI shopping agents and the critical importance of structured data and standardised schemas for maintaining retail competitiveness.

Retailers must rethink e-commerce for an algorithm-first future

What: The luxury sector is experiencing its first post-crisis slowdown, but brands are responding by expanding digital, phygital, and accessible offerings to attract a wider customer base.

Why it is important: Adapting to a more inclusive and digitally driven luxury market is essential for brands aiming to capture new generations and sustain long-term growth.

Luxury retail is facing its first significant slowdown since the financial crisis, with global economic uncertainty and declining demand among high-net-worth individuals contributing to a projected 5% market contraction in 2025. Despite this, the sector is evolving rapidly as brands broaden their focus beyond the ultra-wealthy, introducing more accessible product lines and targeting aspirational and middle-class consumers. The shift is also marked by a surge in digital and “phygital” experiences, with luxury brands investing in seamless omnichannel journeys, immersive technology, and exclusive online campaigns to engage a younger, more diverse audience. This transformation is driven by the anticipated entry of 300 million Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers over the next five years, who are expected to fundamentally reshape luxury retail strategies. December remains the peak month for luxury spending, with brands leveraging exclusive holiday campaigns and experiential gifting to capture demand. In this changing landscape, innovation, inclusivity, and digital engagement are becoming critical for brands seeking resilience and long-term growth.

IADS Notes: The luxury retail landscape in 2025 is marked by a notable slowdown in spending, with Bain & Company projecting a 5% global market decline and 50 million fewer customers compared to previous years (Forbes, June 2025). This contraction is driven by economic uncertainty, subdued demand in key markets like China and the US, and a sharp deterioration in spending intentions among high-net-worth individuals (Financial Times, August 2025; WWD, June 2025). In response, major luxury brands are expanding their product lines to include more accessible items under $500, aiming to retain aspirational and middle-class consumers while balancing the need to preserve brand exclusivity (Fashion Network, December 2024). The industry is also witnessing a shift toward digital and “phygital” experiences, as retailers invest in seamless omnichannel journeys and immersive technology to engage a broader, younger audience (Fashion Network, October 2025; Journal du Net, January 2025). Despite current headwinds, the long-term outlook remains positive, with BCG/WWD (October 2025) and Bain & Company (February 2025) forecasting robust growth driven by the entry of 300 million Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers over the next five years. December continues to be the peak month for luxury spending, with exclusive holiday campaigns and experiential gifting strategies playing a crucial role in capturing demand (Press Release, October 2025).

Luxury shopping is no longer just for the affluent - Full Report

What: The International Retail Summit highlighted how customer proximity, digital transformation, and emotional connection are shaping the future of global retail.

Why it is important: The convergence of digital innovation, geopolitical change, and evolving consumer values is redefining what it takes to build loyalty and resilience in retail.

At the 75th International Retail Summit, industry leaders and researchers explored how global retail is being transformed by shifting consumer behaviors, technological advances, and geopolitical changes. Customer proximity—both physical and digital—emerged as a core strategy, with retailers like Valora and Babyone leveraging localization, “foodvenience,” and seamless digital integration to build strong, lasting relationships. The summit underscored the end of a “flat world,” as economic and geopolitical fragmentation force retailers to rethink supply chains, partnerships, and market entry strategies. The rise of the “emotional economy” was a central theme, with brands increasingly focused on building loyalty through shared values, community, and authentic engagement rather than just transactions. Trust, both within organizations and with customers, was identified as the foundation for innovation and long-term success. Finally, the growing influence of Chinese retail trends and platforms, such as TMall and AliExpress, was highlighted as both a challenge and an opportunity for European retailers, who must benchmark, collaborate, or compete to stay ahead.

IADS Notes: The 75th International Retail Summit’s focus on customer proximity, digital transformation, and emotional connection is strongly validated by recent developments in the retail sector. Forbes (February 2025), Inside Retail (March 2025), and Journal du Net (September 2025) all highlight the rapid adoption of AI agents and hyper-personalisation, with 38% of global consumers already using AI shopping tools and 71% expecting tailored interactions. These technologies are fundamentally reshaping how retailers approach localization, customer engagement, and operational efficiency. On the geopolitical front, BCG (January and May 2025) and GDI (August 2025) document the growing complexity of global trade, with brands restructuring supply chains and adopting agile, regionally-adapted models in response to rising fragmentation and the disruptive entry of Chinese e-commerce platforms. The rise of the “emotional economy” is reflected in the strategies of Selfridges, Lane Crawford, and others, as reported by Fashion Network (May 2025), Inside Retail (September 2025), and BoF (April 2025), where community-building, exclusivity, and authentic values are driving loyalty and profitability. Trust and strong corporate culture are increasingly recognized as foundations for innovation and resilience, as shown by McKinsey (June 2025), WWD (October 2025), and PR Newswire (December 2024). Finally, the competitive impact of Chinese retail trends is underscored by GDI (August 2025), Fashion Network (October 2025), and Inside Retail (August 2025), which detail the rapid market penetration of platforms like Temu and Shein and the urgent need for European retailers to innovate and adapt.

Key learnings from the 2025 GDI International Retail Summit

The IADS attended RH-ISAC’s Trade Association Partners meeting, part of a new meeting series for trade association partners to collaborate on cybersecurity issues. Beginning from August 2025, this meeting takes place every two months. Partners discuss cybersecurity policy issues and updates, recent RH-ISAC reports and resources for members, and threat trend briefings. 
This document presents a brief recap of the RH-ISAC Trade Association Partners meeting.

RH-ISAC Trade Association Partners Meeting recap

The IADS attended the annual event organised by Camara Buyers Italia, an association federating all luxury &
fashion multibrand stores from Italy (representing more than 50% of total luxury sales in the country). This event was held at the Minister of Made in Italy and SMEs in Rome, and the IADS was also invited as a guest speaker.

This report summarises the key insights shared during the Camera Buyer Italia conference.

Camara Buyer Italia 2025 conference report

The IADS attended the 2025 edition of the Leadership in Retail conference, organised by its long-standing partner RetailHub. This exclusive, invitation-only event was held in Stresa on 9–10 October 2025 and brought together around 80 Italian CEOs from across retail sectors. It provided a confidential and relaxed environment for leaders to share ideas, debate future strategies, and explore practical solutions to manage an increasingly complex global environment.

This report presents a curated selection of the most relevant insights and reflections gathered during the conference for IADS members. It remains confidential and is not publicly distributed or mentioned in our newsletter.

Retail Hub Leadership in Retail 2025