What: After a 21% sales increase for Q1 and almost 17% for Q2, Ulta Beauty is shaking up its traditional approach to merchandising.

Why it is important: Ulta’s new store design presents brands in a category-by-category approach putting the retailer’s own point of view first and ignoring traditional price, brand, or channel segmentation.

The goal is to help customers navigate the stores and inspire them along their shopping journey by placing adjacent categories in a logical progression. The entrance takes a thematic approach over promotional or brand-centric merchandising. This is where customers discover brands which are launching, followed by skincare, then hair tools, accessories and hair care products. The store remains divided into two sides, but each side will house different categories. Instead of mass and prestige, one side will be dedicated to makeup and the other side to hair and skin. The Beauty Bar which focuses on impulse and travel- or trial-sized products will need into the check-out area which is not located at the back of the store. A Conscious Beauty section will house clean brands and a “Hero” Wall will showcase top-selling or most-loved products from different brands. The Ulta salon will be located behind the check-out.

The beauty retailer will open or remodel around 44 stores with the new format this year with 50 stores projected to open in 2023.

Ulta Beauty’s new store format

What: Sogo & Seibu, which merged in 2003, will be sold to a non-Japanese company next year.

Why it is  important: A foreign investor fully focused on maximising its exit might contribute to shaking and modernising the Japanese department stores landscape.

Sogo & Seibu will be sold to US investment fund Fortress Investment Group by Seven & I in February 2023 for $1,73bn. The plan is to revamp the Sogo & Seibu department store by teaming up with appliances retailer Yodobashi Camera Co (which will become a major tenant in the 10-large store fleet) and review costs.

Seven & I, which bought the Sogo & Seibu company in 2006, operates a chain of outlets selling cosmetics within Sogo & Seibu and this business will not be sold. Seven & I will focus on its Seven-Eleven convenience store business.

Seven & I to sell Sogo & Seibu to US fund Fortress Investment 

What: Amazon plans to lay off as many as 10,000 employees with a focus on its retail operations, human resources and device divisions.

Why it is important: Following Amazon’s announcement to halt company-wide hiring, the company now looks to lay off around 10,000 employees as it faces a potentially unprofitable year due to economic uncertainty.

According to a Times report, the scope of layoffs only represents 3% of its corporate workforce and less than 1% of Amazon’s global workforce. The focus on retail is unsurprising considering that its primary revenue growth drivers are advertising, subscriptions, logistics and cloud services.

Amazon plans 10k layoffs focused on retail

What: Kristin Maa, senior vice president of growth at Saks Fifth Avenue, shares insights with Business of Fashion on how luxury e-commerce is being transformed.

Why it is important: Saks Fifth Avenue Vice President of Growth highlights the use of data science to understand first purchase behaviours and stylistic preferences for a more personalised product curation and shopping experience.

Saks has built a marketing model for assessing several different clues that can indicate the high lifetime value potential of customers, eliminating the need to wait for them to cross a high spending threshold before Saks can recognise them.

Saks’ VP of growth also indicated the importance of two-way communication between brands and consumers as a new expectation of luxury retail today. As well, diversifying content across digital platforms can provide a more dynamic presence for customers to interact with, while ensuring authentic and meaningful communication gets delivered to the right audience.

Saks VP of growth shares insights on luxury e-commerce transformation

What: Neiman Marcus Group is working to change its working culture to “revolutionise” the luxury experience through inclusion, diversity and belonging.

Why it is important: To revolutionise the luxury industry, Neiman Marcus Group believes in the importance of diverse thinking and backgrounds, which has proven to impact talent satisfaction with Forbes ranking NMG as one of the best places for women to work.

As well, the Human Rights Campaign has characterised the group as the “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality.” By supporting different lifestyles and providing a united purpose, the group’s workforce is productive and happy, leading to a healthier balance sheet and more technological investments in customer experience. 90% of customers are retained year-over-year with 40% of revenues coming from only 2% of NMG customers.

The NMG CEO highlights the emotional aspect of luxury and this contradiction with the modern transactional era as being part of what has fueled the shift within the group’s working culture. Despite many retailers struggling to find and keep employees, NMG’s retention rates have increased by 20% compared to pre-pandemic figures.

Neiman Marcus Group CEO talks transformation

What: Harrods is expecting to benefit from the UK Chancellor’s business rate adjustments in the rental market.

Why it is important: Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said that the revaluation would go ahead, altering bills in line with changes in the rental market, leading the Harrods’ Knightsbridge store to see its rateable value drop by 45% from 32.73 million pounds to 18 million pounds next April.

The reevaluation will see properties given new rateable values based on how much they are worth. Good news for luxury department stores which will see sharp reductions in the bills they face. As well, over 400,000 small shops will see their rate values fall by 8.4% with rateable values across the entire retail sector falling by 10% overall due to the revaluation.

Harrods to benefit from business rates shake-up

What: Consumers are turning to private-label brands to ease the impact of high prices this holiday season.

Why it is important: Target last week noted that shoppers are trading down to owned brands, which continue to outperform their national counterparts by growing twice as fast as total business in Q3.

In addition to often being cheaper, private labels can also fill in product white space in underserved markets, such as women’s activewear. Kohl’s reported that more middle-income consumers are trading down to its private label brands leading the CFO to say the retailer will feature its owned brands more prominently in its marketing.

Walmart’s penetration in the private brand sector has been flat since 2019 but picked up in March of this year with private brand penetration in the food category having increased about 130 basis points in Q3.

Retailers report private labels were boosted by inflation

What: Macy’s CEO spoke about its hope for the holiday season to bring a spike in sales while the retailer continues deepening markdowns on summer merchandise, despite claiming inventories are in an adequate position.

Why it is important: While Macy’s Q3 showed declines, the results beat Wall Street’s expectations leading stock prices to jump 15% from 2.96 dollars per share to 22.67 dollars.

Macy’s reported that total sales declined 3.9% to USD 5.23 billion from USD 5.44 billion one year ago but inched up 1.1% compared to 2019 Q3 reports. Macy’s CEOs hoping to see a seesaw pattern for holiday sales with an increase between Thanksgiving and Christmas due to the colder weather, the Toys “R” Us rollout and the launch of the marketplace on macys.com. These factors will expand the brand and product offerings, plus new and improved pricing and markdown management systems will allow for efficiency when meeting client demands.

Macy’s prepares for Christmas following Q3 declines

What: The technology from Emperia enables users to move through unique brand settings on bloomingdales.com in a virtual shopping tour.

Why it is important: Bloomingdale’s has helped create virtual shopping experiences for Chanel, Ralph Lauren and Nespresso, along with a virtual setting encompassing a luxury beauty/spa room, a party room and a gifting presentation as part of its metaverse shopping tour.

The project has been created thanks to technology from Emperia, a London- and New York-based virtual reality technology developer for the retail and fashion sectors.

Bloomingdale’s opens virtual stores

What: The American Dream mall in New Jersey has secured a deal with credit lenders that will provide a four-year extended debt maturity.

Why it is important: American Dream, the massive shopping and entertainment centre in New Jersey, has been struggling financially since the pandemic having missed an 8.8-million-dollar debt payment and lost 60 million dollars in 2021 due to expenses beyond its rent revenue.

The announcement of the financing deal comes with hopes that success will follow and allow for a recovery following its ill-timed opening in 2020 and the mass layoffs and missed mortgage payments which followed.

American Dream mall extends debt maturity

What: Until 3 December, the Selfridge’s Corner Shop will host “Body Spaces”, a sculptural display celebrating the brand’s signature scents with select fashion pieces from its Mugler fall 2022 and spring 2023 collections.

Why it is important: This is the first time that Mugler has set up an immersive pop-up.

A limited number of the brand’s fragrances will be sold in chrome hues to match the silver sculptures of bodily curves that decorate the dedicated space. Existing and new customers can also refill their bottles at the fragrance fountain at the Corner Shop. Mugler stationery and playing cards will be available as festive gift options.

Selfridge’s Corner Shop welcomes first Mugler pop-up

What: LVMH is launching Heristoria, an e-commerce site dedicated to the archive pieces from different houses of the group.

Why it is important: The LVMH ‘vintage’ e-commerce platform, Heristoria, sells archive products ranging from the early 1900s to 2010, which include a visit to an exclusive visit within an emblematic place of the house that created the product that is purchased.

A total of 29 exceptional pieces from 21 brands are currently available on the site, in the categories of perfumery, wines and spirits, fashion and leather goods, watches and jewellery.

LVMH launches e-commerce for archive pieces

What: European retailers are looking to balance attracting customers with festive light displays while acknowledging the impact of the energy crisis.

Why it is important: Retailers are navigating the energy crisis by using more energy-efficient lights, switching them off earlier and heating shops less to show solidarity with consumers facing soaring utility bills.

In France, companies are moving to become entirely reliant on LED lighting and avoid outages or shortages this year by reducing water, energy and gas consumption due to supply shortages. Other European countries have implemented similar initiatives with retailers reusing lighting displays and shortening the duration of displays.

Energy crisis dims holiday light displays

What: John Lewis is starting Black Friday early and plans to hire 2,000 additional temporary employees as well as 4,000 staff across its distribution network to support the holiday season.

Why it is important: Following John Lewis’ extended Christmas return policy early this year, the retailer has also launched Black Friday sales earlier than in previous years with some promotional offers running up to 1 December 2022.

Customers have the option for monthly interest-free payments for selected items over 500 pounds and free delivery on orders over 50 pounds. All promotional offers and holiday-related services are intended to combat the cost-of-living crisis.

John Lewis starts Black Friday sales early

What: Selfridges managing director Anne Pitcher is joining the board of the Canadian department store chain, Holt Renfrew, as its deputy chair.

Why it is important: Anne Pitcher will remain in the company’s leadership team until the end of the year before joining as deputy chair for Holt Renfrew which remains under Weston ownership, the previous owners of Selfridges Group.

Stefano Della Valle, CEO of Central and Signa’s luxury department store group in Europe, will lead Selfridges in his expanded role.

Selfridges managing director to join Holt Renfrew board

What: Gap has announced its distribution partnership with Amazon Fashion which will offer a range of the brand’s stock on the marketplace’s US and Canadian sites.

Why it is important: The Gap group moves to engage with new customers and expand its channels to combat continued falling revenues and increased operational costs.

Gap will launch a selection of basic essentials across adult, teen, children’s and baby categories as part of its agreement to open a new distribution channel through Amazon’s services.

Gap launches through Amazon US and Canada

What: Mirakl, which engineers online marketplaces for retailers and brands around the world, has launched Mirakl Ads, a service meant to help businesses monetize e-commerce traffic.

Why it is important: Increasingly, retailers and brands are integrating marketplace formats onto their e-commerce websites to broaden their assortments with additional merchandise categories, brands and items, with the aim to generate more online traffic.

The service provides metrics on what ads are generating the best sales and helps businesses create more effective ad campaigns and direct ads to customers most likely to respond. A marketplace operator is able to serve up ads through the Mirakl platform.

The company also said Mirakl Ads is compatible with marketplace, drop ship and first-party e-commerce, and that it has established a team of retail media experts to help set up and scale campaigns.

Mirakl Ads will surface the most relevant sponsored products to the right customers, as well as streamline campaign management with automated campaign capabilities that leverage sales data and sellers’ store catalogues to determine which sponsored ads will generate the best engagement, while also offering real-time performance metrics.

The unified solution also eliminates the need for multiple logins, additional integrations and disparate budgets.

Mirakl launches service to monetize e-commerce traffic 

What: Nordstrom is partnering with Morehouse College, a Historically Black College and University (HBCUs) in Atlanta, to launch product management courses along with a mentorship programme for students.

Why it is important: The courses, which will be available within the Atlanta University Center Consortium and the broader regional network of higher education schools, will focus on product management with an emphasis on technology to drive diversity in the sector.

Product management, according to the senior director of engineering at Nordstrom Inc., is one of the fastest growing roles in technology which is proven to be critical in enhancing consumer experiences.

The partnership is the latest initiative around growing diversity and developing careers that Nordstrom has launched with HBCUs.

Nordstrom launches college mentorship programme & product management courses

What: Frasers Group has increased its stake in N Brown, an online fashion retailer, by 5.04%.

Why it is important: One month after its initial buy-in to N Brown, Frasers has increased its stake in the online fashion retailer by 5.04%, adding to the list of companies that the group has been investing in.

N Brown’s revenues dropped 4.6% (347.4 million pounds in Q3), while its pre-tax profit dropped 82.4% to 4.3 million pounds. It joins a growing number of struggling retailers Frasers Group has bought stake in. Frasers has recently acquired Missguided, Studio Retail and ISawItFirst, while it continues to increase its stake in Hugo Boss.

Frasers Group ups stake in N Brown

What: After introducing its credit card in partnership with NewDay, John Lewis has issued an apology due to issues surrounding the difficulties to navigate the application process.

Why it is important: Originally a partnership with HSBC, the replaced partner for John Lewis’ credit card has proven to be inadequate as customers complain about needing to reapply, being declined and having their credit limits reduced.

In response, numerous changes to the process to accommodate the different application requirements have resulted in manual underwriting and ultimately a bespoke process for customers to apply for the John Lewis credit card. A dedicated helpline has also been established.

John Lewis apologises for problems surrounding its credit card

What: Due to Farfetch ending its operations in Russia and being hit by the COVID-19 restrictions of China, the company posted a net loss of USD 274.9 million in the third quarter.

Why it is important: Compared to earnings of USD 769.1 million a year ago, Farfetch’s Q3 results left investors feeling antsy and sent shares of the company down 9.7% to USD8.25 in after-market trading on Thursday.

Farfetch’s third-quarter revenues rose 1.9% to USD 593.4 million, an increase of 14.1% in constant currencies. The gross merchandise volume slipped 4.9% to USD 967.4 million, which would have been an increase of 4.2% in constant currencies. Farfetch’s active customer count for the quarter grew by 8.6% to 3.9 million from a year earlier. And gross profit margins increased 44.9%, and adjusted losses before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization tallied 4.1 million.

Farfetch shares drop after posting Q3 report

What: Lotte Shopping has signed a contract with British-based retail tech company Ocado to become a top online grocery mall in Korea.

Why it is important: To capture the 135 trillion won market for online grocery in Korea, Lotte plans to invest 1 trillion won in smart logistics and adopt the Ocado Smart Platform (OSP) to all its e-commerce sector operations.

The OSP uses automated customer fulfilment centres (CFCs), self-developed robots, artificial intelligence and big data to carry out rapid and accurate delivery. Lotte Shopping plans to build six CFCs over the next eight years and make changes to its mobile shopping platform by collaborating with Lotte Department store.

Lotte partners with Ocado to become best online grocer in Korea

What: JD.com Inc. net revenues hit 134.2 billion dollars in the Q3, an increase of 11.4% compared to 2021’s Q3 results.

Why it is important: Net service revenues increased by 42.2% in the third quarter, and annual active customer accounts increased by 6.5% to 588.3 million.

The operating margin of JD Retail before unallocated items for the third quarter of 2022 was 5.2% compared to 4%.

JD.com revenues increase 11.4%

What: This time, a federal court in Missouri is suing the Swedish fast-fashion company for misleading ‘green’ claims, which it believes “illegally and deceptively” seek to capitalise on consumers’ desires to be sustainable.

Why it is important: Due to increased consumer awareness regarding climate issues, H&M’s false and misleading claims are being viewed as a deception to convince consumers to buy its Conscious Choice products.

The federal Missouri court filing iterates the misrepresentation of products and highlights the premium price H&M charges for its Conscious Choice products, clearly demonstrating that capitalises on the deception of consumers.

H&M sued again for greenwashing claims