What: The place “where America shops” has closed its chapter 11 filing.

Why it is important: Sears is now a ghost compared to what it used to be, and remaining with 20+ stores does not bring enough competitive advantage in 2023’s landscape to expect much from them.

Sears has emerged from bankruptcy after 4 years and more than 10,000 court filings, with almost two dozen stores left, down from almost 3,500 at its heyday. The company entered bankruptcy in October 2018 with 687 stores.

Most of them were sold in attempts to resolve debts. Analysts do not expect much from the 20+ Sears stores still open.

Sears out of bankruptcy, with two dozen stores left 

What: The US mall giant is very confident about the future thanks to excellent Q3 postings.

Why it is important: The cost of e-commerce returns in the US makes an argument in favour of physical retail, which is in addition the best way to convey an experience. As a consequence, Simon Property Group is still very confident in the mall business, even though the group has diversified recently by also taking shares in mixed-use retail developers.

David Simon spoke to WWD in order to emphasise to what extent physical retail is still very much alive, especially in malls. E-commerce is of course necessary, but it is not possible to make a full living out of it.

He bases his declarations on the SPG Q3 2022 results, which showed a +14% profitability per sqm year-over-year, as well as a 25% increase of income to $679.9m and an occupancy rate of 94.5% compared to 92.8% last year.

Taking the inflationary context into account, he still believes that SPG is well positioned to weather the storm, as, for him, physical retail is where the action is and the demand for spaces and deals is still very strong.

David Simon sees momentum in physical retail 

What: The Louis Vuitton headquarters is set to become the host of the House’s largest store in the world along with its very first luxury hotel.

Why it is important: Louis Vuitton is planning to transform the fashion house’s historical headquarters into a massive complex that includes the first-ever Louis Vuitton hotel and the brand’s largest global storefront.

The transformation is beginning this month with the launch of a 20,000-square-foot-pop-up exhibition “LV Dream”, spotlighting top art collaborations, a café and a chocolate shop alongside a gift shop. The space is temporary, only open for a year and is the likely location of the future storefront. The hotel will occupy another sector of the 400,000-square-foot building within the next five years.

Louis Vuitton to open luxury hotel inside Paris headquarters

What: Frasers Group has emerged as the winner in the race to buy upscale tailor Gieves & Hawkes, as expected.

Why it is important: The acquisition fits into the Frasers strategy that includes buying ‘distressed’ brands and turning them around; one of London’s oldest bespoke tailors now joins a group that includes a mix of high-end and mass-market brands and retailers, and one that remains heavily committed to physical retail.

As well as operating the brand’s stores, Frasers has the ability to do that for Gieves & Hawkes by selling the label in its existing luxury retail outlets so it would be no surprise if products started appearing in the Flannels chain and the firm’s department stores. It will be interesting to see whether Frasers maintains the brand’s ultra-luxury profile or offers a more hybrid experience with some slightly lower price points such as those seen at Hackett.

Loss-making Gieves & Hawkes has five UK stores with its flagship on London’s luxury bespoke tailoring hub, Savile Row. Its other locations are in Bath, Birmingham, Chester and Winchester. It’s understood that the stores are part of the deal.

Frasers Group is new Gieves & Hawkes owner

What: Ahead of Christmas, Marks & Spencer seeks to strengthen its menswear offering by adding third-party brands including Ted Baker, Superdry, Lyle and Scott and Musto to M&S.com.

Why it is important: The strategy reflects the overhaul of Marks & Spencer’s clothing and home offering, with sales rising 14% in the first half of the year and third-party brands accounting for 4.1% of its clothing and home sales.

In the past year, third-party brands brought in 70 million pounds of revenue.

Marks & Spencer add third-party menswear brands to offering

What: During WWD’s Apparel and Retail CEO Summit, Bloomingdale’s CEO reflected on the changes and events made during the 150th anniversary period and how they demonstrate the future of the department store.

Why it is important: The 150th anniversary of Bloomingdale’s was accompanied by live activities in-store, hundreds of exclusives, vendor & restaurant participation, special events for VIP customers, metaverse activations, pop culture references and a visit to the past with the full department store’s timeline.

Following the principle of “It’s not a moment. It’s a movement,” the 150th-anniversary strategy has carried on into the Thanksgiving period which will continue Bloomingdale’s gastronomic events. Through looking at the history, Bloomingdale’s social support stood out. The retailer will support food charities in Manhattan this Thanksgiving as well.

Bloomingdale’s plans to focus on its merchandise assortment to have a more exclusive curation with less duplication in products. The CEO told WWD during the summit that he’s cautiously optimistic about the holiday results with confidence in affluent customers and an increase in weddings.

CEO talks Bloomingdale’s 150th-anniversary initiatives 

What: The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade returns to the web3 virtual world this holiday season with a new experience including virtual galleries from five NFT projects that will give fans the power to select the first-ever NFT Macy’s Parade balloon.

Why it is important: Launching on the OnCyber metaverse, Macy’s is celebrating the 96th Thanksgiving Day Parade virtually with NFT projects and the opportunity for fans to vote for their favourite creators, helping one design be transformed into a balloon in next year’s Macy’s Parade.

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade goes into the metaverse

What: Acquisition-hungry Frasers Group is reportedly nearing the close of a deal to take over the historic Gieves & Hawkes label.

Why it is important: An agreement to buy the Savile Row tailor is imminent following the collapse of Gieves & Hawkes’ Hong Kong-based owner Trinity Group.

The sale has yet to be confirmed by either Frasers Group or Gieves & Hawkes, but speculation appears confident following a shortlist of bidders made in September and Frasers’ recent purchases of stakes in upscale and mass-market businesses.

Frasers Group set to buy Gieves & Hawkes

What: Sephora’s president of Europe & the Middle East shares plans for continued growth in the crowded and competitive beauty retail market.

Why it is important: Sephora plans to focus on expanding online and physical retail with accelerated global development by opening locations in the UK, Latin America and Asia.

The retailer is relying on the ‘lipstick effect’ to play on consumers’ predilection for small luxuries during uncertain times. Reports have shown that since restrictions were lifted post-pandemic, Sephora stores have seen foot traffic rise as high as 45% in some locations. This uptick aligns with competitors such as Ulta and Space NK. With more brand selection overlap in physical retail, Sephora will continue to push the in-store experience as an opportunity to discover brands. Sephora wants to raise its profile as a brand incubator for indie beauty startups and is looking for around 10 small companies to launch with the Sephora platform.

Social shopping is another aspect Sephora plans to develop with more live streams and affiliate links or sponsored content.

Sephora’s plans for growth and expansion

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