What: Harvey Nichols launched an NFT retail concept space, HN NFT Vault, at its Pacific Place Hong Kong store.

Why is it important: The NFTs are multiplying, and getting their very own space at Harvey Nichols Hong Kong. Harvey Nichols describes HN NFT Vault as a space created for beginners in NFT, NFT collectors "and everyone in between."

Harvey Nichols said it is the first major luxury department store to offer a curated selection of NFTs from “top blue-chip projects, for exploration and sale,” including CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, CloneX x Takashi Murakami, Azuki and Doodles.

The store is promising “a seamless purchasing journey,” where both cryptocurrency and credit-card payments are accepted. The collection has been curated to cater both to first-time buyers and NFT experts, with prices ranging from GBP 500 to more than GBP 100,000.

Each NFT can also be purchased with “a cold wallet, where the NFT that has been purchased can be securely stored. This marks the first luxury fashion retailer in Hong Kong to offer convenient, secure and swift transactions for NFT purchases.

As part of the new concept, Harvey Nichols will also be launching a service allowing NFT owners to showcase and sell their NFTs through the HN NFT Vault.

Harvey Nichols Opens ‘HN NFT Vault’ in Hong Kong

What: Walmart’s collaboration on a new AR lens aims to help mobile users find recipes using ingredients they have at home or can order from Walmart.

Why it is important: In the hopes of growing e-commerce sales through social media apps, Walmart has introduced shoppable augmented reality content on Snapchat through the “Snap Scan & Shop” lens.

The Snapchat lens lets users scan food items in a refrigerator or pantry with a smartphone camera to generate a list of 10 recipes that include those items. Allrecipes, a cooking site, provides the recommendations and the ability to buy additional ingredients from Walmart.

Walmart sees this collaboration as an opportunity to tap into young shoppers and identify opportunities to meet customers on social media platforms with an emphasis in convenience.

Walmart preps mealtime inspiration with shoppable Snapchat lens

What: Hudson's Bay closed its massive Winnipeg flagship in November 2020 and has donated it to Canada's First Nations in an act of reclamation and reconciliation.

Why is it important: The Hudson’s Bay Co. has come up with a meaningful solution for a major piece of unused real estate. The Toronto-based HBC has donated its six-level, 655,000-square-foot former flagship store in downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba, to the Southern Chiefs’ Organization, which will transform the historic building into a mixed-use site for affordable housing; a health clinic embracing Western and traditional medical practices; a childcare center; a museum, and a living art gallery where the First Nations will tell its story.

There will also be a restaurant and a café with a take on First Nations cuisine, an atrium brightened by skylights, and a rooftop garden where children in the care center can plant their own garden, and residents and employees can get some fresh air.

Through the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the First Nations people suffered disproportionate economic, health and social hardships. Officials said the Winnipeg project will create more than a million working hours during the construction phase, putting people back to work after the pandemic.

HBC donates a flagship to Canada’s indigenous people

What: This will be the first time in Europe that it has housed the mega-sized fashion basics brand Uniqlo and the more upscale Theory label in the same location.

Why is it important: Uniqlo will be relocating from its nearby site on the opposite side of Regent Street to the new 1,900 sq m store that’s spread across three floors.

Regent Street has been a must-be-there location for many international brands in recent years and it seems to have bounced back from the pandemic much faster than Oxford Street has.

Uniqlo-Theory combo store to open in London

What: The newly appointed and first non-family member CEO reviews the current challenges and opportunities in Brazil.

Why it is important: Brazil is different from other retail markets, as the mall business is often looking like the department store business in other countries. It is interesting to see how they make the most of both as this might bring interesting insights to department stores companies.

Iguatemi is a major luxury player in Brazil, where the format of department store is often mingled with the mall one. We reported the appointment of Cristina Betts last October 2021 (see here).

Malls in Brazil are located in city centres (quite a difference with the US market), are designed to be safe havens and provide all entertainment facilities in addition to shopping proposals. In Sao Paul itself, Iguatemi operates 19 malls.

Just like department stores, Iguatemi scout for new brands and are very active into making sure that they remain on top of trends. In addition, they propose to brands to team up into JV or partnerships, to make do with the inverted seasonality when compared to the Northern hemisphere.

Iguatemi also operates Iguatemi 365, a phygital touchpoint (see here) allowing the company to operated in both channels and mitigate for the heavy investments involved in mall building (on average EUR 85m). Omnichannel operations are however totally focused on local businesses, be them communities or brands.

Cristina Betts from Iguatemi interview 

What: Nordstrom created two new senior-level roles, elevating Jamie Nordstrom to chief stores officer and Ken Worzel to chief customer officer.

Why is it important: The changes were triggered by the planned retirements of two Nordstrom veterans: Scott Meden, chief marketing officer, and Geevy S.K. Thomas, president of Nordstrom Rack.

As chief stores officer, Jamie Nordstrom will now oversee operations for Nordstrom Rack, the off-price division, while maintaining his responsibilities as president of Nordstrom stores, a role he has held since 2014.

As chief customer officer, Worzel will be responsible for customer strategy across all touchpoints and will oversee the company’s digital platforms, including e-commerce, digital operations, marketing, credit, and the Nordy Club loyalty program. Worzel will continue to report to Erik Nordstrom.

Nordstrom is seeking a new chief marketing officer to succeed Meden. That person will report to Worzel.

Nordstrom resets senior roles

What: Showfields is bringing its distinctive retail format to the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.

Why is it important: The 11,500-square-foot store will open in June at 187 Kent Avenue, at the base of a new apartment development called The Kent House.

The Brooklyn store, unlike the other Showfields locations, will be called “House of Showfields” and will be designed to emulate a six-room home, replete with a courtyard; a dining room for products for dining and socializing; a foyer; a lounge, and a kids’ area with high chairs, bibs, toys and educational products.

This location will have proprietary technology not only for sales data but also to learn which customers saw their products in the store and ended up interacting with the brand’s website and possibly making a purchase online. Sensors from Retail Next and Showfields’ point-of-sale software gather sales figures, traffic figures, customers’ gender, whether they touch and engage with products or just pass by, among other types of data.

Among the brands that will be sold at the Brooklyn store will be Greats, a premium sneaker brand; WTHN, a wellness company; organic skin care brand Ogee, and Lalo, which creates products for babies. House of Showfields will also offer a program of events beginning this summer.

Showfields coming to Brooklyn

What: Between 40,000 and 50,000 shops could be shuttered over the next five years.

Why is it important: The outlook is slightly better than during the pandemic when 80,000 stores were expected to close, but the high number of retail closures is primarily expected to hit the fashion and accessories industry, which will see nearly half of all closures, in addition to home furnishings and electronics store closures.

Business is expected to boom for general merchandise stores such as Target and Walmart. However, brick-and-mortar shops have served a critical role for retailers during the Covid pandemic, and retail sales growth has remained strong. This all promises well for the future of physical stores.

Traditional shopping malls remain at higher risk for closures than neighborhood strip centers due to shoppers’ increased preference to shop locally.

50,000 U.S. retail stores to close in the next five years

What: While brands go virtual, Facebook’s Meta which ignited the metaverse craze is breaking ground with brick-and-mortar.

Why is it important: Meta revealed plans to open its first retail location at its Burlingame, Calif., campus. The 1,550-square-foot store will feature demo areas where shoppers can check out the hardware. People can make video calls with store employees using Portal, play Beat Saber or other titles on the Quest 2 virtual reality headset, and try on Ray-Ban’s connected camera glasses, available in three styles.

The company joins the ranks of its Big Tech comrades with physical outposts, including Apple, Google, Samsung and Microsoft, though the latter drastically cut its retail efforts during the pandemic. For Meta the move makes sense for esoteric technology like virtual reality and smart glasses, for which there’s no substitute for firsthand experience.

WWD - Facebook’s Meta to Open Its First Retail Store

Fashion Network - Facebook-owner Meta to open first physical store in metaverse bet

What: Off-price retail is increasingly becoming an important source of growth for the fashion sector as inflation has hit a high post-pandemic.

Why is it important: According to an analysis of global data on the off-price market and a survey of 11,000 consumers in 10 European countries, it appeared that this segment grew faster than the fashion market as a whole, and it was hit less hard during the pandemic. Off-price retail will likely grow five times faster than the market overall between 2025 and 2030.

The study also revealed that off-price enthusiasts, who are interested in products in the luxury, affordable luxury and premium categories and do their shopping on specialized platforms like Dress-for-less, BestSecret, Brands4friends, or Scarce enjoy comparing prices and spend 2.3 times more on their purchases than other groups of fashion customers.

To fully capitalize on the opportunity across all levels, the study suggested that “brands must take a multipronged strategy to maximize revenues for both channels and to secure their brand equity — without cannibalizing full-price offerings.”

Off-price retail fuels fashion growth

What: Selfridges is teaming with Jacquemus on a takeover project titled “Le Bleu” ahead of the summer.

Why is it important: Selfridges’ The Corner Shop space will be turned into a surrealist retail concept inspired by Simon Porte Jacquemus’ own bathroom.

Jacquemus will be the first fashion brand to take over the Selfridges Mews, which is located behind the store, for the brand’s Jacquemus 24/24 vending machine installation. Different from previous editions in Milan and Paris, the London version will be stocked with the Chiquito and Bambino bags in colorways exclusive to Selfridges.

The old Selfridges Hotel on top of the food hall right next to the mews will host the immersive experience concept “Le Vestiaire,” a continuation of the concept “Le Bleu.” Customers will be transported through a surrealist interpretation of a swimming pool with locker rooms and several different rooms which will have different sensory elements.

Selfridges teams up with Jacquemus 

What: The Neiman Marcus Group has reinvented its company culture to drive its technological transformation and revolutionise luxury retail experiences.

Why is it important: NMG is focused on nurturing a growth mindset in all employees across the company to accelerate its digital and cultural transformation. NMG has strategically identified digital investments and enhancements as one of its greatest opportunities, dedicating over USD 600 million to technological, store and supply chain investments.

Following the recent USD 200 million minority common equity investment from Farfetch, NMG has begun adopting the platform’s technologies to power the Bergdorf Goodman website and mobile app. As a result, there has been a focus on upskilling its employees to work with in-house digital selling tools, including the “Connect” remote selling platform powered by Stylyze.

An important element of the profitable and sustainable growth strategy is instilling a growth mindset to revolutionise luxury experiences. Fashion is highly volatile, and fast-paced decisions are made every day that gives a chance to better serve the customers, so it’s a journey of constantly being better, learning from mistakes.

NMG is focused on multiplying the right decisions made daily so that each day they better serve customers. They recognise that everyone’s way of working and family needs are different. Therefore, most corporate associates can choose where, when, and how they work. The NMG WOW “our Way of Working” prides itself on recognising the uniqueness of everyone and empowering them to work differently.

Neiman Marcus Group is nurturing a growth mindset 

What: With outlets and online discounters set to grow five times faster than full-price channels, luxury brands are hoping to tap the momentum in off-price.

Why is it important: Outlets and dedicated discount retailers are gaining share as brands clamp down on both wholesale and end-of-season markdowns. Off-price sales are expected to grow five times faster than full-price from 2025 to 2030.

There’s no sure way to predict which items will sell and in what volumes each season, nor how to price them, and the need to regularly animate stores with new products means finding ways to clear unsold stock. As luxury brands have pushed their prices skyward, it’s become increasingly out of sync with their exclusive image to be seen selling their wares at a discount, whether in their own boutiques or online.

Fast-growing German e-tailer BestSecret contends its members-only marketplace will allow brands to discount online without harming their brand image. Whereas most off-price players have historically depended on the leftovers of wholesalers for the bulk of their inventory, BestSecret sources 95% of products directly from brands.

Brands need to learn to leverage both online and offline off-price opportunities, understanding the pros and cons of each one. Luxury brands mostly remain committed to traditional, physical channels for discounting including physical outlets or friends-and-family sale events. But as they sell more online, they could need more ways to discount online, too while hoping to reduce their exposure to brand-damaging public markdowns.

Brands have started testing the waters of sites like BestSecret and luxury flash sale site The Bradery. LVMH recently invested in the mystery-box off-price start-up Heat, which spreads markdowns across multiple items in bundled deals to obscure steep discounts.

The future of luxury discounting

What: Companies like The RealReal and ThredUp promised Wall Street that with scale comes profit but, operational costs and competition have kept them in the red.

Why is it important: Online resale is no longer a nascent industry, yet a decade into its maturity, profits remain elusive among even its biggest players. Lagging technology, growing competition and the constant need for new customers have kept costs sky-high.

In the beginning, the implied proposition was that the companies may be operating in the red today, but once it consolidated the market for secondhand luxury fashion, the economies of scale would kick in.

It turns out, that making money off other people’s clothing is hard. Processing and listing thousands of unique items requires complicated logistics that can’t easily be automated. Consolidation has proven elusive; while a few sites have been acquired or folded, more have launched, including fashion resale ventures from e-commerce giants like Farfetch.

Still, the market opportunity remains significant. In the US alone, the secondhand fashion market could grow 20% between 2020 and 2025 to reach USD 67 bn in size, according to estimates by BoF Insights. The RealReal and Poshmark combined only make up about 9% of the market.

 Is fashion resale a profitable business?

What: Amazon will impose an average 5% fuel and inflation surcharge on merchants to warehouse and ship their products in the United States, in response to rising costs.

Why is it important: It is Amazon's first such surcharge and follows months of higher wage and labor-related expenses that have chipped away at the online retailer's profit.

Amazon will charge an average USD .24 cents more per unit it stores and ships through its Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service. The surcharge, which is not permanent, is a mechanism broadly used across supply chain providers.

Amazon has only announced a surcharge in the United States. While sellers can avoid the higher cost by shipping goods to customers directly, many rely on FBA for eligibility in Amazon's fast-delivery club Prime.

Amazon will charge merchants a 5% surcharge 

What: From quick-selling product collaborations to long-form content formats, beauty is headed for the small screen.

Why is it important: A departure for brands that have relied heavily on bite-sized social media content to spur sales in recent years. Now, with entertainment collaborations, brands are creating long-form content of their own.

Pat McGrath Labs, Sephora, and Neutrogena are among the big beauty names that are embracing entertainment as the newest means of engagement.

The opportunities in the space are myriad. For Neutrogena, for example, putting muscle behind entertainment was a no-brainer, given the complexity of its messaging. Its first film, which debuted last year on YouTube, was called “In the Sun,” and its goal was to educate on the need for sun care in skin cancer prevention.

Other brands are taking the entertainment route. Chief creative officer and founder of Too Faced is in the editing phase of a behind-the-scenes documentary of day-to-day life running a cosmetics brand and is also toying with the idea of a reality TV show.

In an age of product and brand proliferation, creating that kind of emotional connection is a key component of success. Brand awareness is one of the most significant goals of entertainment partnerships as well as product collaborations are key to keeping a brand relevant.

Beauty bets on entertainment

What: Harrods introduces a late-night dining service in its dining hall.

Why is it important: The hour change will see restaurants such as Harrods Social, and the Tiffany Blue Box Cafe remain open after the rest of the store closes. The new opening hours apply to all six restaurants in the dining hall. Most will serve dinner until 11pm from Tuesday to Saturday.

There will also be a range of post-dinner drinks and cocktails on offer at Baccarat Bar.

Harrods launches late-night dining

What: J.C. Penney Co. Inc. is collaborating with Authentic Brands Group to offer a 12-piece capsule collection called “Marilyn Monroe by JCPenney.”

Why it is important: This collaboration is reflecting the retailer’s plan to rev up revenues and differentiate and sharpen the identity of key in-house labels, like St. John’s Bay, Xersion and a.n.a., and add greater exclusivity to the business for the past three years.

ABG has become a key part in offering  J.C Penney’s new merchandise concepts and labels, including Forever 21 and Juicy Couture, which are part of the group’s portfolio of brands associated with both living and deceased legends including Elvis Presley, Muhammad Ali, Shaquille O’Neal, David Beckham, Dr. J and Thalía, as well as Sports Illustrated, Reebok and other brands.

The collection was launched on the 28th of April in 300 J.C Penney’s locations and on their online platform jcp.com. The capsule collection offers capri pants, shirtings, full-skirted sundresses cinched at the waist; a color palette of black, white, coral and navy blue; classic stripes and floral patterns, and an inclusive range of sizes from XS to 3X. There’s also a special edition of Keds with Marilyn Monroe-inspired design details that will be sold at the retailer in late May.

J.C. Penney Launches styles inspired by Marilyn Monroe

What: Google introduced a Retail Search tool to provide customers with more precise search results when shopping online. The tool also prevents retailers from losing sales stemming from poor search results.

Why is it important: The tool has been tested by Lowe’s, Fnac Darty and Casas Pernambucanas, with each company reporting an uptick in sales conversions, bigger basket sizes, and better customer engagement.

Google created the Retail Search feature to address inadequate searches that lead to cart abandonment on e-commerce sites. The tech giant conducted a survey with the Harris Poll indicating that 94% of U.S. consumers quit a shopping session due to inaccurate search results. The company also said that retailers lose USD 300 billion in sales annually because of search abandonment in the U.S.

In addition to Retail Search, Google has released other tools to assist retailers with their e-commerce tech and make the shopping experience easier for customers. Last May, the company expanded its partnership with Shopify, enabling sellers to easily showcase their products to customers on its mobile browsing tools. It also released a Shopping Graph tool, which tracks products, merchants, brands, reviews and inventory information using artificial intelligence. In September, the company introduced Google Lens, which allows shoppers to search and shop using images and videos on a given webpage.

Google releases Retail Search tool to improve shopper discovery

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What: Space NK is looking to stand out by partnering on standalone pop-ups with promising brands.

Why is it important: In a crowded and ultra-competitive beauty market, pop-ups are considered an exceptional tool for building connections with new customers. Space NK is making the process of organising a pop-up in a new country much easier, offering both local knowledge and connections as well as a slice of financing.

While brands benefit from the financial support and local expertise, established retail players, such as Space NK, strengthen new business relationships and lock in exclusive deals with buzzy, hard-to-secure brands. Their first pop-up was for Drunk Elephant, helping the Shiseido-owned skincare brand when it entered the UK in 2018. Queues stretched around the block, also in Covent Garden, to visit the pop-up, dubbed The House of Drunk.

Space NK supports its partners with location scouting, staffing, store training and event hosting. They have over 70 retail locations across the UK and Ireland but believe it’s important to host pop-ups separate to its existing stores.

“We are evolving with our customers who are looking for things they’ve not been able to find before. They want more and more innovation when it comes to their products and services, so we are trying to exceed those expectations. The bar keeps getting higher. I think that will only accelerate.”

Space NK emerges pop-ups for emerging beauty brands

What: Macy’s best-in-class retail development program for underrepresented brands enhances programming with new classes, a digital pop-up shop, business grants for participants and more.

Why is it important: The Workshop provides up-and-coming businesses with the tools, knowledge and access to resources to drive their enterprises to the next level, achieve business objectives and sustain growth.

This year it returns with 25 new entrepreneurs and a five-week program, taking place virtually and in-person in New York City. To further strengthen the program, it will introduce exciting enhancements, including new classes, Strategic Sourcing and Pitching for Funding, to improve the Supply Chain and Financial Management curriculum.

There will be a digital Pop-up Shop that will launch on macys.com providing the participants with the unique opportunity to sell their products on macys.com, further fueling business growth. In addition, the participants and their brands will be featured on macys.com live shopping episodes.

The Workshop will also introduce a Vendor Pitch Competition for participants to present their product, business opportunity and funding proposal. The competition winner will receive a USD 100,000 business grant; a partnership with Macy’s sourcing team; buy now, pay later services from Klarna and marketing support from Spark Foundry, among other prizes. Additionally, upon completion of the five-week program, every participant will receive a USD 5,000 business grant.

The Workshop at Macy’s returns

What: Shanghai’s current lockdown will eventually end but a new outbreak in Beijing and no end to the country’s rigid pandemic strategy suggest retail disruptions are likely elsewhere.

Why is it important: People are feeling both weary and anxious from a lockdown that was initially slated to last just four days. More frustrating for some than the inability to leave home for weeks on end has been the breakdown of logistics and delivery services, leaving people struggling to access food, medicine, and basic necessities. In such an environment, the thought of shopping for fashion has either been impossible or undesirable for many residents.

With consumer spending down, retailers are feeling the pinch. In March, which coincided with a week-long lockdown in China’s tech capital Shenzhen, there was a decline in national retail sales of 3.5% compared to a year earlier. The decline is likely to be even more apparent in the soon-to-be-released April figures as tourists who usually flock to Shanghai from around the country to shop for fashion and other discretionary goods have been unable to do so.

The world’s largest luxury conglomerates and brands reported that the Shanghai lockdown’s closure of stores had dented sales in their China units, though they expect the impact to be short-lived.

Prior to the new round of lockdowns, Euromonitor data showed China’s personal luxury market reached a market value 90.76% higher in 2021 than pre-pandemic levels in 2019, boosted by restored spending from luxury consumers unable to shop abroad, with additional growth of 14.67% tipped for 2022.

If Shanghai’s lockdown lasts for two months, and other large cities are also affected, China’s 2022 GDP growth would slow to 3.8%, and in a worst-case scenario where the economy suffers a similar shock to that experienced in the first quarter of 2020, it would grow by only 1.3% this year.

China’s ‘Zero-Covid’ policy poses disruption to luxury

What: Saks, the luxury e-commerce platform, has appointed Cara Chacon as its first senior vice president for ESG.

Why is it important: Saks wants to develop a "cohesive, thoughtful approach" to strengthening environmental, social, and governance efforts across all functions.

Chacon has more than two decades of experience in corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability, including more than 10 years with Patagonia Inc., where she served as vice president, social and environmental responsibility.

Saks appoints first ESG executive

What: Bergdorf Goodman promotes Cheryl Han senior vice president of bergdorfgoodman.com and customer strategy and Melissa Xides senior vice president of stores and brand operations.

Why is it important: President of Bergdorf Goodman, credited both women with developing teams and creating strategies that bring momentum to the business.

In their new roles, both women will continue to drive the Company's strategic vision to set the new standard in luxury.

Bergdorf Goodman promotes from within (Press Release)

Bergdorf Goodman promotes from within (WWD Article)