What: Lotte Group's retail unit, Lotte Shopping, has been selected as a de-facto strategic investor to acquire Hanssem, the country's largest furniture company, along with local private equity fund (PEF) IMM PE.

Why it is important: The retailer expects to create synergy with its department stores and Hanssem at a time when expenses for home improvement, home goods and furniture rose in the midst of the pandemic.

"Taking over Hanssem will help Lotte allocate space for furniture stores in our retail channels as well as create synergy at the group level in collaboration with Hi-Mart and Lotte Engineering and Construction," a Lotte Shopping official said.

Lotte to acquire Hanssem with IMM PE

What: With consumer experiences increasingly playing an important part in the retail landscape, Situ Live arrives at the Westfield London shopping centre this autumn.

Why it is important: Billed as “revolutionary” in retail and an “exciting and immersive consumer experience", it combines product discovery, innovation, theatre and demonstrations, “to reimagine the traditional commercial retail model”.

Spanning 7,500 sq ft, the debut venue “will be packed with products designed to inspire your everyday, across a series of specially curated, themed theatres, brought to life by live storytelling”. Visitors can explore the latest devices from a selection of cutting-edge brands in action and try them before they buy.

Westfield London to debut "revolutionary" Situ Live retail concept

What: the Parisian department store launches its “Concept Végétal” which offers a choice of plants and services to help customers creating green tailor-made spaces.

Why it is important:  After Selfridges and La Rinascente, Le Bon Marché is another department store surfing on the customers’ new-found post-Covid passion for nature.

The space is located on the ground floor event space. Customers can buy plants, pottery, learn how to develop outdoor spaces or indoor corners of greenery with the help of various architects and landscapers. Masterclasses are also on the menu.

Seen at The Cheap - Nature invites itself to the Cheap

What: Pre-loved Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton accessories will be available at Neighborhood Goods stores.

Why it is important: Neighborhood Goods said success for the long-term partnership will be measured in terms of new customers, sales and in identifying new brands and products that resonate with its core customer markets.

The retailer, carving a hyper-localized, rotating assortment of contemporary brands, counts three stores in Austin and Plano, Texas, as well as in New York City. Fashionphile marks the latest chapter of growth, following Neighborhood Goods’ launch of The Marketplace, which sports a hand-picked selection of consumer packaged goods like trendy plant-based meats and sparkling water.

According to Sarah Davis, Fashionphile founder and president, the physical retail space has its perks for Fashionphile sellers. “As more and more brands compete for the same customers online, organic reach becomes more difficult and hashtags less effective. All of that competition drives the cost of digital acquisition up, so we are motivated to get creative,” she said.

Noting Fashionphile customers love the “ease of coming in to sell, process returns or pick up online orders,” Davis said the company strategically operates eight selling studios in “nontraditional” retail settings. Neiman Marcus is one such physical touchpoint that materializes just some of the 45,000 unique items on Fashionphile’s website.

Pre-loved Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton En Route to Neighborhood Goods 

What: The collection will be sold by trunk show in Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus.

Why it is important: Bridal market is booming as large swaths of the world emerge from pandemic lockdowns, and travel restrictions ease, allowing weddings postponed over the past year to go ahead.

Dubbed “Love,” the capsule is to be sold via trunk shows in the U.S. starting 9 September at Bloomingdale’s in New York, followed by Capitol in Charlotte (N.C.) and Brentwood (California), and Neiman Marcus in Dallas.

The collection is also scheduled to head to Europe, the Middle East and Asia in the coming months, although it’s unknown if Vali will partner with other department stores. Dresses start at USD 9,000 and run up to USD 29,000, with separates starting at USD 3,000.

Valli opted for the small scale of trunk shows to sell the Love collection, rather than wholesale distribution. Each trunk show runs for three or four days. He said he plans to do one bridal collection a year, allowing sufficient time to perfect the silhouettes, fabrics and embellishments.

Giambattista Valli partners with US department stores

What: After a test in Poland, Ikea also runs a test in Shanghai.

Why it is important: The major innovation is the abandonment of the signposted and imposed customer path.

After four months of renovation, Ikea reopened its Shanghai Xuhui store on 12 August. It has been transformed into a Home Experience of Tomorrow. The store includes 30,200 sq.m of sales area spread on two levels, 9,000 products, 63 exhibition spaces, a 700-seat restaurant and a number of play areas for children. Open areas dedicated to the bedroom, the living room, the kitchen and the office, a repair zone dedicated to “makers”, in which customers and employees share their knowledge in a circular economy perspective, plus an event space, and areas dedicated to large families will be available to customers.

If the rooted customer path has been a pillar of Ikea’s concept for years, current consumers expectations in the Covid context have deeply changed. In Europe, Ikea stores in London and Vienna will also adopt the free flow by the end of the year 2021. As a reminder, the end of the arrowed in-store path has already been successfully tested in Poland (in Szczecin) but Ikea has not indicated its impact on the average basket.

Ikea new store concept

What: The CEO of Simon Property Group held court on a conference call with analysts after turning in stronger second-quarter results.

Why is it important: In the company’s U.S. malls and premium outlets, occupancy stood at 91.8% at the end of the quarter, down from 94.4% two years earlier.

“We continue to see demand for space across our portfolio from healthy local, regional and national tenants, entrepreneurs, restaurateurs — and mixed-use demand [is] ever so increasing day by day,” Simon said. “Physical retail is here to stay. And people really like to shop in the physical world.”

“We still have a hole to dig out of because of the bankruptcies that we had to confront with the pandemic,” he said. “But I’m very pleased with the activity, the mojo that we have in leasing, the work that our personnel are doing there, the creativity. It’s pretty encouraging.”

So far this year, the company has signed leases for 3 million more square feet of space — more than 800 more deals compared with the first six months of 2019. And retail sales for June were on par with June 2019 and up 5% from May.

For the three months ended June 30, the group’s net income increased to USD 617.3 million from USD 254.2 million a year earlier. Funds from operations — the standard yardstick for real estate firms — rose to USD 1.2 billion from USD 746.5 million a year earlier.

Mall Giant David Simon ‘Physical Retail Is Here to Stay’ 

What: The German department store is changing its name to just Galeria.

Why it is important: The name change is part of a new strategy and investments.

The German retailer wants to recover from the coronavirus pandemic with a new strategic repositioning, starting in the autumn with the "Galeria 2.0" concept. This includes a new name and a new logo. Currently, the stores are sometimes called Kaufhof and sometimes Karstadt, as the group came about when the two department store chains merged.

The new logo will be used officially for the first time on 27 October, then gradually displayed in all locations.

Over the next three to four years, the retailer plans to invest EUR 600 million: two-thirds of this will be spent on modernizing the 131 department stores; the remainder will be spent on expanding the e-commerce offer, digitization and logistics.

The retail also wants to divide its stores into three categories in future: 'World Store', 'Regional Magnet' and 'Local Forum'.

Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof will become 'Galeria' 

What:  British retailer Marks & Spencer is going to add more guest clothing and footwear brands to its website.

Why it is important:  The initial wave of brands increased traffic and attracted new customers.

M&S decided to shift its strategy last year by selling other brands to broaden its appeal.  The early findings on brands driving frequency have been encouraging, with traffic on M&S.com growing and new customers who buy into a guest brand returning to make their second purchase over 10 days sooner than those who don't buy into brands.

Whilst ‘Brands at M&S’ is predominantly an online offer, M&S plans to extend an in-store trial to five stores.

Marks & Spencer Expands Online Platform With More Guest Brands 

What:  Through a licensing agreement with Lasonic Limited, the brand plans to reopen a Tmall flagship and physical stores across China.

Why it is important:  After 2 failed attempts, the company is pressing reboot in China for the third time.

The brand said it has reentered major e-commerce platforms like Vip.com and Pinduoduo, and is planning to open a flagship on Alibaba’s Tmall, and physical stores across major cities in China.

The brand was bought out of bankruptcy by Simon Property Group, Authentic Brands Group and Brookfield Property Partners for USD 81 million in February 2020. Its international business is being handled by licensing specialist ABG.

Lasonic Limited is a Hong Kong-based electrical, electronics and lighting products manufacturer. It also does business in intellectual property licensing, event planning and merchandising. In addition to Forever 21, Lasonic manages the licensing business of IPs like emoji, Hello Kitty, Little Twin Stars, Spongebob and Pepsi.

Forever 21 to Reboot in China, Again

What: A new initiative in terms of circular economy.

Why it is important: An option to buy back second hand products and grant customers store credits could be an interesting initiative to look at by department stores.

Ikea has launched a new service, allowing customers to re-sell their used pieces of furniture to the company. This test is part of a series of initiatives towards circularity as Ikea aims to be carbon positive by the end of the decade.

This service is proposed in several countries (US, UK, Singapore) and Ikea has launched a pilot store in the US where second-hand units will be resold.

The process is simple: customers have to fill in a form describing the state of the product (only some categories are for the moment covered), then the product is checked when brought in the store. If it is accepted, the customer receives a store credit and Ikea will refurbish the returned piece (to make sure it is safe to be sold, excluding any cosmetic repairs) and sell it ‘as is’.

The US store will serve as a testing ground for seemingly simple questions, such as to know if second hand products should be sold assembled or in flat packs like new products.

Ikea is launching a furniture buyback program

What: The Parisian landmark is marking this delayed milestone with two months of events, a Prada pop-up and cake.

Why it is important: After the pandemic delayed its reopening in 2020, La Samaritaine is celebrating the milestone with a birthday event running from 2 September to 31 October.

Festivities will begin with the unveiling of the windows. On the Rivoli side, displays will feature multicolored neon installations, while four windows on the Pont Neuf will be turned over to Prada. They will showcase a tridimensional trompe-l’oeil inspired by the label’s fall 2021 runway décor. The Prada Glow pop-up will offer an interactive video floor area, connected to a lantern shaped like the Italian brand’s logo that will rise in the middle of the atrium and change colors regularly.

On 4 and 5 September, performers dressed in costumes inspired by vintage La Samaritaine advertising will parade through the store for its anniversary celebration.

A 2-meter-tall cake will be exhibited on the ground floor of the building on Rue de Rivoli. Imagined by French artist Elsa Muse, its design was inspired by an early animation device called a zoetrope, which had its heyday around La Samaritaine’s 1870 birth date. Miniature versions will also be available for purchase, made by cake makers Bogato.

In the digital world, art historian Margaux Brugvin will take over the department store’s YouTube channel for episodes focusing on surprising moments in the store’s history.

A wheel of fortune, located near the concierge service and activated by bar codes found on receipts, will give customers the opportunity to win gifts, ranging from bicycles in the store’s yellow and gray livery — available on its e-commerce for 790 euros — to copies of the Assouline book tracing its history.

La Samaritaine to Celebrate Turning 150+1 

What: The campaign touches every marketing channel in order to broadcast far and wide its offerings — a spread of 40 new luxury and emerging brands — and services — its digital style advisors.

Why it is important: The department store intends to convince shoppers it is still a preeminent luxury retailer.

Nearly one year after Neiman Marcus emerged from bankruptcy, the American luxury department store is “reintroducing” itself to customers — hoping to reach them in their homes, online and perhaps most importantly, in stores.

The retailer’s homepage will be redesigned to encourage shoppers to discover its new brands; while email marketing will help double down on the messaging while encouraging purchases. Neiman Marcus will also run ads on streaming services like NBCU and YouTube.

In addition to its new look, feel and commercial tone — and perhaps as a means to retrain consumers’ eyes in its direction — Neiman Marcus will resurrect its editorial publication, The Book, a 95-year-old magazine that will include 200 pages of images and interviews with designers like Gabriella Hearst and Virgil Abloh.

Neiman Marcus ‘Reintroduces’ Itself to Customers In New Campaign 

Neiman Marcus press release

What: Emaar Malls, which operates properties including The Dubai Mall, saw revenue rise 74% in the second quarter.

Why it is important: Sales across Emaar Malls’ tenants were up 15% in the second quarter, compared to the same period in 2019, prior to the pandemic. The increase in sales during the first half of this year was driven by an increase in average spending per visitor, which rose 59% from the same period in 2019, the company said.

Emaar Malls, a unit of Dubai’s largest listed developer, Emaar Properties, swung to a profit in the second quarter after posting a loss in the same period a year ago as revenue surged 74% year-on-year.

Dubai’s Emaar Malls Swings to Profit in Q2

What: The online retailer wants a larger retail presence to sell clothing and household items, and facilitate exchanges.

Why it is important: It’s not clear that Amazon has the skills to master this kind of retail store. The e-tailer is excellent at selling commodities and its logistics efficiency gives it an advantage. But selling fashion and true discretionary products that involve creativity is different.

Amazon plans to open several large physical retail locations in the U.S. that will operate akin to department stores, a step to help the company extend its reach in sales of clothing, household items, electronics and other areas. The first department stores are expected to be located in Ohio and California. The new retail spaces will be around 30,000 square feet, smaller than most department stores, which typically occupy about 100,000 square feet.

It is unclear what brands Amazon will offer in the stores, although the company’s private-label goods are expected to feature prominently. The company has invested more in building out its fashion business and giving shoppers increased alternatives regarding the purchase of apparel. Amazon has had a tougher time breaking into high-end fashion.

Besides, Amazon is not known for its merchandising skills. It has not demonstrated that it has the ability to help a consumer pick the right dress for an event, as an example. It does not have content that gives consumers inspiration to enable discovery the way you might find on Net-A-Porter.com. The experience of walking into a store and finding something at a high price that you don’t need but fall in love with is not part of the Amazon experience. On another hand, the new stores might be able to provide Amazon’s loyal Prime customers with an elevated in-store experience it cannot offer online.

Amazon is pushing into an area that has struggled for decades. Department stores were once big, exciting places to shop, where consumers could find everything from toaster ovens to evening gowns under one roof. But they have lost out to discounters, fast-fashion retailers and online players. A generation ago, department stores comprised 10% of retail sales, excluding automobiles, gas and restaurants, according to estimates by the consulting firm Customer Growth Partners. So far this year, they account for less than 1%. Analysts and industry executives aren’t counting department stores out just yet. Chains including Macy’s Inc. and Kohl’s Corp. are expected to report strong sales.

Amazon’s physical-store sales declined roughly 5% last year as customers shopped more online because of the pandemic. Year-over-year sales for the segment grew 11% during the second quarter this year.

Amazon Plans to Open Large Retail Locations Akin to Department Stores 

Amazon to test department stores in offline expansion 

Amazon’s New Brick-And-Mortar Stores Are Likely To Be More Challenging Than Expected

What: The John Lewis Partnership has teamed up with Nutmeg, the UK’s largest digital wealth manager, to offer investment products to customers.

Why it is important: The retailer claimed that the three new investment products aim to help people who otherwise would not consider investing. John Lewis wants to become part of their customers’ lives in new ways outside of the department store.

Three new products will be added to John Lewis’ financial services portfolio, which also includes home insurance and retail credit offers. The new products include a junior ISA, stocks and shares ISA, and a general investment account. These products all invest in funds with high environmental, social and governance standards to enable customers’ money to be focused on businesses that score highly in the areas of carbon emissions, climate change, renewable energy, social impact and ethical practices.

John Lewis opens the door to easy-to-use investing as customers look to the future

John Lewis teams up with Nutmeg to launch investment products

What:  Nike adds more digitally-enabled store concepts to its portfolio with Nike Rise in Seoul South Korea.

Why it is important:  Nike's approach has become characterized by an ecosystem of digitally connected stores, as the retailer shifts to a model that prioritizes its own stores and digital channels over wholesale.

Nike's neighborhood-focused, hyper-local Nike Live concept is already an important component of the company's retail fleet, with plans for up to 200 small-format stores in the future. The retailer's flagship House of Innovation concept, which includes lots of digital and customization features, has expanded to three locations: New York, Shanghai, and Paris (with Paris opening just last summer). Nike hopes to harness the technology and data to offer a personalized experience tailored to each city and each customer.

The retailer is launching a fuller expression of the Nike Rise concept in Seoul, South Korea, on 19th of August.

Nike doubles down on localization with Nike Rise concept 

Nike launching sustainable concept store in Seoul

What: The retailer, seeing more shoppers return to stores, turned profitable in its second quarter amid strong sales gains, motivating the company to raise its outlook for the year.

Why it is important: The company raised its guidance for this year. Sales are now seen reaching between USD 23.55 billion to USD 23.95 billion, compared to previous guidance of USD 21.73 billion to USD 22.23 billion.

Macy’s reported net income of USD 345 million for the quarter ended 31 July, compared to a loss of USD 431 million in the year-ago. Operating income was USD 597 million versus an operating loss of USD 631 million in the 2020 quarter. Sales rose to USD 5.65 billion last quarter, versus USD 3.56 billion in the year-ago period. Comparable sales were up 62.2%.

To support the momentum for the back half of 2021 and into 2022, Macy’s has begun selling the Toys “R” Us assortment online and will roll out Toys “R” Us to more than 400 Macy stores next year. The partnership was made with WHP Global, a New York based firm that acquires consumer brands and has a portfolio than includes Anne Klein, Joseph About, and Lotto, as well as a controlling interest in Toys “R” Us. The partnership, said Nata Dvir, Macy’s chief merchandising officer, “allows Macy’s to significantly expand our footprint in that category, while creating more occasions for customers to shop with us across their lifestyles.”

Pandemic impacted categories, including denim, luggage, dresses and other occasion-based apparel, came back strong. Categories that were solid throughout the pandemic, such as fragrance, fine jewelry and textiles, continued to perform well.

Digital sales declined 6% versus second quarter 2020 and grew 45% versus the second quarter of 2019. Digital penetration was 32% of net sales, a 22-percentage point decline from the second quarter of 2020, but a 10-percentage point improvement over second quarter 2019. The decline in digital sales compared to the prior year driven by shift of omnichannel customers to stores, which are now fully open.

The company brought about 5 million new customers into the Macy’s brand, a 30% increase compared to second quarter 2019.

Macy’s Inc. Raises Outlook After Strong Quarter

Macy's Reports Second Quarter 2021 Results

What: People can get married at Selfridges, and now they can source their pre-loved wedding outfits from the store, too, with the opening of a circular bridal boutique at the Corner Shop.

Why is it important: The new service follows the launch of Selfridges’ wedding services which allow consumers to marry at the Oxford Street store.

There is no question that the pandemic have transformed people’s approach to weddings. Many are feeling a newfound freedom to stage a smaller and more unconventional affair. The past 18 months have also focused people’s attention on the environment and rented clothing, too, and that’s why Selfridges is giving over its Corner Shop to pre-loved wedding outfits and accessories for brides, grooms and guests.

The space, 'Resellfridges: The Wedding' dovetails with the store’s growing enthusiasm for rental and resale services, part of its Project Earth sustainability commitments. The selection will include designer dresses, upcycled men’s wear suits, vintage wedding rings and pre-loved accessories, as well as rental. For instance, a dress, by Greek designer Christos Costarellos, costs GBP 2,870 to buy, and GBP 45 per day to rent.

Pre-Loved Wedding Dress From Selfridges

What: The Australian department store saw 282% growth in adjusted earnings for 2021, with double-digit second-half sales growth.

Why it is important: Gains were fueled by reductions in costs, markdowns and debt, improved inventory and government wage subsidies and rent relief. In line with the company’s strategy to exit unproductive space, trading space was further reduced by 6.3% over the year.

Sales grew 2.3% to USD 1.51 billion in the 52 weeks to June 27 2021, with like-for-like sales up 0.9% over the period and a 17.1% jump in second-half sales — after falling 17% in the same period last year. Online sales grew by 24.4% , contributing 17.3% to total sales for the year.

Adjusted CRG operating profits surged 158.3% to USD 111.7 million, on sales of USD 756.8 million, up 13.5% over the period, with a 15.3% rise in like-for-like sales and second-half sales growth of 39.5%.

Sales in the retailer’s Elizabeth Street, Sydney flagship grew by 16.6% during the year, in spite of lower footfall in the city’s central business district due to COVID-19 disruptions.

David Jones’ Profit Surges 

What: Outstanding performances for the Chinese e-tailer during the second quarter of 2021

Why it is important: The growth of its user base (+28%) makes it impermeant to the recent Chinese government crackdown on Tech.

JD.com went beyond analysts’ expectations for Q2 2021 results in spite of the recent Chinese government crackdown on the tech industry. The net revenue of the online retailer grew by +26% to USD 39.14 bn and added 32 million new users (+28%) to 531.9 million.

During that quarter, JD.Com also expanded its operations with LVMH’s Bvlgari, Berluti and Guerlain, as well as brands from Estee Lauder companies and L’Oreal.

JD.com Announces 2021 Second Quarter and Interim Results

What: Square will buy out Afterpay, an Australian BNPL provider.

Why it is important: Square and Afterpay have the potential to build a very strong payment network that appeals to the younger generation of shoppers.

According to Matrix Partners, BNPL solutions will displace part of the role of credit card debts. As the younger generation is opposed to debt, BNPL is an interest free option that allows users to pay in installments. Against its competition like Affirm and Klarna, Afterpay has always been able to understand Millennial and GenZ customers the best through the right tone and product offerings.

The merger of Square and Afterpay has a lot of potential to deliver value to both consumers and merchants. Currently, Square has built a merchant payment network and, in its portfolio, CashApp offers a customer payment service, but these lines of business have not been integrated. Afterpay will be able to weave all these services together in a single integrated experience.

Congratulations to Afterpay and Square 

What: Walmart is teaming up with Adobe to offer retail as a service proposals to smaller US Retailers

Why it is important:  The retailer is closing the gap with Amazon, for which AWS is a key component of its profitability, and slowly moves away from selling goods.

Walmart has made a partnership with Adobe to propose a bundle of services to US SMEs, allowing them to use Walmart’s cloud-based services to access Walmart Marketplace. This will entitle them to access services such as 2-day shipping, online and in-store fulillment, as well as pickup capabilities.

Walmart To Offer Technologies and Capabilities 

What: Michael Murray is set to replace Ashley from May 2022.

Why it is important: Ashley, who still owns 64% of the group, will remain on its board as an executive director, with Murray taking over day-to-day operations.

Frasers Group, the U.K retail group behind Sports Direct, Flannels and House of Fraser, has confirmed media speculation that British retail tycoon Mike Ashley plans to step down from his role as the group’s chief executive officer and hand over the reins to his future son-in-law, Michael Murray, by May 2022.

Murray, aged 31 and engaged to Ashley’s daughter Anna, has been working as the group’s head of elevation and has been tasked with creating a more upmarket image for the company.

Frasers Group Confirms Plans for Mike Ashley to Step Down as CEO 

Ashley’s succession plan at Frasers might be more than window dressing