The Covid-19 outbreak sparked a long-awaited awareness from all Fashion brands that they needed to reinvent. Designers such as Dries Van Noten championed a complete rewriting of the rules, while behemoths such as Saint-Laurent Paris decided to step away from the traditional Fashion calendar. Three months after, the Business of Fashion discussed where Fashion stands, and where it goes.

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What happened to rethinking the Fashion System?

Increasing the diversity of leadership teams increases innovation and performance. This works across a sample of countries from several continents. Together with digital investment allows companies to “get the most from their diversity dollars”.

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How diverse leadership teams boost innovation

JC Penney former CEO, Ron Johnson, said that the problem for department stores was not in size, location of physical capabilities, but in their "lack of imagination - products they carry, store environments, the way they engage their customers, how they embrace the digital future".

Neighborhood Goods, a chain from Texas, US, listened to that statement and has opened in less than 3 years three locations based on putting local community first, proposing a strong and powerful rotation of products and brands, to ultimately become the reason to come, visit and shop.

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Neighborhood Goods prove its new department store model works

From an online snowboarding shop to a no-brainer e-commerce solution for brands willing to focus on their products and marketing instead of tech, discover the story of a new tech giant.

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How Shopify conquered fashion

"The carnage in the US department store space over the past few years has only accelerated with the Covid-19 health crisis" according to Retail Metrics President. This paper tries to guess who will be the few survivors: Nordstrom with its customer-centric approach (as seen in the July 2020 news), or Dillard's thanks to its real estate. On the luxury segment, the authors try to make an educated guess about Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales, Saks, or Macy's.

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The incredible shrinking department store

The Covid-19 crisis is the knock-out punch for the US Department Stores. Jing Daily is inviting american retailers to learn from the Chinese market examples. Intime for instance, owned by Alibaba, shows how technology can be the "infrastructure of the whole operation" (and reminds the strategy of IADS member Falabella), allowing a seamless transitioning from offline to online, addressing the needs for convenient shopping. The article also emphasizes the need of a strong experience, "retailtainment", which is also the core of IADS member SKP strategy.

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Why US retailers should follow China's lead

Stores have started to reopen Maryland (USA), and Belk was the first department store that reopened in the state on 22 May, in Westminster. The shoppers at Belk were greeted by an excited and enthusiastic group of employees. The store had bottles of sanitizer, plexiglass shields, posters stating new distance guidelines and employees in masks. Even though most activity centred around a line exclusively for merchandise returns, many customers simply wanted to browse.

1 June marked the reopening of the Macy's at Harford Mall; it was the first of the 16 Maryland Macy's stores to welcome shoppers. An enthusiastic group wearing masks gathered outside the store ten minutes before its 11am opening.

These customers who came to the Belk and Macy's reopenings were stereotypical department store fans of today. They do not buy their clothing online. They want to browse and linger. They want a physical connection with an employee, whether to buy or return merchandise. They are generally mature and they are loyal.

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M&S has outlined its safety plans for when the majority of its clothing space is given the green light to reopen on 15 June. The British retailer has been operating its foodhalls since lockdown began, but its clothing spaces have been closed to shoppers.

Strict safety measures will include hand sanitiser on entry, staff managing the flow of people in and out of stores, floor markings and signage reminding customers to shop safely.

Fitting rooms for the meantime will remain closed, as will close-contact services, including bra fittings, suit fittings and children's footwear fittings and cafes to sit down and eat in. However selected stores will offer takeaway coffee with contactless collection.

Plexiglass screens will be installed at tills, and clear signage encouraging contactless payments.

All stores will sell items from M&S's Rainbow sale, which launched online two weeks ago. The retailer is donating 10% of the purchase price of all Rainbow sale items to NHS Charities Together.

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IADS comments 08/06/2020

The end of spring is in sight. It would appear that, at least in Europe, we should expect a hotter and drier than average summer, as we enter a new phase of the covid-19 pandemic. So, 2020 has really been a "year without spring" with a virus season interposed between winter and summer. However, the situation has been very uneven across the world. As the continuously updated chart from the Financial Times shows clearly in the report below, improvement rates are also very different across the world.

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Full report: Towards "fumbling fragmentation" - A year without spring 6

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• A year without spring 5: The new normal

US department store Macy's bought New York City retail concept Story in 2018, enrolling at the same time founder Rachel Shechtman as Brand Experience Officer. The idea was to bring experience back in the department store. Macy's opened more than 35 Story shop-in-shops, and also opened a new store format earlier this year led by Shechtman called Market by Macy's, with a curated offering.

But now Macy's Inc. has been streamlining to conserve cash and navigate its way through the pandemic. "Based on today's economic realities, we are pausing our new store format work to focus on our existing store and omnichannel footprint. As part of this transition, Rachel Shechtman will be leaving Macy's," a spokesperson said. The departure does not sign the end of Story at Macy's, though the format has evolved. "Story has a role to play in our gifting strategy," the spokesperson said. "The existing Story locations have reopened in their current format. We see great potential, and the format and merchandising will evolve with our gifting strategy." However, before the pandemic, Macy's had already closed 16 of the Story shops.

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Italian department store Rinascente is launching its own online store (www.rinascente.it). Initially the retailer was to make an online debut in March, but this has been delayed due to the outbreak of coronavirus Covid-19. CEO Pierluigi Cocchini says the potential for its online store is enormous. "This is demonstrated, for example, by our on-demand service via WhatsApp, which brings us sales of over 5 million euros." The on-demand WhatsApp service is available on the new ecommerce platform. The website, operating only in Italy for now, offers 15000 references across 650 brands in fashion, beauty, design and gastronomy.

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Debenhams chief executive Stefaan Vansteenkiste has stepped down from his position, but will continue to work for the department store as a consultant. Vansteenkiste first joined Debenhams in April last year as chief restructuring officer, and was then appointed chief executive in August on an interim basis. As consultant, he would be advising chairman Mark Gifford as he leads Debenhams into the next phase of its turnaround (Last month, the department store fell into administration for the second time within a year).

John Lewis has announced a new executive director appointment: Pippa Wicks will take up the post of executive director of John Lewis department stores and will be responsible for trading, merchandising, marketing and developing propositions and services for John Lewis stores and johnlewis.com. She will take up her appointment in August.

Pippa Wicks has a rich experience including Bain, Courtaulds and Pearson, and most recently was the deputy chief executive of retailer Coop. She replaces Paula Nickolds who left early 2020.

The executive director team of John Lewis Partnership now has 8 people of whom 5 are women. It is also a fairly ethnically diverse team. They include the recently appointed Sharon White as chairman and Nina Bahtia in charge of strategy and development. The two retail divisions are headed by Pippa Wicks for the department stores and James Bailey, also recently appointed as head of supermarkets Waitrose. He also has considerable experience with Sainsbury's.

The 4 remaining members are John Lewis internal appointments Tracey Killen for HR, Andrew Murphy for operations, Patrick Lewis for finance, and Bérangère Michel for customer service.

There is thus an interesting mix of non-retailers to bring a fresh perspective (including the chairman), of experienced retailers from outside the company to contribute a different retail point of view, and of internal appointments to ensure a degree of continuity. Arguably continuity is especially important in a company such as John Lewis with its unique "partnership" structure; while a fresh outlook on retail and leadership from outside retail will hopefully feel free to address some of the problems of retail in the new era. While John Lewis has performed relatively well in the UK compared to its competitors, its profits have suffered.

Note: recent research into retail executive directors across the UK, Europe and the US shows that out of a total of 337 positions, 70 are women and 17 are BAME (black, Asian, ethnic minority).

press release: Executive Directors appointment at John Lewis

Value Retail Founder and Chairman Scott Malkin — whose portfolio includes famous UK luxury outlet stores Bicester Village — recently shared his early takeaways from reopening. Since reopening its two shopping "villages" in Suzhou and Pudong New District in China in March (after closing in February), sales have risen compared to the same period last year. While foot traffic has not reached pre-crisis levels, the spend per visit has increased. "Again, [it's] early days but the numbers are very positive," Malkin said. "Our fingers are crossed, but we hope we can make our figures for the year in China… The category overall… has come back strongly so that's a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel for the west. It shows it can be done and that's very encouraging." As Value Retail moves to reopen four more "villages" across Europe in the coming weeks, Malkin hopes to continue to see sales increase, generated from local luxury consumers, as shopper spend more domestically at locations closer to their homes.

full article by BOF: The Future of the Off-Price Market

wwd interview of founder of Value Retail, and of the group marketing and retail director

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Canada Goose Holdings Inc said it would limit shipments to department stores and focus on its own outlets and website to shore up profit margins, following the blow from the COVID-19 pandemic. The luxury winterwear maker said it would base its recovery at its own retail outlets for the rest of the year as the company can sell coats and down jackets at triple the profit. Canada Goose said shipments to department stores have been largely shut-off since March and it expects lower orders in the coming months compared to last year, given the piling up of inventory during closures. However, Chief Executive Officer Dani Reiss emphasized the shift in focus was because Canada Goose's own stores and online business would see a faster recovery than its wholesale channels.

Department stores have been crushed by forced closures as countries looked to curb the spread of the coronavirus. With a deep recession on the horizon, demand is not expected to bounce back any time soon.

Galeries Lafayette - La Cagnotte is the French department store group first online money pot service for gift giving. Available on both Galeries Lafayette et BHV Marais websites, the secure platform offers the perfect mix between online & offline experience. Customers enjoy a 5% bonus when they transform the money collected into an e-gift card to spend at Galeries Lafayette and BHV Marais. They can also transfer the entire amount to a bank account at a reduced commission rate, or gift it to another person. The new user-friendly service also has a dedicated search engine.

press release: Galeries Lafayette launches Galeries Lafayette - La Cagnotte

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Disruptions caused by Covid-19 have redoubled concerns about vulnerabilities in fashion's manufacturing base, accelerating efforts to build more resilient and efficient operations.

Manufacturers from China to Italy to California abruptly shut down as the coronavirus spread, creating ripple effects across global supply chains. Even when supplies were available, getting them to the right place was difficult, as shippers prioritised medical equipment and ports struggled to keep cargo moving. While a demand shock precipitated by the retail lockdowns in key western markets has overshadowed these problems in the months immediately following the start of the pandemic, not knowing when — or if — crucial supplies will arrive is making it harder for the industry to recover as lockdowns are eased in many countries.

Even as factories come back online, new problems are constantly emerging. Brands are changing how they approach their supply chains in ways that will resonate long after the crisis. In many cases, flexibility is now a top priority. So is transparency, as the ability to keep tabs on where fabric and raw materials are at any given moment can now make or break a business.

How to Avoid the Next Supply Chain Shock

Reinforcing the family presence, Image/Communication Director Guillaume Houzé and Managing Director of Louis Pion - Royal Quartz Arthur Lemoine have joined the the Galeries Lafayette Board of Directors. They are joining Chairman Philippe Houzé, CEO Nicolas Houzé and Chief Financial Officer Ugo Supino.

Guillaume Gellusseau has been appointed Chief Marketing and Communication Officer for Galeries Lafayette and BHV / Marais. His mission is to "define and implement an ambitious strategy reflecting the Galeries Lafayette and BHV Marais brands' DNA, and to accompany the company's ongoing transformation into the leader in omnichannel, engaged retailing."

Lastly, Vincent Senecat is the new Director of Galeries Lafayette Champs-Elysées store. He was Store Director of Galeries Lafayette Berlin, before becoming Operational Director of the department store branches. He spent a short time away from Galeries Lafayette.

Selfridges will reopen its department stores in the UK next week. Pre-booked appointments, for fashion and beauty, will be available in the stores after it has closed at 7 pm each day or via video. There will also be live entertainment for the queues that are bound to build up as limits are placed on the numbers in-store. Even though stores reopen, not all areas will be operational with cafes, the cinema, beauty makeovers and hairdressing services still closed.

The company has seen surging sales online during the lockdown with 'treat' products and practical items for a working-from-home populace all selling well. It is further boosting its online operation with beauty tutorials available on Instagram and virtual gift advice.

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Tokyo's Odakyu Department Store has finalized its agreement with Chengan to sell products to China through their market place. The safe-product ecosystem Taeltech Ecosystem ensures verifiable product authenticity to consumers in over 500 cities in China. Counterfeit goods are an ongoing issue in China, so each Odakyu product is protected with Taeltech's Smart Packaging anti-counterfeit technology when sold through the Taeltech Marketplace. Taeltech has also created a dedicated 'Odakyu Zone' in their market place, which will function as an extension of the department store experience. In addition, Odakyu Department Store will give Taeltech extensive promotional opportunities in prime locations within the department store, with special deals catered to Chinese tourists visiting Japan. The wide variety of Japanese and international products includes Japanese accessories, fashion products, cosmetics and more.

press release: Chengan Partners With Odakyu Department Store to Serve Chinese at Home

Singapore-based Auric Capital officially hold over five percent of local retailer, PT Matahari Department Store. The buyer is an active investor in the consumer sector. "This is Auric Capital' maiden investment in Indonesia and we are pleased that they have recognized the strength in Matahari' brand, initiatives, and management team," said John Bellis, the president commissioner (independent) at Matahari in an official statement. Auric Capital focuses on affordable investment opportunities in Asia and across the emerging markets.

Before COVID-19 pandemic, Matahari planned to open around six outlets during 2020 in Java island. But due to the current situation, the company postponed the establishment of new outlets and withdrew all 2020 sales targets and profits. As of 2019, Matahari has operated 169 outlets, of which 157 large format outlets and 12 others are mono-brand stores.

For more information, download the full article below

full article: Singapore's Auric Capital Emerges as Major Shareholder of Matahari

2020 is a big year for Liberty: marking 145 years in business, the retailer is refurbishing its unique Tudor Revival flagship, re-branding and relaunching its e-commerce site.

A major restoration of Liberty's Mock Tudor building, a protected landmark, which started earlier this year continues. The store, built in 1924 from the timbers of two ancient battleships, has 1,550 windows that need to be removed and refurbished, many of them set with reclaimed stained glass from the 12th century. For the first time since the store was built, the unique casement windows will be repaired by specialist craftsmen, off-site. Liberty said heritage restoration experts will aim to imitate the work of medieval blacksmiths, echoing the founder's support for hand craftsmanship.

As for the new, more streamlined logo, it was inspired by the Liberty sign that's been swinging above the store. It's the design studio Pentagram that redrew the Liberty logo using the sign's original typeface. Pentagram's work also led to the development of a bespoke, "Lasenby" sans-serif font, which will be used across the brand's communications.

With regard to the new web site, Eric Fergusson, Liberty's e-commerce director, said the updated LibertyLondon.com is "faster than ever," and also features enhanced presentation of content. The web site has seen strong revenue growth, averaging 45% per year for the last three years, while international growth has been driven by "functional improvements and brand awareness" of Liberty. The retailer said customers can shop from almost any country in the world with 200 shipping destinations, and more than 90 local currencies.

wwd article: Liberty Sails Ahead With Re-branding, Refurbishment Despite COVID-19 Challenges

Germany's department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof will close 62 of its 172 stores. Karstadt Kaufhof announced in April it was seeking protection from creditors after its stores were force to close during the coronavirus lockdown. Now it is launching a restructuring plan aimed at saving the ailing firm, putting about 5,000 jobs at risk, out of  35,000 jobs.

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Neiman Marcus is considering pulling out of Hudson Yards or downsizing the site, among other potential closings by the luxury retailer around the country.

The Dallas-based Neiman Marcus Group filed for bankruptcy reorganization on May 7 and is formulating a plan of restructuring involving streamlining the business.

Sources said the list of locations being eyed for possible closures includes downtown Dallas; St. Louis; Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Natick, Mass., and Westchester, N.Y. Bankruptcy law enables retailers to get out of leases without penalty.

However, The Related Companies, owner of the massive Hudson Yards mixed-used development on the west side of Manhattan, has begun marketing Neiman's three-level, 188,000square-foot space, two sources said. Related has been conducting "initial studies of alternatives" should Neiman Marcus vacate some or all of its premises at Hudson Yards.

To convince Neiman's to open at Hudson Yards, on the fifth, sixth and seventh floors, Related is said to have provided very attractive lease terms, including low rent, as well as unobstructed floor plates, high ceilings, and windows, a concierge and express elevators on the Tenth Avenue side of the mall.

Prior to the opening, Neiman's billed the store as a testing ground for services and experiences the retailer hadn't provided before, and creating "a next-generation" store for the future. While elegantly designed with Italian stone columns and works of art from such artists as Frank Stella and Roy Lichtenstein, much of the innovation centered on food, with the epicure concept called Cooks & Merchants, Bar Stanley, and the Zodiac Room. There are also high-tech fitting rooms, a styling lounge, many special services and a more open, fluid floor plan with fewer hard shops than other Neiman's stores.

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