Designer Thom Browne has created an exclusive capsule range for Nordstrom, offering a selection of locker room-ready clothing, footwear, accessories, and sporting goods. This collaboration is named Concept 009 as it is the ninth iteration of the department store's curated partnerships with leading menswear brands.

The sophisticated sportswear collection consists of 30 pieces created exclusively for Nordstrom, with an all-American color palette of red, white and navy. The capsule and is complemented by a school uniform-inspired shade of gray. In addition to the designer's trademark skinny suits, Thom Browne has also created an exclusive yoga mat, as well as a pair of post-shower slides. The exclusive capsule is available online at NewConcepts@Nordstrom. Customers can also visit custom locker room-style pop-ups at Nordstrom Men's locations in NYC, Seattle, Miami, Los Angeles, Costa Mesa, Chicago, Dallas and Vancouver.

Retail start-up accelerator Lafayette Plug and Play, launched in 2016, has welcomed its newest promotion for its three-month incubation programme. In the first half of 2020, the start-ups accelerated by Lafayette Plug and Play will focus on four key retail innovation issues: social and conversational selling, dynamic pricing, hyper-personalisation, and product traceability.

Read press release below to view the 16 stat-ups selected:

press release: Lafayette Plug and Play introduces the eighth intake of startups

The outbreak of Covid-19 has become a humanitarian crisis that is impacting every aspect of daily life. For Dazed Media Founder Jefferson Hack, it is hard to find the language to describe what is happening to the world right now.

For the fashion industry, travel restrictions and city-wide lockdowns might be the catalyst needed to reconsider how it operates and reset its priorities. There might be "a digital renaissance happening when it comes to social media," Hack suggested.

Despite the creative opportunities, there are extensive challenges facing the fashion industry, from supply chain disruptions to out-of-work freelancers, Hack's message was clear: "If you're a media owner, if you're a brand owner, if you have any influence at all and you're sitting this out… then you're part of the problem, you're not part of the solution… There is no room for complacency right now."

Listen to the full podcast

Spanish retailer El Corte Ingles, one of Spain's biggest employers, said it would temporarily lay off 22,000 workers at its department stores across the country due to the lockdown triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. The retailer said a further 3,900 would be temporarily laid off at its Sfera fashion chain and Viajes El Corte Ingles travel agency. El Corte Ingles said the staff would be laid off for 14 days and would be paid their full salary during that time.

Press release: El Corte Ingles to temporarily lay off 22,000 department store workers

As consumers become ever more eco-aware, brands and retailers are responding with special initiatives to promote sustainability and also ensuring that their customers and prospective customers are aware of what they're doing.

Heritage outerwear label Barbour linked up with department store retailer John Lewis and Britain's National Trust for talks that focus on the importance of caring for the environment.

The initiative took place in John Lewis' Oxford Street, London flagship and featured National Trust rangers talking about some of the popular locations the body manages and the wildlife that lives at these locations.

Each 30-minute talk includes a question and answer session and looks at conservation projects such as Whitburn Coastal Park nature reserve at Souter Lighthouse and The Leas.

John Lewis sells the Barbour brand, including its National Trust collaboration product.

Seattle-based department store Nordstrom is teaming up with the Makeup Museum, as its exclusive retail partner.

The Makeup Museum will open on 1 May 2020 in New York City, with its inaugural exhibition: 'Pink Jungle: 1950s Makeup in America' that will highlight beauty industry veterans and pivotal moments in the history of the beauty industry. As part of its 'Gift Shop by Nordstrom' initiative, the retailer will merchandise the Makeup Museum's gift shop with iconic products from the 1950s. Items will include iconic fragrances, and a curation of red lipsticks alongside tote bags, compact mirrors, and other items, with exclusive Makeup Museum designs.

The selection of items will also be available at some top markets Nordstrom stores. Moreover, the museum's mobile app and web site will allow consumers to click-to-shop Nordstrom's web site for exhibition-themed products.

Shareholders of Canadian retailer Hudson's Bay Co. voted overwhelmingly to approve a privatization of the firm, following a contentious months-long takeover battle. The $2 billion take-private transaction led by HBC executive chairman Richard Baker was approved by more than 98 per cent of shareholders who voted. In an interview, Baker said his group paid more than they expected to privatize the retailer because hedge fund Catalyst Capital mounted a public challenge opposing the transaction.

Full article by Financial Post : Baker's HBC privatization bid approved after plenty of 'noise and aggravation'

Shanghai Fashion Week (SHFW) has teamed up with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's online marketplace Tmall to broadcast its entire roster of runway shows online from 24 to 30 March on Taobao Live, Alibaba's live-streaming channel, making it the first fashion week event to go fully digital. The organisers had announced earlier this year that the event would not take place due to the coronavirus outbreak but instead of completely forgoing fashion shows and presentations, they decided to make them accessible to buyers, media and the public through the digital service. Besides catwalk shows of autumn/winter collections, viewers were able to buy items online while they watch, giving them the chance to acquire exclusive designs in advance.

Broadcasting fashion weeks online could be a solution for other shows as Paris and London just announced the cancellations of their Men and Couture Fashion Weeks (due to take place in June and July 2020) ; while Milan decided to postpone its Men Fashion Week (originally held in June 2020) to September 2020, during the Women Fashion Week.

bof article: London and Paris Men's and Couture Fashion Weeks Cancelled, Milan Men's Week Postponed

But how a digital Fashion Week will affect offline showrooms ? Indeed, this online shift has drastically altered the very core on which fashion weeks have been built — a physical space for buyers to preview new collections.  Going online also means emerging brands will struggle to attract new buyers as platforms have been reluctant to take on new brands knowing buyers will have more trouble pushing unknown designers to customers.

Jing Daily Article: How a Digital Shanghai Fashion Week Will Affect Offline Showrooms

Nobody dares provide forecasts as the coronavirus outbreak continues to disrupt — and take — lives and business is screeching to a halt around the world. "The truth is that whatever is said today can be contradicted the next day. The pandemic is an event that is so new and different and that has no comparable metrics," said Vittorio Radice, vice chairman of Rinascente.

Rinascente is now part of the Thailand-based Central Retail Corp., also owns Copenhagen-based Illum, and has a majority stake in KaDeWe in Berlin among other brands. Standing in different countries, the groups are implementing the indications given by the Italian, Danish and German governments, which are all different.

As industry insiders and observers question how the coronavirus will impact prices and discounting, the seasonality of goods and fashion in general, Radice said "the spring stock that is arriving will not be sold, and as for the fall orders, who knows, it depends on when the stores will

reopen." Apart from the health of employees and associates, the key priority in terms of business now is cash and "understanding how to channel it." "For retailers, cash comes from the door of the store opening at 9 a.m.

and closing at 10 p.m. and if that door doesn't open, business is over."

full wwd article: Vittorio Radice on retailing as coronavirus spreads

The Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic is driving a massive expansion by Amazon right when the economy needs it the most: $350 million of investment, higher wages, and more people in fulfillment and delivery roles. With empty shelves on stores globally, increased congestion at Costco and other big box stores, it's hard for people to get regular groceries and supplies, never mind laying in a few provisions for a potential Italy-style quarantine. Seniors in particular can find it hard to shop in the line-ups and busy-ness. That means delivery is an ever-more-urgent need.

So Amazon is ramping up:

•                     $350 million investment across the U.S., Canada, and Europe

•                     100,000 new part-time and full-time roles in the U.S. alone

•                     salary increases: $2/hour on current salaries of $15/hour or more

This could be a godsend to people who have been laid off from restaurant, service, or retail jobs as closures have affected hourly workers and those who cannot work remotely.

Retailing has been plenty difficult for the past several years. But the financial reasons behind this decline might  seem quaint compared to the massive disruption the spread of COVID-19, and the measures taken to slow it, are bringing to the industry. What will happen to the retailers that were already in trouble? Retailers face so much financial uncertainty from the current

selling environment that some are declining to provide investors estimates for their performance this year. Already by the second week of March, U.S. retail traffic was down more than 30% year over year.

Read full article below

distressed Retailers struggled with falling sales for years —and then came Covid-19

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Seattle-based department store Nordstrom, known for designer brands, is shifting gears and producing medical masks to help healthcare workers battling the coronavirus. It is sewing more than 100,000 masks that will be sanitized before being distributed to healthcare workers across the country. Members of the Nordstrom alterations teams in Washington, Oregon, Texas and California will sew the masks and give them to Providence Health & Services, a nonprofit health care system which operates hospitals in six states.

Along with its efforts to ease the personal protective equipment shortages, Nordstrom closed all stores in the US and Canada while providing ongoing pay and benefits to all store employees impacted by the temporary closures. The Nordstrom Executive Leadership Group is forgoing a portion of their salaries. CEO Erik Nordstrom and his brother, president and chief brand officer Pete Nordstrom, both say they are declining their salaries from April until September.

nordstrom press release: Working Together in Our Communities

Isetan (Thailand) Co., Isetan Mitsukoshi's subsidiary, will terminate a rental contract with a developer under the Thai conglomerate Central Group for the six-storey store, which opened in April 1992 in the shopping complex now known as Central World. A new shopping outlet with a Japanese flavour will replace Isetan Bangkok in summer.

Isetan Bangkok expects sales of 4.2 billion yen ($39 million) and a net profit of 32 million yen for the fiscal year through March 2020, down around 10 percent and 60 percent respectively from the previous year. Yet it maintained profitability throughout except for the fiscal year through March 2011, when it experienced temporary closure in 2010 due to antigovernment protests.

Dallas-based department store chain Neiman Marcus announced a new strategy focused on "growing its luxury customer base and driving full-price selling," that includes closing most of its Last Call off-price stores by the first quarter of its fiscal year 2021. Some Last Call stores will remain open in order to sell residual Neiman Marcus inventory. "In a time of uncertainty, you should put your efforts toward your core business," said Neiman Chief Executive Geoffroy van Raemdonck. In his company's case, the foundation is in "serving and delighting the luxury customer … who buys full-price." Therefore the retailer will focus its efforts on customer service at its luxury outposts, which also include Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan. Producing high-volume, repeat transactions from its most lucrative clients will boost Neiman Marcus' profit margins, Van Raemdonck said. "The Last Call business doesn't have the flywheel effect like our full-price business," he said. "When we spend time on customers by delighting them with a beauty service or getting them to spend time in our restaurants, we know they'll spend more."

While Neiman Marcus pulls back from off-price, its peers in the department store space are investing in their own discount entities. Hudson's Bay-owned Saks Fifth Avenue hired a new president for Saks Off 5th last month, while Macy's and Nordstrom turn to their own off-price operations to pick up sales from budget shoppers and off-load some inventory.

statement: Neiman Marcus Group Unveils Next Phase Of Strategic Transformation

Nordstrom said it is changing its leadership structure to retire its co-presidency, and is naming Erik Nordstrom as its sole CEO. Peter Nordstrom was named President and Chief Brand Officer. This puts an end to an unusual shared management structure and keeps the retailer's leadership in the hands of the founding family. The new titles reflect their current and ongoing responsibilities, and both Erik and Pete Nordstrom will remain on the company's board of directors. Additionally, the board has announced planned changes designed to enhance its corporate governance. This will include reducing the maximum size of the board from 11 to 10 over the next two years and introducing a 10-year term limit for independent directors.

The company announced the changes as it reported fourth-quarter earnings and sales that missed analysts' estimates.

UK consumer spending and footfall were impacted by storms and coronavirus fears last month. Spending actually grew by 2.2% year-on-year in February, "propped up by digital subscriptions and takeaways, as people stayed at home to escape the storms and risk of contracting coronavirus," according to Barclaycard.

The UK's still-new chancellor, Rishi Sunak, delivered his first budget and went some way to meeting the demands of the retail sector. But it was felt he didn't go far enough in some areas, although the CBI called the overall budget "bold".

Directly relevant to retail, business rates for companies whose property has a rateable value of less that £51,000 have seen those rates suspended for this year.

That looks good on the surface as only a small percentage of retail properties exceed that value. But these larger businesses are responsible for the lion's share of the total amount paid in business rates and so the £51,000 threshold is likely to be bad news for under-pressure department stores such as John Lewis, Debenhams and House of Fraser.

Indeed, fears surrounding coronavirus impacted the retail sector particularly, with department stores hardest hit. They contracted 3.6% as shoppers avoided the high street. Fashion was down by less but clothing spend still dipped 1.7% as a result.

In fact, as many as 28% of Britons avoided physical shops as they worried about the possibility of being infected with the virus.

At the same time, spending on essential items rose by 1.6%, bolstered by supermarket and fuel expenditure, which grew by 1.3% and 2.5% respectively, with some irrational stockpiling being a factor in this.

Full article : Storms and virus fears dent spending and footfall in UK, clothing sales drop

Full article : UK's 'coronavirus budget' offers some relief to retail, but not enough

As anxious U.S. consumers race to buy emergency supplies ahead of an impending COVD-19 outbreak, retailers are selling out of items like hand sanitizers and immune-boosting supplements faster than they can restock. A nationwide shortage of Purell has turned the workaday hand sanitizer into a luxury good, with third-party sellers on Amazon and Ebay marking up its typically humble prices by significant amounts. A recent search yielded a two-pack of the brand's 12-oz (30 millilitres) pump bottles for $99.99.

Some wellness brands are seeing unprecedented year-over-year and week-over-week sales gains. EO Products, a California based company that makes natural hand sanitizers, saw web site sales for its Everyone brand sanitizers increase 1,300 percent in the last week. Demand from retailers has quadrupled since this time last year, said Tom Feegel, president of EO Products.

It is not just hand sanitizers that are experiencing a surge in demand. Spate, a company that analyzes online search data to identify consumer trends, has seen a year-over-year spike in searches for natural immune-boosting supplements. Searches for elderberry are up 52.4 percent, vitamin C is up 25 percent, Echinacea is up 13.1 percent and zinc grew 7.7 percent.

Read full article: coronavirus inspires Doomsday-style wellness shopping 

As Canadian retailer Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) announced that it has completed its privatization transaction, it was also revealed that CEO Helena Foulkes will be stepping down from her role, to be replaced by governor and executive chairman Richard Baker.

As he leads HBC in a new direction, the executive will be supported by the company's senior leadership team, which includes Hudson's Bay brand president Ian Nairn and Saks Off 5th president Paige Thomas, both of whom have been appointed to their positions in the space of the last two months.

With the completion of HBC's privatization transaction, Baker will now be looking to implement a number of new turnaround measures at the company without having to respond to shareholder pressure about growth and dividends.

South Korean retailer Shinsegae Department Store said it will partially shut down one of its outlets in southern Seoul for a disinfection measure following a recent visit there by a patient diagnosed with the new coronavirus. The store in the posh Gangnam district will close its food court at the basement level for one day. Shinsegae said it has decided to maintain the operation of other floors as the patient only visited the food court and wore a face mask.

Earlier this month, other department store and supermarket chains, such as Lotte Department Store and Hyundai Department Store, also suspended the operations of their stores after patients' visits.

Retailers are suspending and canceling clothing orders, threatening millions of factory jobs in Asia just as China shows signs of recovering since the coronavirus outbreak. Retail experts say the slowdown looks to be significantly worst than the financial crisis of 2008, when brands suffered from reduced consumer spending but could offer cut-rate sales and other deals to entice frugal customers. Then many factories were kept busy with orders, though overall demand was dented. 'Times are different now,' said Sheng Lu, a professor of fashion and apparel at the University of Delaware, because shops and malls are closed in much of the U.S. and Europe. "This time is a business lockdown," he said. "The trade impact will be much larger." Mr. Lu said a 10% decline in exports for a country like Bangladesh could lead to a 4% to 9% drop in employment there, based on an analysis he conducted that correlates export growth with employment, using historical data from the International Labour Organization and the World Trade Organization.

Read full article: Retailers cancel orders from Asian factories

Saks Fifth Avenue has decided to temporarily close its Manhattan flagship for up two weeks in response to the coronavirusoutbreak, becoming the first major department store to respond as such in the U.S. Saks has also decided to temporarily close its store in Bala Cynwyd in the Philadelphia area, following recommendations from the governor to businesses in Pennsylvania. Nordstrom is also closing its more than 360 stores temporarily to try to curb the spread of COVID-19. The department store retailer has also withdrawn its 2020 earnings outlook, due to the uncertainty of the situation. Nordstrom said its e-commerce operations, which made up about a third of its 2019 sales, will remain open. Rivals are still operating some locations, just on reduced hours. Kohl's and J.C. Penney have cut their store hours. Macy's has not yet offered an update on its plans.

In a podcast on BOF, futurist Doug Stephens looks at the post-virus world.

• Just as happened after 9/11, there may be a spike in consumption after the virus danger has passed.
• However, the follow-on recession, the financial crisis after the virus will trigger the death of outdated retail models.
• Remote work has meant increased time in front of our computers (professional and private). This is likely to diminish our desire to shop online.
• Look how the use of "comfort clothes" while working from home may influence the types of clothes worn as we go back to the office.
• Department stores:

• JC Penney will go

• HBC will be liquidated and real estate sold off

• All those who did not reinvent themselves will be in danger

• Customers try to avoid crowds

• Look at Alibaba live streaming and allowing customers to shop from stores around the world

• In times of significant transition like the present, we need to keep reinventing ourselves. Do not stop innovating. Consumers are really open to alternatives.

Listen to Doug Stephens podcast on How coronavirus will shift consumer behaviour

read full bof article on How coronavirus will shift consumer behaviour

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British retailer M&S is boosting its website business by extending its click & collect next-day orders cut-off by a further three hours in the UK (to 11pm). The retailer, which claims nearly 9 million website visits a week, is also trialling new two-hour express click & collect service across 17 of its larger stores -currently around 70% of its online orders are collected in an M&S store. M&S said the newly improved proposition "is an important part of better serving customers for the future", as the UK click & collect market is expected to be worth almost £10 billion by 2023.

M&S aims to boost e-sales with click & collect developments - Full article by fashion network