How resellers are elevating their tech tools to stay ahead of competition On the top floor of The RealReal’s Madison Avenue store, opened May 1 this year, senior valuations manager for jewelry Katie Ward has a 60x magnification lens that lets her spot the minuscule details of a sapphire ring. Those differences -- a small round spot that indicates the gem was...
Brands are linking influencers and Instagram Checkout to drive sales Brands can grant influencers and collaborators access to the store, making their products shoppable from the partner's account in addition to their own. Ultimately, the goal for brands using Instagram Checkout is bringing customers' point of sale as close as possible to where they're already browsing for discovery and making...
Zac Posen is the latest mid-size luxury brand to be squeezed out by conglomerate giants Last week, Zac Posen announced the shuttering of his company House of Z -- including Zac Posen, affordable handbag line ZAC Zac Posen and Saks-exclusive contemporary brand Z Spoke -- citing the difficulty of the current fashion market and his inability to find a partner that could help bring the...
How Rebecca Minkoff used video to lower customer acquisition costs Shifting to more personal videos, posted on a variety of social channels, had a massive and relatively immediate effect on the brand, cutting customer acquisition costs significantly. Moving forward, it plans to increase its focus on video, expanding to YouTube and keeping the focus on low-cost videos that work to...
How Cosabella is growing its business through private label and collaborations Cosabella, an Italian lingerie company, has made its own brand a priority since it launched in 1983. But in recent years, as Victoria’s Secret’s dominance of the market has waned and a big crop of DTC brands have looked to get in on lingerie, private label and collaborations have increasingly...
Plan B: How low conversion rates inspired M.M.LaFleur to change its business model When she first started womenswear brand M.M.LaFleur, the biggest mistake made by Sarah LaFleur was that she took it as a given that high-quality product at an affordable price would be enough to drive sales. She quickly learned that quality product doesn't translate online, and updated her business model to...
What LVMH stands to gain with a Tiffany & Co. acquisition While LVMH’s potential acquisition is still in only the initial exploratory phase, there’s reason to believe that Tiffany would be an asset to LVMH’s ability to compete with luxury group rivals Kering and Richemont.
Some DTC brands are trading equity for manufacturing expertise When Michelle Cordeiro Grant launched her lingerie brand Lively in 2016 after having worked at Victoria’s Secret, she knew she could spend years going to every factory in Asia trying to find the right partner that could produce what she wanted and how she wanted it, and still not end...
‘Getting a foot in the door’: As American department stores struggle, British luxury brands look for other ways to reach U.S. consumers The U.K. is a luxury fashion hub, home to luxury brands like Burberry, Barbour and Paul Smith, but 80% of the country’s luxury products are exported, with the U.S. being the largest recipient. For British brands, the big department stores that were their traditional gateway to the American consumer are...