Tyler Brûlé’s retail projections: Bullish on Walmart, bearish on Farfetch.
On the back of Walmart’s aggressive e-commerce acquisition spree, and Farfetch’s newfangled Store of the Future concept, we spoke with the Monocle man about why US and European retail is failing, how it can be fixed, and why the Japanese still to get it right. (1,267 words)
Airbnb of pop-ups: London’s Appear Here expands to the US, continues its big international push.
Pop-ups are far less of a novelty play today, and Appear Here is a big reason why. We spoke to CEO Ross Bailey who talked about the opportunity in the US market, the promise of LA and New York, and the mechanics of launching Appear Here in new cities. (1,392 words)
The Bonobos-Walmart saga: Marc Lore is quickly proving to be Walmart’s man of 2017.
There’s been plenty of analysis on the pending deal since last week. Yet one thing is becoming abundantly clear in this narrative: In former Jet.com CEO Marc Lore, Walmart has a snarling e-commerce pitbull. (562 words)
Meet the new luxury shopper (according to McKinsey).
McKinsey’s key finding, summed up in a single idea: It’s a consumer centric market now, and with so much choice, shoppers are far less loyal than they used to be. (411 words)
TLDR – A decade into BoF, chief Imran Amed is all the rage.
GQ published a killer profile on the fashion world’s new media darling, the “bird-like” Imran Ahmed. We’ve broken it down to bring you the key TLDR highlights. Remix! (933 words)
Floyd locked up a $875K seed round last year (but didn’t tell anyone). Here’s what you need to know.
In something of a delayed fundraising announcement, we spoke to co-founder Alex O’Dell, who filled us in on the furniture brand’s unpublicized $875K seed round from May 2016 led by LZB Investments and Airbnb’s Joe Gebbia. (886 words)
Farfetch’s Store of the Future: A strategic hedge against the e-commerce plateau.
Farfetch’s Store of the Future concept set off a bevy of mentions, analyses, and reactions. We’ve poured through the Business of Fashion, Quartz, and the New York Times to put the idea into context. (1,156 words)
Marcela Sapone: “How to leapfrog the smart home trend, and make something consumers actually want.”
Alfred’s CEO argues that the home of the future isn’t some bleeding edge futurist vision. Rather, it’s simply a home — full stop — humming with (silent) new efficiency. And it should be as frictionless as calling an Uber. (838 words)
Key fact: 9 percent of Londoners shop on Net-a-Porter.
The key highlights in the Evening Standard’s behind the scenes sit down with NAP president Alison Loehnis. Inside: efficiency, peak shopping times, and how feedback from its best customers have helped it settle on two new services launching later this year.
The real problems with the Swiss watch industry, as explained by the Economist.
On the back of the Baselworld watch expo late last month, here’s a quick rundown of the problems plaguing the watch sector — and what it’s doing to fix things — just to make the narrative a little more clearer for you. (400 words)
