China’s October Retail Sales Beat Expectations
BOF | 15 November 2021
China’s industrial output and retail sales grew more quickly than expected in October, despite fresh curbs to control Covid-19 outbreaks and supply shortages, but the slowing property sector weighed on the economic outlook. Output grew 3.5 percent in October from the same period a year ago, official data showed on Monday, accelerating from a 3.1 percent increase in September. Retail sales growth also picked up.
The industrial output growth beat expectations of a 3 percent year-on-year increase in a Reuters poll of analysts, but remained the second lowest print this year
The world’s second-largest economy had staged an impressive rebound from last year’s pandemic slump, but has since lost momentum as it grapples with a slowing manufacturing sector, debt problems in the property market and Covid-19 outbreaks
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data also showed retail sales accelerated even as China imposed fresh restrictions to fight a new wave of Covid-19 cases in the north. Retail sales rose 4.9 percent year-on-year in October, beating expectations for 3.5 percent growth and after a 4.4 percent increase in September. “Growth will likely weaken in the rest of this year,” said Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.
Charlotte Tilbury steps further into the metaverse
Glossy | 15 November 2021
A year after launching its VR online store, Charlotte Tilbury is doubling down on the format with a new social shopping feature.
Called “Shop With Friends,” the new capability rolls out in Tilbury’s VR store today. It allows customers to add up to four people in a video chat as they browse through the virtual shopping experience. Users can invite friends into the shop by sharing a link through their email, and the experience works on both desktop and mobile. Next year, a feature will be added to allow people to create avatars of themselves to walk around the virtual store, bringing Charlotte Tilbury further into the “metaverse” of online shopping.
The feature was launched after the brand received feedback that customers were going into the VR store while on Zoom calls with their friends. “We have always been a digital-first brand and by launching this new feature within our virtual store, we are truly operating as an omnichannel business to bring our customers rich and immersive experiences whenever and wherever they meet the brand,” said Charlotte Tilbury chief growth & technology officer Corinne Suchy.
“For brands and for shopping, it’s such a perfect format because the products you’re buying are 3D. Brands want to create experiences, so the metaverse is a perfect fit. That’s why we are seeing so much interest,” said Singh.
Glossy Research: Brands say 2021’s holiday revenue will exceed 2020’s
Glossy | 23 November 2021
Despite rising inflation and supply chain bottlenecks, many large retailers are seeing sales growth, especially on the e-commerce fronts. Both Target and Walmart saw big digital gains year-over-year, at 155% and 79% respectively. And big retailers are all hoping that growth will sustain with holidays-related sales. Still, as earlier research highlights, macroeconomic changes are likely impacting retailers’ overall strategies and execution.
Some of the respondents to the Modern Retail and Glossy survey expect huge gains — 15% said they expect holiday revenue to grow significantly, compared to 2020. Meanwhile, 36% said they expect it to go up somewhat.
The most popular holiday sale offering is price discounts, with 57% saying they will offer those types of promotions. But bundling and product line expansion or exclusives are also increasingly popular with respondents; 37% and 35% said their holiday offerings include those types of promotions, respectively.
Meanwhile, loyalty remains an ever-important part of the retailer calculus. With that, 30% of respondents said their holiday promotions include loyalty member perks.
Put together, brands and retailers are testing out a multitude of strategies over the next few weeks. The pandemic isn’t over, but they are hoping this will set the stage for a quasi-return to normalcy. The question remains whether or not these holiday promotions will lead to sales growth on both a one-year and two-year basis.
By Wishtrend Launches at JCPenney Beauty
Financial Post | 2 November 2021
By Wishtrend , a skincare brand of Wishcompany (CEO Park Sung-ho), a brand, content, and commerce company, announced on November 2 that it will be launched at JCPenney Beauty, a new U.S. beauty curation store. JCPenney Beauty is a beauty curation store launched exclusively by JCPenney, a large U.S. department store. There will be a total of five items launched in the store, including ‘Mandelic Acid 5% Skin Prep Water,’ the main product of By Wishtrend.
By Wishtrend is a skincare brand with high functionality that was started after gathering feedback from over 500,000 customers on wishtrend.com, a global e-commerce platform. By Wishtrend focuses on excluding harmful ingredients and formulating synergistic and effective ingredients in order to develop skincare products with actual, satisfactory results. A special characteristic of By Wishtrend’s products is that they are named after the ingredients and contents themselves so the consumers can easily identify the function of the product.
Since its launch in 2015, By Wishtrend has entered major offline channels such as Selfridges, the UK’s leading department store, and & Other Stories, a global SPA brand. By Wishtrend has also been expanding its distribution network to 12 European countries.
SHOPIFY GOES CROSS BORDER WITH INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY
Beauty Matter | 17 November 2021
Shopify already powers cross-border commerce with international domains and multicurrency solutions, facilitating merchants to generate $20 billion in cross-border sales in 2020. But this is a drop in the basket considering in July 2021 alone, over 27% of all traffic to Shopify stores came from international buyers. A study by Cross-border Commerce Europe and FedEx projected cross-border sales in Western Europe and Scandinavia will increase 51% by 2022 to $251 billion.
The company recently announced a global e-commerce hub for merchants called Shopify Markets and added B2B features to premium platform Shopify Plus last month. The goal is to alleviate the difficulties that localization merchants face selling cross-border by centralizing and enhancing Shopify’s cross-border capabilities to help identify, set up, launch, and optimize international markets—all from a single Shopify store.
Harley Finkelstein, President, Shopify, said, “We believe the future of retail is retail everywhere. And with Shopify Markets, we’re making it even easier for merchants—no matter size or budget—to turn their global aspirations into a reality.”
Beautigloo Raises 2.7 Million Euros
WWD | 19 November 2021
Beautigloo, a French company that manufactures an environmentally friendly Refrigerated Beauty Box to preserve cosmetics and boost their effectiveness, has raised 2.7 million euros in a first funding round.
Investors include business angels brought together by the Eukratos family office, Gemmes Venture private equity and venture capital fund, Bpifrance and Banque Populaire.
“We want to consolidate our industrial presence in France and increase our production capacity in order to continue to internalize our products’ manufacturing,” said Florian Ménard, cofounder and technical director of Beautigloo, in a statement. “The start-up aims to expand its product line and recruit talent to support this growth and hopes to become the world leader in refrigerated beauty. It also wishes to continue its commercial development in Europe, the United States and Russia, where it is already established.”