It’s been an eventful week for the fashion and retail worlds. As part of a new column for the Retail TouchPoints blog, we’re offering you quick and easy access to the most buzzed about stories, along with some commentary on what we think the news means for industry executives.
Style.com to be revamped as an e-Commerce destination: The Business of Fashion exclusively revealed that Condé Nast will launch its e-Commerce venture this fall under the Style.com brand. This move comes a few months after Lucky magazine and BeachMint merged to create the ultimate content+commerce destination, so it’ll be interesting to see how Condé Nast positions Style.com and makes its content not only educational but compelling enough to shop.
Consumers fight for Lilly Pulitzer: We would be remiss if we didn’t bring up the disaster that was/is Lilly Pulitzer for Target. Granted, the line of products was super cute; it accurately represented the Lilly Pulitzer brand but still had that element of exclusivity. Meaning the designs, products and overall assortment was unique to Target. Although some of the past Target collaborations were a bit of a flop, consumers camped out and fought for their piece of the Lilly Pulitzer line. Some took the fun away from consumers by grabbing up as many items as possible and selling them on eBay for a higher percentage of the cost. So obviously, consumers were and still are angry. This is a key issue in the retail world — not just for exclusive collaborations but also widely available products. Target’s Chief Merchandising and Supply Chain Officer Kathee Tesija took to the Target blog to share her piece, indicating that the retailer didn’t expect demand to be so high.
Balenciaga holds surprise e-Commerce sale: And yes, it was a surprise even for the folks at Balenciaga. Due to an apparent glitch, the luxury brand’s e-Commerce site slashed prices on a number of high-priced leather goods and bags. Consumers tried to seize the opportunity by snatching up as many items as they could, but due to demand and the sheer cost of creating the goods, Balenciaga had to cancel the orders.
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Google rolls out mobile-friendly algorithm: Although it was announced back in February, Google has officially implemented its mobile-friendly algorithm, which will impact the search engines results page. The change impacts all languages and will influence the display of organic results on mobile devices. Meaning, the more mobile-friendly your site is, the higher your placement on search engine results will be. The algorithm hones in on the entire web site, as well as landing pages and company blogs. If that’s not incentive to take a long, hard look at your mobile strategy, I don’t know what is!
What other stories do you think shook up the retail space over the past week? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
