Fashion Adds Fuel to Fast-Growing Retail E-Commerce Sales

Posted on June 14, 2012 by bermanevansretail
Online apparel retailing is taking off — and this is expected to continue for several years. According to eMarketer: “Online buying in 2012 has expanded far beyond early-adopter favorites like books, music and video. While sales of such E-commerce staples continue to grow, the apparel and accessories category—a product type for which shoppers’ desire to touch, feel and try on items before making a purchase was long seen as a deterrent to online sales—is now climbing faster than any other E-commerce product segment.”
Click the chart for more from eMarketer.

US Apparel and Accessories Retail Ecommerce Sales, 2010-2016 (billions, % change and % of total retail ecommerce sales*)

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Does Esprit Have a Future?

Posted on June 14, 2012 by bermanevansretail
At one time, Esprit Holdings was a leading global apparel retailer. With the June 2012 resignations of the firm’s top two executives after a tough period of time, the company’s future is now in some doubt.
As reported by Rachel Lee and Danny Kwok for Reuters: “The resignations have cast a cloud over the Europe-focused company’s HK$18 billion ($2.3 billion) restructuring plan and put it firmly on the radar of private equity buyers.” This is “adding further pressure on the stock of a company which last year admitted it had ‘lost its soul’.”
Click the photo for the full Reuters’ story.

Photo credit: Reuters/Tyrone Siuby
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Fast-Fashion Retailer Zara Keeps Up Emerging-Markets Push

Posted on June 14, 2012 by bermanevansretail
Inditex, a global apparel retailer based in Spain whose leading subsidiary is the Zara chain, is on quite a roll. Its expansion strategy is extremely aggressive. It has making a large push into developing markets.
As reported by David Roman and William Kemble-Diaz in the Wall Street Journal: “Because of its global expansion drive—Inditex has opened more than a store a day, on average, in recent years and is set to launch online sales in China in September—the company is becoming less reliant on sales in Spain, now accounting for around a quarter of the total. It has expanded rapidly across the fast-growing markets of Asia and Latin America and opened new stores in Ecuador, Bosnia, and Georgia in April and May. In March, the company said it expects to have 425 stores across China by the end of 2012, compared with 275 in January.”
Watch this video clip to learn more.
Posted in Global Retailing, Part 6: Merchandise Management and Pricing, Video Clips (non-career) | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment