
A round-up of everything you might have missed in relevant fashion business, digital comms and tech industry news over the final fortnight of 2017.
TOP STORIES
- 2017 was the year of retail’s existential reckoning [Quartz]
- The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on all of Amazon this holiday season [TechCrunch]
- Bots are about to get better at customer support than humans [Wired]
- The last days of Colette [Garage]
BUSINESS
- Retailers feel shoppers’ Christmas cheer [WSJ]
- Jonathan Saunders steps down from DVF role [Guardian]
- Meet Oscar Olsson, the mind behind H&M’s new brand for millennials [TheCut]
- Reformation raises $25 million to fuel brick-and-mortar growth [BoF]
- Clothing companies are trashing unsold merchandise instead of donating it [TheOutline]
- With Phoebe Philo leaving Céline, what’s next? [BoF]
- UK cotton back in production in Manchester [BBC]
MARKETING
- Adidas brings all-star talent and tech to the table [BrandChannel]
E-COMMERCE
- Prada launches e-commerce platform in China [Reuters]
- The fake news of e-commerce [Racked]
- There’s money to be made in returning e-commerce orders [LA Times]
- What fashion brands can learn from Nike’s first six months as an Amazon partner [Glossy]
- E-commerce company ThredUP rolls out AI-powered ‘goody boxes’ to rival discount clothing chains [AdWeek]
STORES
- Walmart is developing a personal-shopper service for rich moms — and a store with no cashiers [Recode]
- Sephora mastered in-store sales by investing in data and cutting-edge technology [AdWeek]
TECHNOLOGY
- This is Magic Leap’s mixed reality headset [Engadget]
- If the bitcoin bubble bursts, this is what will happen next [Wired]
- Mall of America gets high-tech with chatbot and humanoid robots [Racked]
- Ikea is stepping into virtual reality by creating a game for new store openings [AdWeek]
- Beauty tech made major strides in 2017, and it’s only the beginning [Fashionista]
START-UPS
- Target to buy Shipt for $550 million in challenge to Amazon [Bloomberg]
- Meet the nanotech scientist who used her mad skills to build a better party clutch [FastCompany]