The Week of May 1st: 10 things eft's been reading
This week is a summary of some of the biggest innovation taking place in eCommerce
1. I mentioned a few weeks back that Zara wasn’t actually the fastest at fast fashion. On queue, here are Boohoo’s Quarterly results. In what can only be seen as further evidence that marketing + supply chain should probably meet a little more frequently. ‘Fashion retailer Boohoo nearly doubles profit after celebrity Instagram tie-ups.’ [The Guardian]
2. Another example. ‘Puma Racing to Keep Up With Demand for Popular Shoes.’ [NY Times]
3. Traditional retail might be crumbling, but it doesn’t mean that there aren’t opportunities in the industry as a whole. Poshmark makes its business by being a resale social network. It made $100m last year. Now I’ve got your attention? ‘Poshmark cash flow positive, on track for $100 million revenue.’ [TechCrunch]
4. Another business that understands the modern climate of retail is Farfetch. Think of them as on-demand Gucci. ‘The New Meaning of Fast Fashion.’ [NY Times]
5. And who’s shaping all of this change? The customer of course. ‘How customer demands are reshaping last-mile delivery.’ [McKinsey]
6. It was only a matter of time. ‘Elon Musk gives us a glimpse of Tesla's electric semi truck.’ [engadget]
7. The push for sustainability in supply chain continues. Fast fashion is increasingly up against the fact that the sheer amount of material needed for fast fashion has a huge impact on the environment. ‘H&M backs fabric made from cow manure.’ [Supply Management]
8. Another major impact of fast fashion (and eCommerce in general) is the huge pile of cardboard it creates. eft collaborators UPS and Sealed Air are looking to help resolve this. ‘UPS will save you from that mountain of empty Amazon boxes.’
9. IoT, cloud, connected – they all need to be secured against security threats. ‘Industrial robots that build cars can be easily hacked.’ [Recode]
10. Apple is looking to invest heavily in domestic manufacturing. ‘Apple pledges $1 billion to support manufacturing jobs in the US.’ [engadget]