November 24, 2020
Retail news and trends to watch out for
- Editorial shopping picks. US-based video publisher Group Nine Media has created a shopping platform whose storefronts are curated by the editors of its media brands. Called Swipe.Shop, the platform will feature 80 digital storefronts. The company states that the platform allows consumers to shop based on editorial and social insights, rather than traditional consumer categories – a concept it says more accurately reflects how people purchase. Storefronts for example, include the Mask-Proof Makeup Shop or the Nail Art Shop. Shoppers can explore the products in each of the storefronts and click through to the brand’s website to make a purchase. Half of Swipe.Shop’s products will be from small business owners and 15% of shelf space will be reserved for Black-owned businesses. Group Nine Media has an audience of 220 million who spend more than 90 million hours a month watching its content, according to the company. It also claims to reach more than 80% of Americans in their 20s every month.
- Postponing Black Friday. France has opted to postpone Black Friday to alleviate retailers’ worries that they would miss out on the key holiday sales day due to the country’s lockdown. Importantly, Amazon – one of the winners of the pandemic – has said it too would postpone the sales event in a show of support for small- and medium-sized businesses. France’s brands and retailers are angered over the closure of non-essential retail. The French Commerce Council sent an open letter to president Emmanuel Macron appealing for retail in the country to be allowed to open from November 27, with the message: “Allow us to open or kill us.” The council says that the closed stores will have lost €8.9bn in turnover in November as a result of the lockdown. President Macron is expected to provide more details about lifting lockdown measures in an address on Tuesday evening.
- Superdrug’s TV push. UK-based retailer Superdrug has launched a YouTube-based series focused on beauty, health, celebrities and relationships. Called Superdrug TV, the weekly series launched last week with a 30-minute episode that highlighted beauty journalist Nadine Baggott’s new skincare edit, which was developed in collaboration with Superdrug. The show created a buzz around the product, and as of November 19, the edit was sold out online with limited stocks in-store, according to Superdrug’s Instagram. Also included in the series is a “Shop the episode” section in the video’s description bar with links to Superdrug’s site to buy products featured in each show.
- October discount deals pay off. Mid-October discount events from major US retailers, such as Amazon, Target and Walmart seem to have paid off. Deal-focused events from large retailers drove a 6% year-over-year spending increase for the US retail sector in the third week of October, according to management consultancy Deloitte. The digital nature of the sales resulted in an increase in online spending, even above the consistently higher online shopping seen since the beginning of the pandemic.