Before the eclipse

Welcome. I hope you'll have good weather to see the eclipse on Monday. We won't see another one in the US for 20 years.

If this is your first time reading you’ll find that we cover all things enterprise commerce. In this edition there’s news about the changes sweeping fashion and luxury brands, the pressures of Shein, the challenges of sustainability, what’s new with Shopify and Klaviyo and lots more.

What’s new

• We recently released a study with Klaviyo on 6 Reasons Top Brands Leave Traditional Marketing Solutions for Klaviyo.
• Nick Thomson did an interview with Leah Beitler from Listrak about Shopify and the enterprise. You can check it out here.

In the news

• FedEx shared more details about their fdx commerce platform on their earnings call last month. It’s due for launch this fall. (PYMNTS)
• Nike pivots its strategy, looks once again to outside retailers to drive sales. They had shifted to more DTC last year. (Morningstar)
• Chewy is moving forward with vet care and making money in ad sales. (Marketing Daily)?
• Shopify client, On Running, on their history and market expansion plans. (Glossy)
• Luxury sales in China are under pressure for brands. This article covers many of them. Some that are doing well include Miu Miu and Hermes. (Fashion Network)
• H&M is under pressure from Shein and is moving more upmarket. (Fashion Network)
• How Zara is beating Shein by investing in an elevated product and shopping experience. (Business of Fashion)
• Innovation Won’t Save Department Stores. The Right Products Will. (Business of Fashion)
• Clinique is the first Estée Lauder brand to launch in the U.S. Amazon Premium Beauty Store
• Glossier & LVMH: A Love Story? (Puck)
• Has the Luxury E-Commerce Bubble Burst? This is an extensive article. (NYTimes)
• The Boom Of Luxury Travel Retail. Lots more stores in airports. (Forbes)
• 60% of Gen Zers surveyed by Deloitte said they prefer user-generated content videos because it's easier to find something to watch. (TheWrap)
• Beyond has a new CCO and relaunched Overstock.com. (Retail Dive)
• ThredUp sees growth in the secondhand market but less than previously predicted. (Retail Dive)
• Fun Collabs: Keds + Magnolia Bakery, Lilly Pulitzer + Badgley Mischka, Reebok + Anine Bing.?
• Return policies and in-store vs offline sway customer behavior according to an ICSC survey. Across all retail categories, 6.2% of in-store customers returned items they bought, while about a third of online shoppers did so. (RetailDive)
• Sustainability and fashion - this one was really interesting, covering the challenges of going plastic free, why Patagonia chose to keep using polybags and the fact that over half of clothing is made from cheap polyester. (Fashion Network)
• Refills are not as sustainable as we’ve been led to believe - Important: "Some of the biggest offenders to me would be ‘planet positive,’ ‘plastic neutral’ and ‘good for the planet.’ Even just the term ‘sustainable,’ without any substantiation to back it up, is very misleading." (Glossy)
• Abercrombie - Joe DeWulf put together a quick timeline and summary of how they grew 400% in the past 5 years.?
• The Center added body care brand Cyklar to its portfolio. The Center previously sold Naturium to E.l.f. for $355M. (RetailDive)
• Commercetools are pursuing a path to IPO. (Modern Retail)
• Alex at Crossing Minds noted that Siri AI will be getting significantly better. More to come at WWDC in mid-June most likely.???

Shopify

• Tobi announced “world class search” is a big priority of his right now.
• We are a featured migration partner on their new Salesforce Commerce Cloud vs Shopify page.
• Shopify is currently running a Shop Pay Beauty & Wellness Week with more than 20 brands. Shop Cash 20% back is a big part of the promotion. Inc magazine talked about it.
• Released a Shop Pay off-platform case study with Everlane.
• Released a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) study which showed they’re about 36% better than the competition.
• Doubling down for Earth Month: Shopify's approach to sustainable commerce and carbon removal.
• Their study from last June on shoppers and conversion with Boston Consulting Group is still quite relevant today.
• Bobby Morrison did a podcast with 2X about How Shopify is Doubling Down on Enterprise Commerce.

Klaviyo

• Released a guide comparing to Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
• Nosto has a strong integration with them.?New is the ability to import Klaviyo email lists and segments to Nosto as Nosto segments, which can be then used for onsite personalization. Search events by any search tool (including Nosto). These can be pushed to Klaviyo for creating Klaviyo segments. The most common use case is search abandonment email flows.

Until next time.