Indonesian retailer to adopt more Filipino fashion brands

MANILA - The retailer behind the Indonesian foray of Penshoppe is also eyeing to franchise Filipino clothing brands Bayo, Bench, and Plains and Prints, the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc (PhilExport) said in a statement over the weekend.

PhilExport quoted Alma F. Argayoso, commercial attaché at the Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC) in Jakarta, as saying that Indonesia’s leading lifestyle retail group PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk (MAP) has expressed interest to introduce more Filipino brands after launching Penshoppe last year. MAP operates almost 1,400 stores, mostly upscale American and European concepts, across the Indonesian archipelago.

Penshoppe is being managed in Indonesia by PT Prima Mode Indonesia, a subsidiary of MAP. Two Penshoppe stores were opened in Indonesia last year, with 10 more slated for opening this year, according to Indonesian media reports.

“PT Prima Mode Indonesia president and director Agus Gozali plans to open at least 150 Penshoppe stores all over Indonesia within the next 10 years,” Argayoso said.

Penshoppe is geared towards Indonesia’s young, middle-class market, which may also be served by fashion-wear brands such as Bayo, Bench, and Plains and Prints.

“We are arranging a meeting between Bench and Mr. Gozali sometime in March or April 2013,” Argayoso said.

Gozali was also interested in other Filipino lifestyle concepts such as fashion designer Rajo Laurel’s kiddie couture line Rajito, Carolina’s Lace Shoppe bridal accessories, and Regalong Pambahay home handicrafts, Argayoso said.

Since MAP is also engaged in the food and beverage business—it operates Burger King, Domino’s Pizza and Starbucks in Indonesia—Filipino food exporters may soon also tap the huge Indonesian population.

“Gozali promised to link Philippine exporters and franchisors to the manager of The FoodHall, one of Indonesia’s leading gourmet supermarkets,” Argayoso said. The FoodHall is MAP’s supermarket arm.

“Interested retailers, franchisors and exporters in the Philippines are advised to coordinate with us to propose/offer business opportunities to the MAP group,” she said.

Penshoppe was MAP's first Asian fashion-wear brand. MAP holds licenses to about 115 fashion and food and beverage brands, according to reports.

source: interaksyon.com

Spanish retailer of Zara says profit surged after expanding globally, launch of China online sales

MADRID—The world's biggest clothing group, Spain's Inditex which controls the Zara brand, reported Wednesday a surge in profit in the first three quarters as it expanded globally and launched online sales in China.

Inditex said net profit leapt 27 percent from a year earlier to 1.655 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in the nine months to October 31.

Sales climbed 25 percent to 11.36 billion euros, said the group, founded 40 years ago in Arteixo, Galicia, by billionaire Amancio Ortega, the son of a railwayman.

Inditex opened 360 new stores in 54 markets in the period, notably under its brands of Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka and Pull and Bear, to bring the total to 5,887 stores in 86 countries.

Zara opened its first on-line store in China on September 5 and it plans to open another on-line store in Canada in early-to-mid 2013, Inditex said in a statement.

"The results for the first nine months of 2012 (business year) show that Inditex is continuing its global, multi-concept and multi-channel expansion," the group said.

Inditex chairman and chief executive Pablo Isla took over in July from Ortega, who remains the main shareholder.

source: interaksyon.com

Target Rolls Out QR Codes for Holiday Shopping

The anonymity of online shopping will soon be available in real time.

Starting Oct. 14, Target will tag the top 20 toys of the season in its stores with QR Codes. Perfect, the company says, for secretive mobile shopping.

All shoppers need to do is download the Target app and scan whichever marked toy they’d like to buy. They can opt for free shipping, too.

source: mashable.com

After 45 years in Greenhills, Unimart to open 2nd branch in new Ortigas group project

MANILA - Retailer Unimart will put up its second branch at the mixed-use development of Ortigas & Co. in Pasig City.

In a statement, Ortigas said Unimart will be the anchor tenant of the property developer’s 10-hectare Capitol Commons, occupying a 10,000-square-meter lot at the corner of Shaw Boulevard and Meralco Avenue. 

Ortigas and Unimart signed the contract sealing the partnership on September 26.

“We are happy that our partnership with Unimart has grown stronger through time," said Rowell L. Recinto, Ortigas president and chief executive officer. 

"The brands Unimart and Greenhills Shopping Center have grown hand-in-hand for more than 4 decades now and we are more than pleased that it will also be the same for our new development, Capitol Commons. We at Ortigas & Company greatly value our partnership with Unimart,” Recinto added. 

Ortigas and Unimart began their partnership back in 1967 when lawyer Rafael Ortigas Jr. invited Henry Ng to open a grocery store at the Greenhills Shopping Center, which had yet to be developed at that time. 

Three years later, the first branch of Unimart in Greenhills opened its doors to the public and became the first building at the site.

Rising at the former site of the Rizal Provincial Capitol, Capitol Commons will have more than 35,000 square meters of retail space, over 214,000 square meters of office space, over 280,000 square meters of residential space and a full range of amenities such as a hotel, conference facilities and restaurants.

It will be home to retail center Estancia and The Royalton, the first residential tower in the development.

source: interaksyon.com

ONLINE SHOPPING

EBAY Inc., once a scrappy auction site for mom and pop sellers, is enticing some of the world's largest retailers by arguing it can help them compete better against e-commerce leader Amazon.com, Inc.

EBay Chief Executive John Donahoe and other executives have been telling retailers that Amazon is their enemy, while eBay is a friend because, unlike Amazon, it holds no inventory.

Amazon buys products wholesale, stores them in inventory, and sells them to consumers at higher prices – like all retailers.

EBay says it just matches buyers and sellers.

That message is sinking in, especially among brick and mortar retailers that are losing market share to Amazon.

''As retailers look for new vehicles for growth eBay becomes a natural partner – a better partner than Amazon,'' said Sucharita Mulpuru, an e-commerce analyst at Forrester Research.

When RadioShack Corp., reported a surprise quarterly loss last month, Chief Executive Jim Gooch told analysts that the electronics retailer had set up an eBay storefront to help the company reach new customers online.

Barnes & Noble, Toys ''R'' Us, GNC Holdings, Aeropostale, and Neiman Marcus are among other big retailers that now have storefronts on eBay.

Best Buy Co., Inc., sells mobile phones and wireless plans on eBay.

On Monday, eBay said it was testing a same-day delivery service called eBay Now with Target Corp., the second-largest US retailer, and other big retailers including Macy's, Inc., Nordstrom, Inc., and Walgreen Co.

Amazon offers same-day delivery in some areas already.

The foundations of eBay Now rest on Milo, a start-up eBay acquired in late 2010 which lets merchants upload in-store inventory onto eBay's online marketplace. When shoppers search on eBay now, they see what online sellers are offering, but also which nearby physical stores carry the product.

More than 50,000 stores in the United States have uploaded inventory to eBay, via Milo, including major retailers Home Depot, Inc., Ikea, Lowe's Companies, Inc., Sears Holdings Corp., and J.C. Penney Company, Inc.

''It's simple: location, location, location,'' said Ben Schachter, an analyst at Macquarie. ''Sellers have to go to where the buyers are.''

EBay has more than 100 million active shoppers on its online marketplace, he noted.

''Retailers don't have those kinds of numbers coming to their sites and buying,'' Schachter said. ''They would love to only sell through their own site, but they have to go where the buyers are, and many are on eBay.''

Amazon has a lot more active customers – about 180 million – but some retailers steer clear still.

Barnes & Noble, which has been hammered by Amazon, has had an eBay storefront since late 2010 and mostly uses it to sell refurbished Nook gadgets. Toys and books were added in May 2011.

''EBay has been an exceptional partner, working with Barnes & Noble to effectively promote Nook to its massive user base,'' said Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating. ''Amazon is a competitor. We don't sell on Amazon and have no plans to do so.''

Toys ''R'' Us does not sell on Amazon either. More than a decade ago, the largest toy retailer had exclusive rights to supply some toys on Amazon's website. That partnership ended in litigation and Amazon is now a leading toy retailer in its own right.

''It's the worst-kept secret in the retail industry,'' said Mulpuru. ''When you partner with Amazon, they are looking at your data, learning your business and have ambition to get into every category.''

Among the 100 largest retailers in the United States, most are choosing eBay over Amazon, according to Scot Wingo, chief executive of ChannelAdvisor, which helps merchants sell on both online marketplaces.

An Amazon spokesman declined to comment.

Amazon's marketplace for third-party sellers is growing rapidly and Wingo said that would not be happening if all retailers thought Amazon was the enemy.

The lure of Amazon's massive customer base is still powerful for many.

''We take any chance of getting new eyeballs and Amazon is just so large in the world of e-commerce,'' said Jerry Deboer, senior vice president of marketing at Jos. A. Bank, which has Amazon and eBay stores.

RadioShack also has both, and big retailers including Office Max and Sephora run Amazon stores.

Adding large sellers to eBay's marketplace helps the company in several ways.

EBay takes a cut of sales, so higher-volume sellers may help the company generate more revenue and profit.

EBay and retailers declined to discuss fees. However, eBay charges less for top sellers and negotiates individual deals with the biggest and best, according to Wingo.

EBay has struggled in the past because some of the products on its site were listed poorly or of questionable quality, and customer service from small sellers is not always what it could be. Big retailers are more likely to sell higher-quality products, categorize them more and provide better service.

DIFFERENT SHOPPERS

Retailers say eBay storefronts attract different shoppers than the ones who come to their own websites and physical stores.

EBay shoppers often search for deals, so some retailers use eBay to sell end-of-season or outlet products at lower prices.

Neiman Marcus' eBay storefront sells apparel, shoes and accessories under the Last Call brand, its outlet business.

EBay provides data to retailers to help them check if the shoppers who come to their eBay storefronts overlap with their existing customer base, according to Michael Jones, vice president of merchant development at eBay.

''By and large, people see this as a very significant incremental channel for them,'' Jones said.

In early 2010, eBay started including storefront inventory in results when shoppers searched on the website's front page.

That has helped retailers place their products in front of more consumers, according to Jo

source: mb.com.ph

Amazon's Next Conquest: Your Closet

MANILA, Philippines — Seattle— Amazon is so serious about its next big thing that it hired three women to do nothing but try on size 8 shoes for its Web reviews. Full time.

The online retailer is shooting 3,000 fashion images a day in a photo studio using patent-pending technology.

And it is happily losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year on free shipping—and, on apparel, even free returns—to keep its shoppers coming back.

Having wounded the publishing industry, slashed pricing in electronics, and made the toy industry quiver, Amazon is taking on the high-end clothing business in its typical way: go big and spare no expense.

“It’s Day 1 in the category,” Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, said in a recent interview. Though characteristically tight-lipped on bottom-line details, Bezos said the company was making a “significant” investment in fashion as it tried to convince designer brands that it wanted to work with them, not against them.

The traditional retail world—and many major brands that want no part of Amazon—are gearing up to fight for their lives.

“It has the latitude to set prices and charge whatever it wants,” Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst for Forrester Research, said of Amazon. “That is a huge threat for brands.”

Amazon has sold clothing for years. But recently it has focused on signing on hundreds of contemporary and high-end brands, including Michael Kors, Vivienne Westwood, Catherine Malandrino, Jack Spade and Tracy Reese, and it continues to prowl for more. On Monday, some of Amazon’s muscle was on display as the company sponsored, and live-streamed, the Costume Institute Benefit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the accompanying exhibit. Bezos, the event’s honorary chairman, said he was advised by Anna Wintour, Vogue’s editor, to wear a pocket square with his Tom Ford tuxedo (which is not available on Amazon). He did so.

Amazon’s decision to go after high fashion is about plain economics. Because Amazon’s costs are about the same whether it is shipping a $10 book or a $1,000 skirt, “gross profit dollars per unit will be much higher on a fashion item,” Bezos said, and it already makes money on fashion. While its MyHabit site, started last year, uses a flash-sale model to compete with Gilt Groupe, Bezos says the company’s new effort is not about selling clothes at deep discounts but at prices that ensure “the designer brands are happy.”

Amazon has not just size on its side but money. The company has about $5.7 billion in cash and marketable securities, and Bezos has long taken a stance that investing in the business is the best place to use it. The company can afford to do things that some competitors cannot, like hire a bevy of stylists for the website models or investigate replacing the plain brown shipping box with a fancier package for clothes.

Until now, fashion has been one of the few categories that Amazon has tried to dominate without success. In addition to its own site, Amazon bought the shoe site Zappos.com for more than $1 billion in 2009, started the shoe site Endless.com and MyHabit, and bought the boutique Shopbop in 2006.

But many brands stayed away because they said Amazon’s site often looked too commoditized. “It’s not a place where you look at it and are like, ‘Oh, my clothes look and feel really good,”’ said Andy Page, founder of men’s fashion brand Bonobos, which does not sell through Amazon.

Amazon hopes to fix that problem by going luxe. Bezos said Amazon.com’s initial forays into the high end had helped raise apparel sales by triple digits.

Amazon’s considerable computing capability, for example, has been turned to fashion and the analysis of enormous amounts of shopping data. The company has also made a “disproportionate” investment in photography, said Cathy Beaudoin, the president of fashion for Amazon. The photography studio, in Kentucky, can shoot more than two images a minute, allowing the company to post new items daily on the Web that were photographed hours earlier.

Most of all, the company is working to improve its presentation, so far most evidently on MyHabit, which Bezos said represented where Amazon wanted to go with all of its Web design for fashion.

Instead of static product images, for example, models spin and pose to show off the clothing. The model’s body measurements and the clothing measurements are provided to help with sizing. And shopper-friendly advice—does the size 8 shoe run big or small?—is prominent.

The ramp-up has created buzz as the company has hired models, stylists and makeup artists, started using customer data to personalize brand and size search results, and runs the first advertisement campaign ever, in print and outdoors, for the Amazon clothing store.

In the retail clothing world, fears are growing that few will be able to compete with a stepped-up Amazon.

For some brands, the company’s size alone makes an overture from Amazon difficult to reject. “The amount of eyeballs and traffic and retail dollars that are generated through their website” is impressive, said Alex Bhathal, co-president of Raj Manufacturing, which makes licensed swimwear brands like Ella Moss.

Amazon can also offer brands more attractive terms than many other stores. For instance, Amazon does not ask for “markdown money” when items do not sell, or return unsold product to a brand, said Ron Friedman, an accountant at Marcum LLP. who advises brands like James Perse and American Rag.

And to woo brands, Amazon is willing to make big buys. Jason Cauchi, creative director of Dallin Chase, had been selling some merchandise to Amazon’s Shopbop. Recently Amazon said it would buy items from the entire collection for the Amazon.com site, which Cauchi said was a rare offer and difficult to refuse.

A retailer like Amazon would typically pay brands a wholesale price for clothes, then set the retail price itself (although more powerful brands often mandate a minimum retail price).

While brands sell some of the same items to different stores, they are increasingly developing exclusive colors or styles to avoid price-comparison issues. “A manufacturer does not want to kill a business, and the best way to kill a business is to have the same product selling for less on Amazon,” Friedman, the retail accountant, said.

But Bezos said that, despite having taken a low-price approach in other industries, Amazon would not in fashion. “There’s a sophisticated markdown cadence in the fashion industry that we think makes sense and we’re basically following that established approach,” he said.

There are many disbelievers, given Amazon’s history in other industries. Bezos, moreover, has to deal with the fact that he is no fashion guy. Asked in the interview about the brands he was wearing, Bezos could not name the brands of his shirt or shoes. The jeans, he said, were Prada (not available on Amazon); his blue “Jeff” security badge was dangling from them. (NYT)

source: mb.com.ph