Retail News — 22nd May 2019

1. Consolidation in India’s long-tail eCommerce?

Indian eCommerce firm Snapdeal is close to acquiring rival ShopClues, according to unidentified sources reports The Economic Times. The deal is expected to be a 100% buyout, with ShopClues founders Radhika Aggarwal and Sanjay Sethi getting a small cash exit and its investors a 10% stake in the combined entity. The two firms are extremely popular in smaller towns in India where the audience is different from the core audience established by Amazon and Flipkart.

2. Another offline retailer partners with Amazon

Off-price retailer Stein Mart will install Amazon Hub Lockers at nearly 200 stores across 28 states. Amazon shoppers will be able to select their nearest locker as their shipping address, and when the package is ready for pickup they will receive an email with a barcode they can use to retrieve their item during store hours.

3. TechStyle pilots Google Shoppable ads

The parent company of Fabletics, SavageXFenty, and Justfab is piloting shoppable ads on Google images by working with social commerce platform Curalate. Curalate launched an integration yesterday for merchants to easily participate in Google’s Shoppable ads which feature lifestyle imagery. Its software dashboard allows brands to tag their lifestyle images to create shoppable ads with visual cues to indicate to consumers which products are available to browse.

4. Opening the doors to clothing rentals

Urban Outfitters is set to launch its own rental service named ‘Nuuly’. For $88 a month, customers can choose six items from four or five product lines available. The company joins the likes of Ascena’s Ann Taylor, American Eagle, and of course, Rent the Runway in offering clothing rentals. Since RTR emerged, several players — across categories — have embraced rentals as a revenue channel rather than fight it.

5. Athleisure slows down

Five years after athleisure first began to trend, there are signs that the $167 billion industry is slowing down. To continue maintaining high growth rates, brands are shifting focus to new consumer segments such as the workplace. Lululemon, Athleta, and Dai have already started capitalizing on this audience by introducing exclusive product lines.