Recommended Reading :
Why A Potential $5B Valuation At IPO For Luxury Unicorn FarFetch May Not Be Crazy After All (March 28 2018)
https://www.cbinsights.com/research/farfetch-ipo-online-luxury/
ftch (IPO proceeds of 885M dollars)+stadiumgoods (acquisition of 250M dollar price tag)+ JD (with google investing $550M). nice alliances.
Capitalize on Luxury Streetwear https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/12/farfetch-bets-on-sneakers-with-250m-stadium-goods-acquisition/
“Luxury streetwear is a significant part of our business,” Neves said. “For many years now, we have had the largest collection of Off-White, for example, on the internet … What we did not have was the resale, secondary market. It was clear this was an interesting opportunity.”
Together, Farfetch and Stadium Goods will focus on international growth. McPheters tells TechCrunch Stadium Goods already had a significant international base of customers, but a partnership with Farfetch gives them the tools to go places they’ve never been.
Dedicated online luxury platforms are battling to become the entry point to China for luxury brands.
Luxury platform Farfetch just announced its decision to merge its business in China with JD.com’s luxury e-commerce platform TOPLIFE.
Unlike Amazon in the US, Chinese e-commerce giants are aggressively courting luxury brands. Both Alibaba and JD.com have recently launched dedicated all-in-one luxury platforms with ultra-secure warehouses, invite-only loyalty programs, mobile e-commerce, and other services.
https://jdcorporateblog.com/jd-com-expands-luxury-white-glove-delivery-service/
secret of JD? Handsome White Glove Delivery Men + ULTRA FAST DELIVERY.
the secret of the luxury market?
“handsome men delivery” — white glove delivery service.
JD Luxury Express is a service made possible with the advanced retail infrastructure and technology that unlocks unprecedented efficiencies for the retail industry. With over 300 million customers, JD.com is the only large-scale e-commerce company in the world to operate its logistics in-house, down to the last mile.
The company operates over 515 warehouses, including 14 mega-fulfillment centers, and a nationwide transportation network, delivering over 90% of orders within the same or next day. It is now offering its infrastructure and technology to other shippers as part of a broader strategy to provide Retail as a Service.
JD Luxury Express is now available in nine cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Hangzhou.
Chinese internet group JD.com on Thursday said it will test driverless deliveries with Japanese peer Rakuten, hoping to take a first step toward expanding its robotics business internationally.
China’s second-largest e-commerce company will provide delivery robots — drones and unmanned ground vehicles that are equipped with cameras and sensors for self-navigation — to Rakuten, which will use them to test last-mile deliveries in Japan. JD.com operates more than 100 drones and 50 driverless ground vehicles in China, according to Xiao Jun, who leads the company’s robotics division.
The $1.3T (and growing) luxury experiences economy is providing opportunities for industries beyond fashion.
As consumers favor experiences over brands and products, luxury companies are adapting their marketing and distribution strategy to redefine luxury.
LVMH, for one, recently spent $3.2B to acquire luxury hotel operator Belmond, thus expanding into luxury hospitality.
Large Secular Trends
- Ecommerce — https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-trends/Southeast-Asia-eclipses-China-as-world-s-mobile-economy-hot-spot1
- Intelligent Society -http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2017-08/26/content_31138476_7.htm#Contentp
- Robot Automation, More sophistication — https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/05/elon-musk-wasnt-wrong-about-automating-the-model-3-assembly-line-he-was-just-ahead-of-his-time/
- Manufacturing Automation: Robots will increasingly have the capability to deal with objects at randomized orientations, like a car seat that is 20 degrees off-center or a screw that is an inch too far to the left. Even further, robots will be able to reliably identify soft, flexible, transparent objects (think about, for example, the plastic bag of socks you ordered on Amazon last week). New robotics providers like Berkshire Grey are at the cutting edge of this.
Berkshire Grey -https://www.berkshiregrey.com/about/blog/we-are-berkshiregrey/
“Berkshire Grey assembled an amazing team that builds incredible intelligent robotic solutions for world-class customers,” Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, said in a release. “AI and robotics are revolutionizing supply chains, and Berkshire Grey is at the leading edge of this step change for retailers, e-commerce companies and logistics providers. They are solving real challenges right now with commercial grade technology that is light years ahead of the competition.”
Berkshire Grey
Berkshire Grey is a secretive robotics startup founded and led by former iRobot CTO Tom Wagner. The startup has been under the radar since it was started in 2013, but federal and state filings, resumes and LinkedIn profiles give some clues as to what Berkshire is up to. According to the resume of Kevin Ahearn, Berkshire’s vice president of business development, the company is working on artificial intelligence-based robotic and automated material handling systems. The company raised a $3 million seed round and counts West Coast venture capital firm Khosla Ventures as one of its early investors, according to PitchBook data. The company has filed a number of patents for systems that pick and sort objects, among other things.
