Sublime

Amazon’s ad business is bigger than YouTube and more profitable than AWS. Shein is the biggest fast-fashion retailer in the US, with no stores. US pay TV subscribers have fallen by a third. Where do ad budgets go, where does rent go, and how many brands will there be?

Shein shows one way this can go - it’s built a smartphone-only fast fashion brand that appears to be bigger than H&M and Zara combined in the USA. Part of the Shein story is the pace of inventory and the use of data (it claims to add 8-10k new SKUs every single day) but the other is that it has built this business with cheap shipping and (like ... See more

Hong, 48, had no experience in luxury. She was, however, a Proenza Schouler customer, and had specific ideas about how to crystallise what the brand stood for.

“Inconsistency made it difficult to build a business.”

“My observation was that there was zig-zagging; an inconsistency,” she said. “Even as an outsider to this industry, I knew that inconsist... See more