Retail & Merchandising

One image just disrupted a £22 billion fashion empire more effectively than a thousand sustainability reports. 🔥 This isn't an official SHEIN campaign gone wrong. It's artist Emanuele Morelli's AI creation—a haunting visualisation showing what fast fashion's "affordability" really costs us. The image speaks volumes: a SHEIN billboard where the model's flowing dress transforms into a cascade of textile waste. Art communicating what statistics alone cannot. 5 uncomfortable truths this image forces us to confront: 1. The scale of fashion waste is staggering → 92 million tonnes of textile waste produced annually  → The equivalent of one rubbish lorry of textiles dumped every second  → Most fast fashion items designed to be worn fewer than 10 times 2. The business model depends on our amnesia → Constantly changing trends keep us buying  → Ultra-low prices remove financial friction  → Digital marketing creates artificial scarcity and FOMO  → We're trained to forget yesterday's purchases 3. The true cost isn't on the price tag → Environmental damage from production chemicals  → Microplastics shedding into water systems  → Supply chain ethics compromised for speed and cost  → Communities near production sites bearing health consequences 4. Our definition of "affordable" is broken → When clothing is cheaper than a coffee, someone else is paying  → True cost spread across communities, environments, and future generations  → Psychological cost of constant consumption never factored in 5. Solutions exist but require systemic change → Circular fashion models gaining traction  → Rental and resale markets growing rapidly  → Consumer awareness rising but needs to translate to behaviour While SHEIN isn't the only culprit in the fast fashion ecosystem, Morelli's artwork throws a spotlight on an uncomfortable reality we've normalised. What we wear reflects our values more than our taste. What is your wardrobe saying about yours? Image: Emanuele Morelli ♻️ Found this helpful? Repost to share with your network.  ⚡ Want more content like this? Hit follow Maya Moufarek.

Indian D2C has a fraud problem no one is talking about.. Everyone knows about returns. Fashion: ~30% return rate. Electronics/Health: ~20%. BPC: ~10% But, industry data shows: ~15% of returns are fraudulent. For a brand with 30% returns, that means 4-5% of total orders are fraud. It could be a return that comes back with the product used, damaged or even missing from the box. The worst thing I ever saw was my capsules replaced by gems and sent back 😂 The difference? Returns cost you just shipping with a product that can be reused. Frauds cost you the entire product + shipping + processing. The 3 Types of Return Fraud: 1. Wardrobing Order for wedding/event → Wear once, keep tags on → Return claiming "didn't fit" Fashion brands report: 15-20% of returns are worn items 2. Bracketing Order 4 sizes of same item → Try at home → Keep 1, return 3 Problem: Each return costs ₹100-150 in logistics. Customer pays nothing. 3. The Swap/Scam Order new laptop/phone → Return old/broken one in new box → Claim "defective" Electronics brands lose lakhs annually to serial number swaps alone. Let’s talk numbers: For a ₹10 Cr revenue fashion brand: Return rate: 30% = ₹3 Cr in returns Fraud rate: 20% of returns = ₹60 L fraudulent Cost per fraudulent return: - Forward shipping: ₹40 - Return shipping: ₹60 - Processing: ₹50 - Product: ₹1,000 (can't resell worn/damaged items) = Total loss: ₹1,150 Annual fraud loss: 6.9% of revenue. That's more than most D2C net margins. One of the reasons it's exploding is because of many people putting this as “Instagram hacks” or "Order outfits for events, return after". But, also because our ecommerce customers have not matured. Making return fraud = "smart shopping." While "7-day no questions asked return" is marketing advantage for brands, it’s getting fatal with these smart hacks. The sad part is that there's no good solution. - Industry-wide blacklist? Won't happen (anti-competitive) - Stricter policies or charge for returns? Lose to competition but the most likely to actually happen. - Better detection? Expensive, always lagging - Accept the loss? Kills margins Until fraud is culturally stigmatized again, D2C economics will stay broken. Are you guilt of doing this?

Killer graph. Out of the £130 billion online non-food purchases we make in the UK, £27 billion of them get sent back to retailers. Our research with ZigZag Global shines a spotlight on the significant challenge online returns cause in the industry, focusing on those consumers who consistently and intentionally over-order - the "serial returners". Key stats ➡️ Around 11% of online shoppers are serial returners (frequently over-ordering with the intention of returning many items) ➡️They account for 24% of all online returns ➡️Serial returners send back, on average, £1,400 worth of online orders per year, compared with an average of £650. ➡️ This amounts to £6.6 billion of returns. ➡️ Almost three-quarters of serial returners are under the age of 45, and they return more than 42% of all their orders. A 1/4 of serial returners admit to over-ordering just to reach a minimum order value (often to trigger free delivery) only to return goods they had no intention of keeping. The same proportion also said they had returned items after finding them cheaper elsewhere or on promotions. While 18% admitted to returning items having already used them for a short period. There is no silver bullet here that is going to fix this issue for retailers. A nuanced understanding of specific triggers and barriers is essential to effectively target returners through pricing and returns options. 💥 For many boardrooms debating whether they should charge for returns, my thoughts are: 💥 The returns equation transcends simple binary choices between free or paid. Retailers must architect differentiated returns propositions that align commercial realities with customer lifetime value. Smart retailers will segment their returns strategy by customer profitability metrics, leveraging AI to identify purchase patterns that predict long-term value. This enables dynamic returns pricing that protects margins while fostering relationships with truly valuable customers. The goal isn't to punish returns – it's to price them according to their true cost to serve, while rewarding profitable shopping behaviours. There's also a paradox at play where customer acquisition costs are optimised but customer profitability is compromised. Many retailers are essentially subsidising unsustainable shopping behaviours at the expense of margin, unknowingly targeting customers they could do without. The real opportunity lies in leveraging returns data as a predictive indicator of customer profitability. By applying advanced analytics to returns patterns, seasonal purchasing behaviours, and cross-category browsing and mining deep behaviour insights, retailers can enable proactive intervention before profitability erodes. This shifts the conversation from universal policies to personalised solutions that can turn returns from a pure cost centre into a strategic lever for customer engagement and loyalty. Full research is available to download here ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/e5paRNWC

The biggest threat to $60+ AAA isn’t AI or layoffs, but disappearing demand I’ve been polling our community every six months for three years now on how many full-price AAA games people buy each year. It gets worse every time I repoll it. Nearly half of respondents this year (47%) did not buy a single $60+ game in all of 2025. 82 percent bought two or fewer. We have both quantitative and qualitative data on this now, and I believe we have not accepted just how deep this trend is - or how much it’s reshaping the industry from the inside out. When you read through the responses and chat with our community members, the reasons repeat: • Game Pass and subscriptions have shifted spending habits • Many people simply don’t have the disposable income right now • Players have been disappointed by previous purchases • We’ve trained ourselves to wait for sales • There are so many free games and inexpensive indies that feel satisfying • Older premium games now sell at deep discounts • Backlogs are enormous • There’s endless content competing for time • Younger players often value social and streamable experiences more than production scale • And maybe most of all, price no longer feels like a proxy for value AAA can still create magic. But many titles are now set up to fail before they even launch - not because of marketing or quality, but because the demand for full-price experiences simply isn’t there. Here’s a snapshot of our recent bi-annual poll and what our members said.

When growth on Amazon stalls after a certain scale, it is either a traffic problem or a conversion problem. If you are struggling to grow profitably on Amazon, just go back to basics, log into Brand Analytics, and look at 3 metrics to diagnose the problem 1.      Search Term Impression Share for High Volume Generic Searches : Amazon is a search led platform and in most categories upto 75% of searches are generic keywords( no wonder they are fast catching up with Google search in revenue). The biggest lever to grow is to have a high impression share( mix of organic and ads) on high volume generic keywords. If your impression share on high volume KWs don’t grow, overall growth is difficult. 2.      Branded Search Volumes for both Own Brand and Competition: This is often a function of activities done outside the platform. If branded search volumes don’t grow, the reliance on Ads driven glance views won’t come down and profitable growth will be difficult. Similarly if competition branded searches go up, you will find it extremely difficult to hold on to your market share 3.      Conversion Rates for all High Volume Keywords: Look at the conversion trends. If you are not able to maintain/improve conversions with increasing search term impressions share( provided it is increasing), you need to go back to the product pricing proposition. Maybe a competitor with a better proposition is taking market share. Maybe you have hit the ceiling of growth with the current product proposition and further growth will only come if you can introduce new propositions to appeal to a broader TG I am amazed at how much data Amazon shares so that businesses can diagnose problems correctly and take decisions. And equally amazed at how few leaders go deep, open the portals and read the reports that are available. If you are not doing it, start it today P.S. It doesn’t matter how busy I am, most Sundays I will open brand analytics, Amazon Pi and the ads platform and look at the metrics from the source itself. This is how one of the sample reports look like.

While global fashion giants 𝗯𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 and digital campaigns, one Indian brand quietly built a 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲. Zudio, owned by Tata's Trent Ltd, has rewritten the fast fashion playbook with a radical simplicity strategy. With 545 stores across India and revenues crossing $1 billion in FY25, this value fashion retailer has achieved what many premium brands struggle with - profitable growth without the marketing noise. The secret lies in their contrarian approach. While competitors chase metro cities, Zudio targets Tier 2 and 3 markets like Surat, Kanpur, and Bhubaneswar - cities with growing disposable incomes but underserved by premium retailers. No celebrity campaigns, no e-commerce push, no premium positioning. Instead, Zudio made pricing their brand identity. Their stores average 9,500 square feet compared to competitors' 21,000 square feet, yet generate ₹16,300 revenue per square foot - double the industry average. In fiscal 2024 alone, they opened 203 new stores and entered 46 new cities, proving that operational efficiency trumps marketing flash. Trent's consolidated revenue hit ₹4,656 crore in Q3 FY25, with Zudio driving the majority of this growth through their disciplined expansion strategy. 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀: 1. 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝗶𝘇𝗲 - Tier 2/3 cities offered higher growth potential than saturated metros 2. 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱 - Superior store productivity created sustainable competitive advantage 3. 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 - Clear value proposition resonated better than complex brand narratives 4. 𝗟𝗼𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 - Strategic placement became their primary customer acquisition tool 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲: 𝗜𝘀 𝗭𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼'𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶-𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹, 𝗼𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗴𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗴𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮? Share your thoughts in the comments below! #FastFashionIndia #IndianBusiness #BrandingDebate

You think Shein is just another fast fashion company. But really they are one of the biggest technology companies you've never truly understood. Here are 3 things that this Chinese-owned fashion giant did to be worth more than H&M and Zara combined! 👇 👉 Shein uses its own proprietary tools along with Google trends to figure out what styles are trending through search and social media. These then go to their team of 800 designers who create designs based on the styles. Designs are created within 36 hours. Social trends generate hype before the item has even been produced by Shein. This is incredibly smart...they sell into pent-up demand for a certain style. Then their products leverage that hype to build more hype but this time specifically around their brand. 👉 Shein creates small batches of products - as small as 10 pieces then put them on their site. Then using AI, they're able to track behaviour like browsing product details, the number of add-to carts, and how long people spend on a particular product. All their 3000 suppliers are given access to Shein's ERP platform which allows them to see in real-time what products are being clicked on the most, then instantly create more of those. This real-time model reduces the time from design to finished product to 3 days and drastically reduces excess waste. To give some context, their nearest competitor Zara takes 5 weeks and that's considered fast. There is fast fashion...then there is supersonic fashion. 👉 Shein adds over 1000 new styles every single day in over 220 countries! To put this into context, Zara adds 300 per month. In reality, Shein is really an optimisation machine - ingesting what we like then feeding us more of that...and doing it in a localised way. There is a second algorithm that weighs how deep the actions are of a user on a site - a product which has more viewing time has a higher weighting than one which people merely clicked on for 2 seconds. This then leads to the user being shown similar products. You and I could go on Shein and be shown drastically different products due to our browsing data. If this hyper-personalisation sounds very similar, it's because there is another super app launched in China which has the same thing... TikTok. -- It’s no surprise why Shein has been called The TikTok of commerce. Whether you love them or hate them - and there are many reasons to hate them - you can’t deny that they’re building the future of what commerce looks like. Commerce is moving from a human-designed POV and moving to what the machines tell us. I believe that's generally where consumption is moving, when there is so much choice, let the algorithms decide. There will be no need for human curation. Even more important, I believe we're just at the beginning of this wave...

America just got reintroduced to Guinness as a local brand. A bold shift away from its traditional Irish roots, led by the mighty Uncommon Creative Studio NYC. Alden, Steenkamp & Batra’s work on consumer culture positioning is a business school staple. I've never seen a clearer live example of this theory in practice. Their research shows how brands can position themselves in three ways. GLOBAL: Part of global culture LOCAL: A brand for “people like me, from here” FOREIGN: An exotic, aspirational foreign brand With this framework, marketers can shape brand perception, signal trust or status, and win local share for global brands. I've always thought beer and cider is the perfect category showing this strategy at play. 1. Heineken - Global Culture Obvious example. Global sports, international celebrities, same message everywhere. 2. Craft Brands - Local Culture The craft boom was a strategy where large FMCGs bought or built local brands to win trust and authenticity in smaller, profitable markets. Ironically, BrewDog went the opposite way from local to global, ditching the Scottish charm rather fast. 3. Fosters - Foreign Culture Endless options here. Especially as Italian beer is booming! Asahi is also a big winner with this.But Fosters is my favourite: it never even existed in Australia! They borrowed Aussie humour and heat to build a brand around refreshment with mates. Genius, no wonder their campaigns won IPA awards. This is why the new Guinness work is so interesting. It takes a specific American insight (50 states, divided) and relaunches the brand as something that brings them together. Real Americans. Real Guinness. A pure local positioning shift for a brand long doing anything but. This may feel off if you're not American (or even if you are). But this stuff takes time. Just look at Guinness in Africa. Guinness Foreign Extra Stout is now a symbol of local pride across the continent. It can clearly work. This framework is also a bit of a curse. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. You’ll start reading every brand move through it. Look at discount grocers across the EU. Lidl and Aldi act local and proud in every market to boost trust and quality. The ad itself? A brilliant demonstration that marketers leaving music choices to the end of production are missing the biggest opportunity. Let me know if you're a fan of this new move in the comments. I share #advertising and #marketing insights daily. Follow for more.

Now, Gen Z is spending ₹4 lakhs on sneakers. Sounds crazy, right? But here's what's really happening. India's sneaker market will jump from $3.88 billion in FY2024 and is expected to reach $5.93 billion in FY2032. The growth rate? 5.45% CAGR. After 20 years in retail, I've never seen consumer behavior shift this dramatically. Here's what's really happening: 📍Scarcity creates obsession Limited drops sell out in minutes. A sneaker priced at ₹10,000 resells for ₹1 lakh because only few pairs exist globally. The resale value often beats gold appreciation. 📍Identity over utility For Gen Z, sneakers replaced what watches and cars meant for previous generations. They're wearable identity cards. Golden Goose sells pre-scuffed sneakers at premium prices, and 80% of buyers are Gen Z or millennials. 📍The resale economy thrives Platforms like StockX authenticate and facilitate trades. Kanye's Nike Air Yeezy 1 Prototype sold for $1.8 million in 2021. India now has its own resale ecosystem growing rapidly. 📍Local brands cracked the code Global brands treated India as secondary. Homegrown brands like Comet and Yoho localized design for wider Indian feet and climate needs. Comet's Mango shoe celebrated Indian culture. Storytelling matters more than specs now. It’s clear that sneakers now appear in weddings, boardrooms, and formal events. Parents spent similar amounts on gold that sat in lockers. Gen Z wears their wealth and builds community through it. This isn't just about shoes. It's about how status and belonging are being redefined in India. What's your take on this sneaker obsession?

“Happy (Product) Returns” - new cartoon and post https://lnkd.in/gvumTSby “Free Returns” has become the new “Free Shipping,” which is creating a massive logistical headache for retailers, particularly in the weeks after Christmas. This year, shoppers in the US returned 14.5% of the items they purchased, valued at $743 billion. That’s nearly double the return rates of pre-pandemic 2019. One third of shoppers now make returns part of their shopping strategy, buying multiple items, knowing they’ll return some later. As Gartner retail analyst Tom Enright put it in the WSJ a few days ago, “we’re headed for a trillion dollar problem here.” The economics of product returns are brutal. The WSJ reported that only 30% of all returned items are resold and Enright estimates that retailers are losing 50% of their margins on returns. A recent survey from logistics company goTRG found that 49% of retailers believe product returns are a “severe problem”, up from 2% just a few years ago. That has led some retailers like Zara and H&M to start cracking down on returns this year with shorter return windows, return fees, and even “keep it” policies. This will be a tricky challenge for brands and retailers to navigate. When shoppers have been trained to expect “Free Returns” as table stakes, it’s hard to pull back. And the returns process is every bit a part of the customer experience as the purchase. Like unsustainable price promotions, I think that “Free Returns” are emblematic of the “race-to-the-bottom” dynamic in retail. What starts as a point of difference becomes background noise. This is a good reminder for brands and retailers to think about what they stand for beyond the lowest price or biggest deal. For related cartoons and all the links in this post, click here: https://lnkd.in/gvumTSby To sign up for my weekly marketoon email newsletter, click here: https://lnkd.in/g9DBM6tD #marketing #cartoon #marketoon