Lotte Cuts, Target’s K-Beauty Bet, and Net-a-Porter’s Whale Hunt
Monday, September 21, 2026 · 9 min
Lotte Department Store opened voluntary retirement applications for long-tenured staff, signaling restructuring despite strong sector earnings, while Target’s Beauty Studio pushes K-beauty deeper into U.S. mass retail and Net-a-Porter’s winback math raises the cost of courting luxury whales.
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Show notes
Lotte Department Store opened voluntary retirement applications for long-tenured staff, signaling restructuring despite strong sector earnings, while Target’s Beauty Studio pushes K-beauty deeper into U.S. mass retail and Net-a-Porter’s winback math raises the cost of courting luxury whales.
In this episode
- Lotte Department Store Implements Voluntary Retirement After 5 Years... Offering Up to 40 Months of Base Salary — SBS News
# Lotte Department Store Implements Voluntary Retirement After 5 Years... Offering Up to 40 Months of Base Salary Published: 2026-09-21T14:52:12+09:00 Source: news.sbs.co.kr (news.sbs.co.kr) Language: en ## Story Lotte Department Store is implementing a voluntary retirement program.According to Lotte Department Store on September 21, the company announced that it will accept applications for…
- Target gets K-beauty brands to think beyond Sephora, Ulta with new Beauty Studio — Modern Retail
Walking around a Target store today, shoppers are going to find far more K-beauty brands than they would have a year ago as the retailer seeks the latest style trends and as Korean brands seek to expand into U.S. mass retail. Earlier this year, Target quadrupled its K-beauty assortment with more than 150 new products and more than 10 new brands across skin care, makeup and hair care, according to…
- Step Back — Net-a-Porter wants its best customers back—but what actually makes a high-value luxury shopper return in 2026: better assortment, more personalized service, sharper pricing, or something else? And can those investments produce acceptable economics when brands are increasingly trying to own the customer relationship themselves?
Background sources
- Net-a-Porter wants its best customers back — Zofia Zwieglinska
- Luxury E-tailers Go Beyond Online | Fashionbi — Fashionbi
- LuxExperience Returns Net-a-Porter and Mr Porter to Growth | Vogue — Joe Bobowicz
- Luxury Fashion Is Rethinking Its Value to Shoppers | BoF — BoF
- Net-a-Porter Captured 32.1% of Returning Buyers’ Spend — Yipitdata
- How Rothy’s built a DTC footwear brand with staying power — Modern Retail
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • Spotify Footwear brand Rothy’s, which crossed $211 million in sales last year , is an example of a company that has managed to successfully navigate the volatile direct-to-consumer shoe category, even as competitors like Allbirds have failed. Brands that began as strictly DTC are increasingly looking at what they can do to survive and grow beyond just putting out…
- Fresh off its viral influencer ‘bachelorette trip’, Swan Beauty attempts a NYFW blitz — Glossy
Swan Beauty, the 9-month-old smart mirror company, made a splash online in April when it sponsored a lavish bachelorette trip for influencer Brigette Pheloung, known online as @acquiredstyle. “It was a wonderful partnership with Bridget [because] we entered an experience that was so special for her, and it was great that she was able to showcase how she uses the platform as an early beta tester…