Target keeps becoming the place brands go to test their future. Who, exactly, gets the better deal? This is Fashion Business Daily. Target’s bringing in Hollister, rebuilding beauty, and suddenly it’s fashion’s off-mall laboratory. First up: Hollister says its Target dorm partnership is working. But will those new shoppers stick around? Here's Zofia Zwieglinska at Glossy:
Hollister’s first significant push into U.S. wholesale is bringing in new customers and encouraging parent company Abercrombie & Fitch Co. to explore further expansion beyond apparel. In more than 1,500 Target stores this summer, the teen brand launched a dorm collection spanning bedding, bath accessories, storage and soft furnishings.
A pillow moving 4,000 units in a month at Target is a decent little hit. But I want to know whether that dorm shopper later goes to Hollister online and pays full price for a jacket—otherwise, all they’ve done is sell Target some cute bedding. Fran Horowitz says the collection beat expectations and brought in new customers, but the company didn’t provide collection sales or sell-through numbers. “Terrific” is not a metric, and 1,500 Target doors can make almost any launch look big. Still, this beats opening a bunch of Hollister home stores nobody asked for. Target lets them test comforters, storage, all that dorm-life stuff—and the product has to earn its space beside a thousand other move-in-week options. And Target is becoming more than a wholesale outlet for brands looking beyond the mall. The retailer gets an exclusive-ish hook for that dorm basket; Hollister gets a customer-acquisition experiment. We’ll see who gets the payoff first. Mitchell Parton, writing in Modern Retail:
Target’s new beauty section in stores and online has attracted many new brands to the retailer for the first time. For some, this is their first entry into retail stores entirely. Target Beauty Studio will launch Sept. 10 in more than 600 Target stores and on Target’s website, the company said Wednesday.
More than 1,600 products, 90 brands, and two-thirds new to Target? It could be a beauty destination—or a very expensive way to make the aisle look busy after Ulta. Target Beauty Studio opens September 10 in 600-plus stores, and founders are providing training videos for store teams. That’s a real merchandising rebuild, well beyond a few new endcaps. I like that Remilia Hair waited nearly two years, then signed on because this finally looked curated. But Target has to make discovery feel edited—Eqqualberry, Nioxin, and Manacurist can’t just turn into a wall of SKUs. And Target ties the two stories together: we just heard Hollister frame its partnership as customer acquisition, and now Target’s rebuilding beauty as a traffic engine. After launch, we need Target’s scorecard. Are beauty baskets bigger? Do trips repeat? What are sales per store? This one's from FashionNetwork:
First, US-based AI commerce platform Remark has launched a real-time virtual try-on experience “that moves as you move”. Introducing “a new era of clothing in motion,” it replaces the need for existing try-on tools that either “paste a garment onto a static photo or animate stiff simulations that look nothing like real clothing”.
Remark has real customers here—Ariat, J.McLaughlin, Veronica Beard, and 70-odd others. That puts it well ahead of the fashion-tech demo carousel. At least somebody’s actually embedded it. Embedded is a start. But Remark is promising a jacket that turns when you turn, along with size swaps mid-session and an AI stylist. We still need conversion and return numbers; neither comes with this launch. I’ll give Theo Satloff this: clothes pasted onto a static photo are useless if you’re trying to see how a dress hangs. If this shows motion without making Veronica Beard look like a video game, shoppers might actually use it. “May actually use it” is still a long way from fewer returns. Across 70 brands representing billions in retail sales, Remark has enough live commerce to show us that evidence. Have feedback, story ideas, or a correction? Email us at fashionbusinessdaily at lantern podcasts dot com. We’d love to hear what you’re seeing out there in fashion.
We’ll be watching Target Beauty Studio when it launches Sept. 10 in more than 600 stores and on Target’s website.
Every story is linked in the show notes. Take a look at any piece that caught your attention. That’s Fashion Business Daily for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.