Estée Lauder is rebuilding its digital storefronts. The checkout may be getting a makeover before the turnaround does. Quick recap: Estée Lauder Companies’ Beauty Reimagined turnaround is about getting growth back through sharper channels and faster execution, after the group returned to 5% sales growth. That includes building more billion-dollar fragrance brands and taking Deciem’s NIOD into Sephora with a wellness angle. Can those distribution bets create durable momentum across the portfolio? This is Fashion Business Daily. We’re starting with Estée Lauder’s Shopify shift, then getting into Shein and the DTC brands trying to scale without getting swallowed by their own inventory. Here's Glossy:
The company has also launched Shopify at checkout at five of MAC’s physical stores and plans to migrate most of its e-commerce sites, along with additional freestanding stores, to the platform by the end of fiscal year 2027.
Update on Beauty Reimagined: Estée Lauder has MAC live on Shopify now, following Tom Ford and Lab Series. Most of its e-commerce sites are set to migrate by fiscal 2027. This is a multi-year rebuild. And five physical MAC stores already have Shopify at checkout. Fine—make buying lipstick frictionless. But MAC still has to give people a reason to want the lipstick. ELC says 60% of its consumers already use Shop Pay. Sure, that can cut checkout friction. When this rollout starts showing up in results, I want to see what it does to direct-channel margins and customer ownership. Omer Iqbal is right: Estée Lauder doesn’t need to go toe-to-toe with Shopify’s software team. But a smoother cart won’t rescue an assortment that feels stuck in the old proprietary system. Shein is hunting for deals after its IPO. Is this a real move beyond its algorithm-driven, asset-light model—or a way to buy growth and bolt more inventory onto the same machine? And why would another fashion company want to plug into it? There’s evidence of a real platform push at Shein, but it’s also responding to slowing growth. Reuters reports that Shein had $15 billion in cash in its prospectus and raised another $1.74 billion in its IPO, giving it plenty of capacity for acquisitions. It also confirmed plans to buy U.S. brand Everlane for $80 million. The pitch is to become a platform for acquired brands, not just a seller of its own labels. Separately, Business of Fashion reports that Shein’s Xcelerator programme gives outside labels access to its on-demand production, logistics and e-commerce platform. For a smaller brand, the draw is speed and access to a global operating network without having to build it independently. But that doesn’t erase Shein’s core constraints: it’s trying to restart stalled sales growth while convincing investors it’s more than a fast-fashion business. But if a label hands over manufacturing data, logistics and sales operations, isn’t it basically making a much larger rival part of its own operating system? That’s the trade-off. Business of Fashion puts it this way: is faster production worth handing your operations to a competitor? Partners could get speed and distribution, while Shein gains more brands and volume as it builds out its platform business. It comes down to how much control the brand keeps over its operations and customer relationship. From Glossy:
Its revenue has steadily climbed year after year to over $225 million annually; it has a robust wholesale business with partners like Nordstrom; and it has a growing fleet of its own stores — 40 and counting. Now, at its 10-year anniversary, Rothy’s is in growth mode. The brand is launching its most expensive and widest-reaching marketing campaign to date along with a revamped version of its most iconic shoe, the Point.
Rothy’s has hit $225 million. It has 40 stores, and wholesale is nearing a third of sales. That’s a very different tenth-anniversary party from most of the 2010s DTC class. And they’re spending big behind a refreshed Point, which at least puts product at the center of the campaign. “Biggest” and “widest-reaching” are campaign adjectives. The more meaningful shift is wholesale: Nordstrom and other partners now account for nearly a third of the business. So I want to know whether this spend protects direct sales or helps move inventory through wholesale. I do like that they skipped the usual creator conveyor belt—16 women who actually make things, plus five Substack writers. But billboards, print, Substack: fine. The Point still has to feel worth buying again, and Rothy’s resale heat gives them a better starting point than most. And after the Shopify infrastructure story, here’s the other side of execution: a mature DTC brand working stores, wholesale and marketing all at once. The revenue’s there. Next, I want the margin numbers on that channel mix. Modern Retail writes:
CEO and co-founder Yoni Sheleg said Hulken has added a third dedicated manufacturing facility and centralized U.S. warehouse operations, and is weighing when to use air freight. The goal is to ensure it can meet its new retail inventory commitments for partners like Target while still growing DTC through new products like tote bags and exclusive colorways.
Hulken’s retail revenue went from 16% last year to 34% now. That’s a serious channel swing. An endcap at Target through March 2027 means those rolling totes have to move off an actual shelf, not just look great in a TikTok farmer’s-market montage. And they’ve grown 50% year over year while adding a third dedicated factory and centralizing U.S. warehousing. That growth comes with real fixed commitments. More than one million units sold means people get the product right away: it’s a bag for schlepping. But with Target, Amazon, QVC, The Container Store and DTC all in the mix, one simple hit can become a very complicated inventory problem. The useful disclosure is CEO Yoni Sheleg openly weighing when to use air freight. Big retailers have been enjoying tariff-refund tailwinds in earnings; a smaller $100 million brand is deciding whether holiday availability is worth paying to put inventory on a plane. Paromita Gupta, writing in Entrepreneur India:
D2C men’s apparel brand DaMENSCH has raised INR 17.40 crore (USD 1.9 million) in fresh funding from existing investor A91 Partners and new backer Tancom Electronics, at a flat valuation of INR 600 crore (USD63.5 million).
DaMENSCH grew FY25 revenue 34% to INR 118 crore, then raised INR 17.4 crore at the same INR 600 crore valuation. Investors are funding the next lap, not throwing confetti for the last one. It’s a modest round: INR 17.4 crore, versus INR 21.62 crore in the May 2024 Series B extension. A91 put in INR 15 crore and remains the largest shareholder at 22.45%. This reads as support from existing backers. I don’t see a repricing. The competitive picture is rougher. XYXX reached INR 187 crore after 46% growth, while DaMENSCH is at INR 118 crore. Men’s basics can be a great business, but marketplace distribution turns every black T-shirt into a knife fight. A flat valuation isn’t a verdict by itself. But with capital earmarked broadly for growth and business requirements, I want the next filing to show a stronger operating model behind that 34% revenue growth. 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 and what we should cover next.
We’re watching Estée Lauder Companies’ plan to migrate most of its e-commerce sites, along with additional freestanding stores, to Shopify by the end of fiscal year 2027—and Hulken’s Target endcap, scheduled to run through March 2027 as the brand expands its wholesale footprint.
Links to every story are in the show notes, so take a look at the ones that caught your attention. That’s Fashion Business Daily for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.