All week I've wanted real numbers, not launch adjectives. Shein just delivered some, and nobody's celebrating. Fashion Business Daily. Sephora's moving into M&S, Armani's opening talks over who owns a piece of him, and Shibuya loses a building that raised a generation. First up, Shein, and what air freight just did to the margin. Tap follow so the next episode finds you. Insider Media, with Jennifer O'Keeffe:
Marks & Spencer has partnered with Sephora to create a new online and in-store beauty destination, marking the next step in the transformation of the retailer's fashion, home and beauty. From spring 2027, Sephora at M&S will be available on M & S.com and selected stores, building to an estimated 100 locations across the UK over time.
Sephora inside M&S. So, Sephora next to the socks and the meal deal. Could honestly work. But they haven't said which brands yet. The line-up gets confirmed 'closer to launch.' And launch is spring 2027, on M&S.com and selected stores, building to an estimated hundred UK locations 'over time.' No store count at launch, no date for the hundred. And John Lyttle's quote gets to 'more efficient, more profitable' before it gets to the customer. Yeah, and the Sephora exclusives are the whole ballgame. If it's the same serums you can grab at Boots, the shop-in-shop is just a nicer shelf with a specialist standing next to it. Sephora's got its own reason to want the reach. Per The Guardian, this is its second go at the UK, and it's been expanding fast. But a hundred counters is a capex plan. I'll be grading sales per square foot in those first selected stores. The map can wait. Here's Minjun Park at RetailNews Asia:
Shein reported a 66.6 per cent slump in second-quarter adjusted net profit to $228 million, hit by surging air cargo rates and falling revenue in Western markets. Net profit margins narrowed to 2.1 per cent from 6.2 per cent a year earlier, even as the platform fulfilled 298 million orders between April and June.
So here's the hard number. Company-reported, and it's a bad one. Second-quarter adjusted net profit of $228 million, down 66.6 percent, net margin 2.1 from 6.2. Divide that by 298 million orders and you get roughly seventy-seven cents of profit per order, on revenue that still inched up 0.9 percent to $11.08 billion. Volume held. Margin didn't. Because the whole model is a cargo plane out of southern China. Fulfillment's up 18.1 percent, and cheap speed stops being cheap the second jet fuel moves. And when Shein goes hunting for that margin back, the contract factories get leaned on first. Careful, though. Active customers went from 254 to 291 million, so the appetite for cheap clothes is intact. The problem's freight, plus tariffs and parcel fees in the West. And the market noticed. Worthbury has the shares at a record low, about $17.3 billion in value against roughly $26 billion at the September 1 listing. Seventy-seven cents an order, Charlotte. Call that appetite if you want. I'd call it a habit with a shipping bill attached, and nobody's buying because they love the garment. Kieran Howells, writing in Retail Gazette:
Armani is preparing to begin talks with LVMH, L’Oréal and EssilorLuxottica over the sale of a minority stake in the luxury fashion house. The Italian group is expected to hold meetings with the three companies in the coming weeks, in line with instructions left by founder Giorgio Armani before his death last year.
Look at who Giorgio put in the will. A fashion group, a beauty group, an eyewear group. So who's actually being courted here: the house, or the lipstick-and-sunglasses pipeline? Numbers first. Company-reported sales were €2.2 billion, down 2.8%, with roughly €500 million in net cash. The €5-to-7 billion valuation comes from analysts, not Armani. So fifteen percent is somewhere near a billion-euro ticket, and nothing's signed. Meetings are expected in the coming weeks. And Marsocci says it's 'not written in stone' that it's one buyer. The FT even floated all three splitting it. So maybe three partners, and none of them has to care whether the tailoring still feels like Armani. Fifteen percent won't get anyone near the design studio. The will calls for a larger sale or a listing after this one, and that's where control actually moves. That's the negotiation I'd watch. Adnkronos writes:
Sogo & Seibu Co.'s Seibu department store in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward will close its doors for the last time Wednesday, bringing an end to its 58-year history of shaping youth culture. The Seibu Shibuya store was opened in April 1968 by the late Seiji Tsutsumi, head of the now-defunct Saison Group.
Last day for Seibu Shibuya. Fifty-eight years. The Capsule floor put young designers in the same building as Hermes back when Hermes was rare in Japan, and that's where the DC brand boom got road-tested on actual kids. The unsentimental version: earnings slid after the bubble burst, and in March Sogo & Seibu said it couldn't renew the leases with the landholders. The A and B buildings close. Loft and Movida stay open, just not under the Seibu name. Muji survives, the countdown window goes dark. Same story as that Chinese operator guiding to a loss of up to HK$780M and marking its buildings down. The property outlives the place where taste got made. Careful. A lease that won't renew tells you the landholders wanted different terms or a different tenant. We don't have a valuation here. But if you're Burton, hunting for a department-store partner in China, Shibuya's a fair reminder that the floor space is the hard part. Here's GlobeNewswire:
As ThredUp increases live show frequency, it aims to grow into a trusted destination for secondhand fashion on Whatnot. Buyers who shop with ThredUp on Whatnot will have instant access to millions of unique and curated secondhand garments across value, contemporary, and luxury brands directly from ThredUp's distribution centers.
So ThredUp's going live on Whatnot. Shows streaming straight out of its distribution centers in Atlanta and Dallas. Whatnot's where the sneaker breaks and card breaks already live, and that whole game runs on a host with taste and a crowd bidding against the clock. The piece I'd actually watch is further down the release. ThredUp says it's exploring feeding its inventory, curation tools and logistics to Whatnot's own fashion sellers. If that happens, it's a wholesale business. Right now it's the word 'exploring.' Yeah, because a warehouse aisle has zero vibe. Hand the racks to sellers who already have an audience and suddenly the resale gets interesting. The release puts the live-shopping market at twenty-two billion dollars, and that's an estimate, so mentally add the asterisk. Put it next to the M&S and Sephora piece we just did. One bet says the next sale happens in Sephora corners starting spring 2027. This one says it happens in a chat window tonight. Neither's handed us a conversion number. And I want to know who's on camera in Dallas. If it's a DC worker reading SKUs off a clipboard on top of their actual shift, pay them like talent, or nobody's staying for the bid. Got feedback, story ideas, or a correction? Send them to fashionbusinessdaily at lantern podcasts dot com. We'd love to hear what you're noticing in the fashion business.
We'll be watching for Armani's meetings with LVMH, L'Oréal and EssilorLuxottica over the initial 15% stake in the coming weeks, the EU's additional €2 low-value parcel fee kicking in November 1, and M&S's final Sephora at M&S line-up ahead of the spring 2027 launch.
You'll find links to every story in the show notes, so dig into whatever caught your attention. That's Fashion Business Daily for today. Thanks for listening, and we'll be back tomorrow. This is a Lantern Podcast.