It’s been another week with far more retail news than there is time in the day. Below, we break down some things you may have missed during the week and what we’re still thinking about.
From Glossier’s grant program for Black-owned businesses to the future of sustainable ingredient alternatives, here’s our closeout for the week.
What you may have missed
Eloquii partners with Gabi Fresh
Plus-size fashion retailer Eloquii on Thursday announced an exclusive swim collection with influencer Gabi Gregg of Gabi Fresh.
Dubbed Gabi Fresh Swim x Eloquii, the collection has 23 styles in sizes 14 to 32, ranging in price from $69.95 to $149.95.
“I’m encouraged by how much the plus size swim market has grown since I began my blog more than 15 years ago,” Gabi Fresh said in a statement. “Although we have a long way to go, I’m grateful that I get to continue to make an impact in the space by offering my community amazing, fashion-forward options.”
Following the initial launch, Eloquii will reveal new styles from a second Gabi Fresh Swim x Eloquii collection in late April, according to information sent to Retail Dive.
Ipsy launches Icon Box, with Anastasia Beverly Hills founder as first curator
Ipsy has tapped Anastasia Beverly Hills founder and CEO Anastasia Soare to help it launch its new Icon Box.
The Icon Box is a quarterly upgrade available to Glam Bag and BoxyCharm subscription members. The celebrity-curated boxes cost $58 and include up to $350 worth of products. The first box, curated by Soare, features products from Anastasia Beverly Hills, JLO Beauty, Glow Recipe, Aveda and Ren Clean Skincare, according to a company press release.
"Appointing Anastasia as our first curator of the new Icon Box was an obvious choice. Since we first partnered with the brand in 2020, our relationship has only continued to grow and scale with nearly the entire range of Anastasia Beverly Hills products across Ipsy and BoxyCharm,” Kristy Westrup, senior vice president of merchandising at Ipsy, said in a statement.
Each box will include eight full-sized products — five selected by the celebrity curator and three selected by the customer. The Anastasia Soare Icon Box will drop May 1.
Glossier grant program for Black-owned businesses accepting applications
For the third year in a row, Glossier is once again accepting applications for its Black-owned beauty businesses grant program. The cosmetics company will award $300,000 across six Black-owned businesses in the United States. Next month, the company plans to expand its reach by launching the grant program in the United Kingdom alongside Black Girl Fest. So far the grant program has helped 26 beauty brands and their founders with funding and in helping their businesses grow.
As a part of the program, each cohort gets the opportunity to learn from curated business curricula. Teams from all over the company will work together with the businesses to provide overall support and resources for four months. The owners of the businesses will be paired with a Glossier adviser as a one-on-one mentor. They’ll also get to network with alumni from previous cohorts and be able to connect with Glossier’s partners like Shopify and Google.
Retail Therapy
Does Jack Daniel’s hate dog toys?
In a hearing that had quite a bit of laughter, the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday began to discuss a trademark infringement case that whiskey brand Jack Daniel’s filed against the creator of a dog toy that looks like a bottle of alcohol.
The toy – which is labeled “Bad Spaniels” on it with the image of a dog – is made by VIP Products LLC, a company that sells a variety of what it calls “parody” animal toys.
Jack Daniel’s believes this infringes on its trademark, and court justices Wednesday began to examine the case by looking at factors including whether or not consumers could be confused by who the manufacturer is and if the product is truly a parody.
“Because maybe I just have no sense of humor but what’s the parody?” Justice Elena Kagan asked.
What we're still thinking about
400
That’s how many stores Foot Locker plans to close by 2026. All of the locations are located in malls, including 200 that are in C and D malls. The other half, however, are aimed at culling out underperforming locations in A and B malls. The news came out of Foot Locker’s investor day, which new CEO Mary Dillon used to outline her long-term strategy for the company. Among other things, she aims to simplify Foot Locker’s business by closing banners, attracting a larger audience and revamping the retailer’s relationship with Nike.
Thousands of fewer smiles at Amazon
Retail and tech giant Amazon plans to cut 9,000 more jobs by the end of next month.
While most of those jobs are at AWS, the company’s cloud services business, there will also be cuts in Amazon’s Twitch gaming, advertising and people experience and technology solutions teams, the company said this week.
The latest round of layoffs comes weeks after Amazon said 18,000 positions — many in retail — will be cut. In a public memo, CEO Andy Jassy said affected teams are still determining which roles will be eliminated. Final decisions are expected by mid to late April.
Given the uncertain economy, “we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount,” said Jassy, who added that all the potential job cuts were not announced simultaneously because the company wanted to complete team-level analysis of business needs before making decisions.
What we're watching
L’Oréal signs on to bio-tech venture as the beauty and consumer products industries move toward sustainability
As consumers have grown more concerned about the health and ecological implications of the personal care products they use, demand for safer and more sustainable options has grown. Governments have also increasingly cracked down on the use of certain chemicals.
French company L’Oréal joined two other beauty and personal care conglomerates — the U.K.’s Unilever and Japan’s Kao Corporation — plus U.S. bio-tech company Geno in a venture to develop sustainable ingredients for the beauty, personal care and consumer product markets. The partnership serves the beauty giant’s sustainability program, L'Oréal for the Future.
Still, despite some progress, product makers including L’Oréal continue to have a mixed track record. In January, for example, Infarmed, Portugal’s equivalent of the Food and Drug Administration, yanked a L’Oréal product from the market because it contained Butylphenyl methylpropional, which was banned there last year, according to a report from The Portugal News.
