From the Sector

For years, media headlines have declared the death of the high street at the hands of e-commerce. But, while several well-known retailers have indeed shut up shop or cut back on store numbers, a growing number of digitally native brands are investing in bricks-and-mortar spaces to complement and support their online offer.

At the last EuroShop, the World´s No. 1Retail Trade Fairtrade, were already first signs that Pure Player and online start-ups are also increasingly looking offline. 3 years later, at EuroShop 2020 from 16 to 20 February in Düsseldorf, Germany, this will now be one of the major topics of the industry.

In fact, a report published by property firm JLL towards the end of 2018 predicts that online retailers in the U.S. will open 850 stores over the next five years, demonstrating the value these brands place on having a physical presence. “Everyone is saying that physical retail is dying, but online brands are opening at a pretty fast and aggressive rate,” says Taylor Coyne, Research Manager of Retail for JLL, in the report.

Despite the continuing growth in online sales, the majority of consumers still prefer the experience of shopping in-store, and more and more digitally native brands are using physical retail to their advantage.

Partnership Provides Retail Brands with Omni-Channel Personalisation Platform

Fresh Relevance, the real-time personalisation platform for email, mobile and web, today announced its partnership with Contactlab, the leading engagement marketing platform for commerce-focused companies and fashion & luxury brands. The partnership provides retail brands with true omni-channel marketing by allowing to fully integrate insights from online and in-store customer behaviour.
Retailers now not only benefit from the rich insights regarding the online behaviour of a customer whilst on the website (what pages they looked at, the products they placed in the cart and the items purchased) and whilst engaging with marketing emails, but also when and how often they visited a store and the purchases they made whilst there. This is made possible by the close integration of the Fresh Relevance real-time personalisation platform and Contactlab’s engagement marketing cloud platform.

Eddy Swindell, co-founder and CRO at Fresh Relevance, states: “The ability to accurately join the dots of the customer journey as they move between offline and online has been the missing piece in the retail puzzle. Retailers using Fresh Relevance fully integrated with Contactlab can harness this valuable insight in real-time, to improve how they engage with every customer across all touch points.”
How Fresh Relevance and Contactlab deliver true omni-channel marketing:

• Personalise the web experience using both online and offline transactional data.
• Engage with in-store shoppers by sending them well-timed personalised emails that include the products they were interested in as well as relevant product recommendations.
• Drive customers in-store or online with personalised incentives and promotions based on the shopper’s behaviour.

Swindell adds: “True omni-channel marketing in this way not only improves overall sales. It enables you to better understand the journey your customers take, and in doing so engage them with personalised 1-2-1 communications and improve their experience of shopping with your brand.”

Stefano Lena, Chief Strategy Officer and VP Business Development at Contactlab comments: “This partnership is the coming together of two powerful real-time platforms that enable every retailer to have a clear and up-to-date view of how people are interacting and transacting with their brand online and in-store. The breadth of data capabilities makes it one of the most compelling propositions available on the market today.”

Fresh Relevance is sponsoring Contactlab's Conference”, which takes place in Milan, Italy, on June 19, where the company will exhibit its real-time personalisation platform and Eddy Swindell will present "Personalisation in an omni-channel world".

About Fresh Relevance
Fresh Relevance is the real-time personalization platform for email, mobile and web. We increase sales with personalized customer experiences and real-time marketing tactics across email, mobile and web. Our marketing hub unifies siloed systems without the need for an integration project. We deliver full control of real-time marketing tactics such as triggered emails and cross-channel personalization. Organizations using Fresh Relevance include: Rip Curl, Homebase, M&M Direct, Harvey Nichols, Thorntons, Cottages.com and White Stuff.

At Kingpins Amsterdam, RUDOLF GROUP launches a selection of chemical auxiliaries for fashion and function as well their new HUB 1922.
The RUDOLF GROUP, not completely new to garment and denim finishing, decides to take the first steps of what will be a long and exciting journey in the field. In order to shorten the distance with both manufacturers and apparel brands and retailers it deploys two synergic initiatives:

• A refined selection of chemicals auxiliaries targeting garment finishing and delivering, in addition to current aesthetics, sophisticated functionalities that take denim to the next level in terms of both performance and enhanced quality.
• The launch of a new project that, combining German engineering and Italian style, provides solutions at the crossroad of fashion and utilitarian functionality. The project, called HUB 1922, introduces elements of unorthodox diversity and fosters collaborative environments that can be truly disruptive.

The word HUB is evocative of the main part of something where there is most activity, whereas the number, 1922, is the year of foundation of the RUDOLF GROUP and therefore symbol of heritage, tradition and significant experience. Ultimately, HUB 1922 wants to be the unmatched one-stop shopping for fashion and function, innovation and creativity in garment processing. A hub that enables continuous, synergetic, and powerful collaboration with brands and retailers to deliver disruptive innovations in the global markets.

It introduces functional chemistry in an universe that is almost entirely driven by aesthetics and the extension to other materials and product categories (such as outdoor apparel and performance wear), of knowledge and techniques developed for denim over the past 50 years. Very aware of its status of rookie and yet very determined, the project HUB 1922 begins exploring through concepts and values rooted in deep scientific knowledge, true responsibility, technical innovation and fresh creativity.
At Kingpins Amsterdam, HUB 1922 will present 3 concepts rooted in RUDOLF’s sophisticated and conscious chemistry:

• ODYSSEY: a voyage through textures and innovation, softness, comfort and signature handfeels.
• SHELTER: performance inspired by natural models for urban protection and for much reduced domestic washing.
• MEMOFLEX: A modern-day miracle preventing denim from sagging and bagging. A truly denim Botox that shows improved quality on many stretch fabrics.

Since when it was founded, almost 100 years ago, RUDOLF GROUP’s secret of success is being big enough to matter, small enough to care. Captured in this definition are an obvious desire to play a meaningful role in the textile industry and an equally palpable vocation to customer service.

Alberto de Conti, Head of Rudolf Fashion Division: “Every generation has their time to make a mark on the world. Considering the environmental emergencies in garment production and the lack of real innovation on the retail shelves, for the current generation of companies active in garment finishing that time is now.”

RUDOLF GROUP acknowledges therefore that there is an additional opportunity to responsibly further redefine the future and turns their sizeable R&D power towards refining their approach to what is fashion quintessential staple: garment and denim finishing. Through a renewed, highly responsible involvement in garment finishing and with the introduction of HUB 1922, the RUDOLF GROUP wants to send out a message of true optimism. It is about showing the entire industry that there is a blank canvas ahead and tangible difference can be made.

Beijing - Tencent Holdings Limited (“Tencent”) (00700.HK), JD.com, Inc. (“JD.com”) (NASDAQ:JD), and Vipshop Holdings Limited (“Vipshop”) (NYSE:VIPS), today jointly announced that Tencent, a leading provider of internet value-added services in China, and JD.com, China’s largest retailer, have entered into definitive agreements with Vipshop, a leading online discount retailer for brands in China, such that Tencent and JD.com will invest an aggregate amount of approximately US$863 million in cash in Vipshop at the closing of the transaction.

Pursuant to the share subscription agreement, Tencent and JD.com will subscribe for newly issued Class A ordinary shares of Vipshop in the amount of approximately US$604 million and approximately US$259 million, respectively. The purchase price will be US$65.40 per Class A ordinary share, which is equivalent to US$13.08 per American Depositary Share (“ADS”) of Vipshop, five of which represent one Class A ordinary share. The purchase price represents a 55% premium over the closing price of the ADSs as of the last trading day on December 15, 2017.

The transaction is expected to close in the near future, subject to customary closing conditions.  Upon the closing, Tencent and JD.com will beneficially own, taking into account any existing holding, approximately 7% and 5.5%, respectively, of Vipshop’s total issued shares. The Class A ordinary shares issued to Tencent and JD.com will be subject to a two-year lock up restriction. Tencent and JD.com will have the right to appoint a director and an observer, respectively, to Vipshop’s board of directors during the two-year lockup period. After the end of the lock-up period, for so long as Tencent and JD.com hold approximately 12% and 8%, respectively, of Vipshop’s total issued shares, or otherwise by mutual agreement with Vipshop, they will maintain director and board observer rights.

Concurrently with the entry of the share subscription agreement, Tencent and JD.com have entered into business cooperation agreements with Vipshop, effective upon closing, establishing a cooperative relationship among Tencent, JD.com and Vipshop. Under these agreements, Tencent will grant Vipshop an entry on the interface of Weixin Wallet enabling Vipshop to utilize traffic from Tencent’s Weixin platform, and JD.com will grant Vipshop entries on both the main page of JD.com’s mobile application and the main page of its Weixin Discovery shopping entry, and will assist Vipshop in achieving certain GMV targets through JD.com’s platform.   

“I am truly delighted about Vipshop's new strategic cooperation relationships with Tencent and JD.com,” said Mr. Eric Ya Shen, Vipshop’s Co-founder, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer. “This undoubtedly is an important event for Vipshop as well as China's e-commerce and internet industries. We, together with Tencent and JD.com, will leverage our respective strengths to form a strategic cooperative alliance aiming to achieve a deep, win-win cooperation and to benefit internet users and consumers. We will develop a holistic cooperation with Tencent on the Weixin platform and expand our strategic alliance with Tencent into more and broader areas.  We will explore win-win opportunities in multiple areas with JD.com, including establishing a strategic alliance in collaboration with brand suppliers, and an on-line traffic alliance. We will continue to operate as an independent e-commerce platform and further deepen and enhance our leading e-commerce capabilities in fashion (including apparel, shoes, bags and accessories) and cosmetics categories as well as our strong female user base, thereby offering higher value and better user experience to our customers.”

“The strength of Vipshop’s flash sale and apparel businesses, as well as its outstanding management team, create clear and strong synergies with us,” said Richard Liu, Chairman and CEO of JD.com. “This partnership will further extend the strong inroads that we have made with female shoppers, and will expand the breadth and reach of our fashion business. We continue to add the top-notch partners to complement JD.com’s core strengths, ensuring that JD and our partners provide the best customer experience for every shopping need.”

Martin Lau, President of Tencent Holdings, said, “We are pleased to become strategic investor in and partner with Vipshop. We look forward to providing Vipshop with our audiences, marketing solutions, and payment support to help the company provide branded apparel and other product categories to China’s rising middle class. We already see substantial demand from our users to discover, discuss and purchase branded apparel in our applications, and we believe that connecting our users more deeply to products on Vipshop’s platform will enrich their online experiences while benefiting Vipshop. We are proud of the role our resources such as marketing technology, payments handling, and machine learning play in facilitating a healthy and diverse retail ecosystem, online and offline.” 

About JD.com, Inc.

JD.com is both the largest e-commerce company in China, and the largest Chinese retailer, by revenue. The company strives to offer consumers the best online shopping experience. Through its user-friendly website, native mobile apps, and WeChat and Mobile QQ entry points, JD offers consumers a superior shopping experience. The company has the largest fulfillment infrastructure of any e-commerce company in China. As of September 30, 2017, JD.com operated 7 fulfillment centers and 405 warehouses covering 2,830 counties and districts across China, staffed by its own employees. JD.com is a member of the NASDAQ100 and a Fortune Global 500 company.

About Vipshop Holdings Limited

Vipshop Holdings Limited is a leading online discount retailer for brands in China. Vipshop offers high quality and popular branded products to consumers throughout China at a significant discount to retail prices. Since it was founded in August 2008, the Company has rapidly built a sizeable and growing base of customers and brand partners. For more information, please visit www.vip.com.

About Tencent Holdings Limited

Tencent uses technology to enrich the lives of Internet users. Our social products Weixin and QQ link our users to a rich digital content catalogue including games, video, music and books. Our proprietary targeting technology helps advertisers reach out to hundreds of millions of consumers in China. Our infrastructure services including payment, security, cloud and artificial intelligence create differentiated offerings and support our partners’ business growth. Tencent invests heavily in people and innovation, enabling us to evolve with the Internet. Tencent was founded in Shenzhen, China, in 1998. Shares of Tencent (00700.hk) are traded on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “future,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates,” “confident” and similar statements. Among other things, statements regarding the expected closing of the transactions and the quotations from management in this announcement are or contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to, those included in JD.com’s and Vipshop’s filings with the SEC and in Tencent’s filings with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and none of Tencent, JD.com or Vipshop undertake any duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.