Daily news and stories covering everything from the Fashion System, Investment, and AI to WEB3 and Crypto that truly matter in Metaverse Fashion.
HOW TO GET CUSTOMERS TO SHOP ONLINE | [FASHION SYSTEM]
The Business of Fashion
🦄 It’s never been easier to buy goods online; all it takes is a few taps on an iPhone. Yet e-commerce sales growth is slowing. Global e-commerce sales are slated to rise 9 percent year over year in 2024, compared to 10 percent in 2023 and 17 percent in the e-commerce golden era of 2021, according to research firm eMarketer. That trend is set to continue: It’s predicted the growth rate could drop to as low as 7.4 percent by 2027.
🏪 It’s true that more consumers are shifting their spend back to physical stores. But there’s also ongoing fatigue among shoppers who are tired of sifting through similar products from countless sites with the same grid-like format. What online shoppers continue to crave above all else is a type of personalisation they’re used to on social media, where algorithms tailor the user experience to their individual preferences.
🗣 “People want to be catered to,” said Juan Pellerano-Rendón, chief marketing officer at e-commerce logistics start-up Swap. “You want to feel special, that you have this connection to the brand and are being treated as such.”
👾 E-tailers are starting to make changes accordingly, employing AI to do so. In April, eBay introduced a page called “shop the look,” where users can see AI-generated images of shoppable outfits based on their browsing patterns and purchase history. The feature has led to an increase in conversion for fashion items on the site, according to eBay’s chief product officer Eddie Garcia.
EU TARGETS FAST FASHION E-COMMERCE WITH NEW CUSTOMS REGIME | [FASHION SYSTEM]
FashionUnited
👨⚖️ The European Union is set to overhaul its customs regulations, targeting the burgeoning low-cost e-commerce sector in a move that could significantly impact global online retail giants and consumer shopping habits.
🗣 European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who was re-elected for a second five-year term last week, announced the initiative, stating, "We will address challenges with e-commerce platforms to ensure that consumers and businesses benefit from a level playing field based on effective customs, tax, security and sustainability controls."
👻 At the heart of the proposed changes is the elimination of the current 150 euro exemption threshold for import duties, which was set to be abolished by March 1st, 2028. This revision aims to curb the growing influence of Chinese ultra-fast fashion companies such as Shein, Temu, and Aliexpress, while also aligning with the EU's broader Green Deal objectives and push for sustainable production chains.
💲 The scale of the issue is substantial. EU data reveals that in 2023, a staggering 2.3 billion items valued below 150 euros were imported duty-free. The rapid growth of e-commerce is evident, with imports more than doubling year-on-year.
🌲 On sustainability, von der Leyen pledged a commitment to slash 90 percent of the European Union’s global warming contribution by 2040 as part of a Clean Industrial Deal, a policy to be unveiled in the EC president’s first 100 days in office.
LINKEDIN ROLLS OUT PUZZLES IN A BID TO BECOMES A DAILY DIGITAL PIT STOP | [VALUE PROPOSITION]
Fortune
👀 As the professional social network looks to compete with other social media sites for users’ eyeballs, and the ad dollars that come with it, it is incorporating new attention grabbing features like AI and puzzles.
🗣 The goal of the new features is to bring users’ to the social media site more often, and to keep them around once they’re there, said LinkedIn editor-in-chief Daniel Roth. “It’s about building this daily habit,” Roth told the Financial Times. “Once you’re on LinkedIn, it’s time to share your knowledge, get knowledge, get information and get content.” *
👑 Among the new puzzles is Queens, a game that involves strategically placing crowns so that only one appears per row and column. Another, Pinpoint, challenges a user to identify the common category for a series of related words. The games are relatively simple to play but challenge users who want to take “a quick brain break,” Roth told Fortune. In addition to letting users post their scores publicly, LinkedIn also tracks how often you play to encourage users to keep up a daily streak.
💥 For its part, LinkedIn said it had seen record engagement of 1.5 million content interactions per minute in June, the FT reported. Still, last year the company laid off more than 5% of its 20,000 employees as it recorded slower year-over-year revenue growth for eight consecutive quarters.
🤖 Its ChatGPT-backed AI additions, which the company started rolling out to premium subscribers late last year, are meant to provide a personal touch for professionals. The company has added features such as “Collaborative Articles,” which helps compile users’ thoughts on varied business subjects accompanied by an AI-produced summary. The company also introduced AI tools to help recruiters craft messages to potential hires.
SYKY'S APPLE VISION PRO APP BRINGS DIGITAL FASHION HOME | [SINGULARITY]
Vogue Business
❣ Japanese fashion label Anrealage is known for its avant-garde exploration of technology and the future of the physical world. In February, designer Kunihiko Morinaga dressed drones. Last year, his “photochromic” fabrics, which change colour when hit by ultraviolet light, went viral, thanks in part to a custom piece worn by Beyoncé during her 2023 Renaissance World Tour. Now, the experimental designer is trying a new form factor: mixed reality.
💥 Today, Anrealage becomes the first brand to debut on the new Syky app for the Vision Pro, Apple’s splashy mixed reality headset that debuted in February. This is the first Apple Vision Pro (AVP) fashion app that features fashion inherently designed to be experienced only digitally. Previous AVP experiences — for those including luxury retailers Mytheresa, and brands Gucci and Balenciaga — required brands to retroactively digitise pieces that were made for the physical world. In other words, metaverse fashion is coming to the most significant metaverse device yet.
🌹 To begin, the app focuses on aesthetics and storytelling, rather than sales. The app opens with an open-air courtyard that mimics the Syky website, with wisteria branches draping over arches and columns. Similar to the Gucci and Balenciaga apps, it is formatted as a wide screen that appears to be floating in the wearer’s own environment, rather than a fully immersive virtual reality experience. Additional details lean into the magic of mixed reality, however, with purple blossoms and a butterfly extending beyond the screen, lending a feeling of both digital immersion and familiarity.
🗣 This blend of digital content in the physical world is how Syky founder and CEO Alice Delahunt envisions the future of spatial computing, offering a window into a designer’s world that extends beyond the two-dimensional screen of today. “I firmly believe that our day to day will be more of a mixed reality experience versus a totally immersive one, and I think building and growing that muscle, in terms of how you create and build, is a really helpful thing to do,” she tells Vogue Business during a preview of the app. “There’s something quite incredible about seeing your space and seeing a garment and the extra additive details coming to life and not necessarily overtaking you, but being supplemental. There’s something innately human about that, versus disappearing into totally technological worlds.”
META LAUNCHES LLAMA 3.1 AS MARK ZUCKERBERG PUSHES OPEN-SOURCE AI | [SINGULARITY]
Decrypt
👾 Facebook parent company Meta launched its latest AI model, Llama 3.1, its most powerful generative AI product to date, the company said on Tuesday. This follows the April release of Llama 3, which the company had called "the next generation of our state-of-the-art open-source large language model."
💎 Also known as Llama 3.1 405B, Meta claimed the new AI model is now the world’s largest and most capable foundation model available to the public, calling it competitive with other state-of-the-art models, such as those built by OpenAI and Google.
🗣 “Llama 3.1 405B is the first openly available model that rivals the top AI models when it comes to state-of-the-art capabilities in general knowledge, steerability, math, tool use, and multilingual translation,” Meta said in a blog post. “With the release of the 405B model, we’re poised to supercharge innovation—with unprecedented opportunities for growth and exploration.”
📊 In providing more abilities, Meta said the biggest challenges it faced with developing Llama 3.1 405B was the overall increase in the model's size, supporting a larger 128,000-token context window, and offering multilingual support. According to the company, its Meta AI can now respond in French, German, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Daily news and stories covering everything from the Fashion System, Investment, and AI to WEB3 and Crypto that truly matter in Metaverse Fashion.
HOW TO GET CUSTOMERS TO SHOP ONLINE | [FASHION SYSTEM]
The Business of Fashion
🦄 It’s never been easier to buy goods online; all it takes is a few taps on an iPhone. Yet e-commerce sales growth is slowing. Global e-commerce sales are slated to rise 9 percent year over year in 2024, compared to 10 percent in 2023 and 17 percent in the e-commerce golden era of 2021, according to research firm eMarketer. That trend is set to continue: It’s predicted the growth rate could drop to as low as 7.4 percent by 2027.
🏪 It’s true that more consumers are shifting their spend back to physical stores. But there’s also ongoing fatigue among shoppers who are tired of sifting through similar products from countless sites with the same grid-like format. What online shoppers continue to crave above all else is a type of personalisation they’re used to on social media, where algorithms tailor the user experience to their individual preferences.
🗣 “People want to be catered to,” said Juan Pellerano-Rendón, chief marketing officer at e-commerce logistics start-up Swap. “You want to feel special, that you have this connection to the brand and are being treated as such.”
👾 E-tailers are starting to make changes accordingly, employing AI to do so. In April, eBay introduced a page called “shop the look,” where users can see AI-generated images of shoppable outfits based on their browsing patterns and purchase history. The feature has led to an increase in conversion for fashion items on the site, according to eBay’s chief product officer Eddie Garcia.
EU TARGETS FAST FASHION E-COMMERCE WITH NEW CUSTOMS REGIME | [FASHION SYSTEM]
FashionUnited
👨⚖️ The European Union is set to overhaul its customs regulations, targeting the burgeoning low-cost e-commerce sector in a move that could significantly impact global online retail giants and consumer shopping habits.
🗣 European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who was re-elected for a second five-year term last week, announced the initiative, stating, "We will address challenges with e-commerce platforms to ensure that consumers and businesses benefit from a level playing field based on effective customs, tax, security and sustainability controls."
👻 At the heart of the proposed changes is the elimination of the current 150 euro exemption threshold for import duties, which was set to be abolished by March 1st, 2028. This revision aims to curb the growing influence of Chinese ultra-fast fashion companies such as Shein, Temu, and Aliexpress, while also aligning with the EU's broader Green Deal objectives and push for sustainable production chains.
💲 The scale of the issue is substantial. EU data reveals that in 2023, a staggering 2.3 billion items valued below 150 euros were imported duty-free. The rapid growth of e-commerce is evident, with imports more than doubling year-on-year.
🌲 On sustainability, von der Leyen pledged a commitment to slash 90 percent of the European Union’s global warming contribution by 2040 as part of a Clean Industrial Deal, a policy to be unveiled in the EC president’s first 100 days in office.
LINKEDIN ROLLS OUT PUZZLES IN A BID TO BECOMES A DAILY DIGITAL PIT STOP | [VALUE PROPOSITION]
Fortune
👀 As the professional social network looks to compete with other social media sites for users’ eyeballs, and the ad dollars that come with it, it is incorporating new attention grabbing features like AI and puzzles.
🗣 The goal of the new features is to bring users’ to the social media site more often, and to keep them around once they’re there, said LinkedIn editor-in-chief Daniel Roth. “It’s about building this daily habit,” Roth told the Financial Times. “Once you’re on LinkedIn, it’s time to share your knowledge, get knowledge, get information and get content.” *
👑 Among the new puzzles is Queens, a game that involves strategically placing crowns so that only one appears per row and column. Another, Pinpoint, challenges a user to identify the common category for a series of related words. The games are relatively simple to play but challenge users who want to take “a quick brain break,” Roth told Fortune. In addition to letting users post their scores publicly, LinkedIn also tracks how often you play to encourage users to keep up a daily streak.
💥 For its part, LinkedIn said it had seen record engagement of 1.5 million content interactions per minute in June, the FT reported. Still, last year the company laid off more than 5% of its 20,000 employees as it recorded slower year-over-year revenue growth for eight consecutive quarters.
🤖 Its ChatGPT-backed AI additions, which the company started rolling out to premium subscribers late last year, are meant to provide a personal touch for professionals. The company has added features such as “Collaborative Articles,” which helps compile users’ thoughts on varied business subjects accompanied by an AI-produced summary. The company also introduced AI tools to help recruiters craft messages to potential hires.
SYKY'S APPLE VISION PRO APP BRINGS DIGITAL FASHION HOME | [SINGULARITY]
Vogue Business
❣ Japanese fashion label Anrealage is known for its avant-garde exploration of technology and the future of the physical world. In February, designer Kunihiko Morinaga dressed drones. Last year, his “photochromic” fabrics, which change colour when hit by ultraviolet light, went viral, thanks in part to a custom piece worn by Beyoncé during her 2023 Renaissance World Tour. Now, the experimental designer is trying a new form factor: mixed reality.
💥 Today, Anrealage becomes the first brand to debut on the new Syky app for the Vision Pro, Apple’s splashy mixed reality headset that debuted in February. This is the first Apple Vision Pro (AVP) fashion app that features fashion inherently designed to be experienced only digitally. Previous AVP experiences — for those including luxury retailers Mytheresa, and brands Gucci and Balenciaga — required brands to retroactively digitise pieces that were made for the physical world. In other words, metaverse fashion is coming to the most significant metaverse device yet.
🌹 To begin, the app focuses on aesthetics and storytelling, rather than sales. The app opens with an open-air courtyard that mimics the Syky website, with wisteria branches draping over arches and columns. Similar to the Gucci and Balenciaga apps, it is formatted as a wide screen that appears to be floating in the wearer’s own environment, rather than a fully immersive virtual reality experience. Additional details lean into the magic of mixed reality, however, with purple blossoms and a butterfly extending beyond the screen, lending a feeling of both digital immersion and familiarity.
🗣 This blend of digital content in the physical world is how Syky founder and CEO Alice Delahunt envisions the future of spatial computing, offering a window into a designer’s world that extends beyond the two-dimensional screen of today. “I firmly believe that our day to day will be more of a mixed reality experience versus a totally immersive one, and I think building and growing that muscle, in terms of how you create and build, is a really helpful thing to do,” she tells Vogue Business during a preview of the app. “There’s something quite incredible about seeing your space and seeing a garment and the extra additive details coming to life and not necessarily overtaking you, but being supplemental. There’s something innately human about that, versus disappearing into totally technological worlds.”
META LAUNCHES LLAMA 3.1 AS MARK ZUCKERBERG PUSHES OPEN-SOURCE AI | [SINGULARITY]
Decrypt
👾 Facebook parent company Meta launched its latest AI model, Llama 3.1, its most powerful generative AI product to date, the company said on Tuesday. This follows the April release of Llama 3, which the company had called "the next generation of our state-of-the-art open-source large language model."
💎 Also known as Llama 3.1 405B, Meta claimed the new AI model is now the world’s largest and most capable foundation model available to the public, calling it competitive with other state-of-the-art models, such as those built by OpenAI and Google.
🗣 “Llama 3.1 405B is the first openly available model that rivals the top AI models when it comes to state-of-the-art capabilities in general knowledge, steerability, math, tool use, and multilingual translation,” Meta said in a blog post. “With the release of the 405B model, we’re poised to supercharge innovation—with unprecedented opportunities for growth and exploration.”
📊 In providing more abilities, Meta said the biggest challenges it faced with developing Llama 3.1 405B was the overall increase in the model's size, supporting a larger 128,000-token context window, and offering multilingual support. According to the company, its Meta AI can now respond in French, German, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Daily news and stories covering everything from the Fashion System, Investment, and AI to WEB3 and Crypto that truly matter in Metaverse Fashion.