Breaking News in the Industry: April 25, 2017

Transcription

1 BREAKING NEWS Breaking News in the Industry: April 25, 2017 «Previous Next» Loss Prevention Media Staff April 25, 2017 Add Comment NH woman faces up to 7 years in prison after shoplifting at Macy s A Nashua woman faces a felony for shoplifting after police looked at her criminal record. Nashua Police responded to Macy s at the Pheasant Lane Mall for a report of a woman shoplifting Police looked through surveillance footage and got the license plate number of the car in which the suspect fled. The license plate led police to the home of Cheryl Donlon, 56, who was put under arrest. She was initially charged with Receiving Stolen Property, but since she had two prior theft convictions on her criminal record, police bumped up the charge to a class B felony. A class B felony is punishable by up to seven years imprisonment, exclusive of fines. Donlon was released on $150 cash bail and will be arraigned on June 9. [For more: NH1 News] Alibaba tip-off sees $2.9M worth of fake cosmetics seized A tip-off by e-commerce company Alibaba led Chinese authorities to seize RMB 20 million ($2.9 million) worth of counterfeit cosmetics in the country. On Saturday, April 22, Alibaba s news site Alizila announced that data provided by the e-commerce platform led to the seizure of 4,000 fake products.

2 Police in the eastern Jiangsu province of Nanjing raided a warehouse and arrested four people on suspicion of illegal activity, according to Alizila. Alibaba first alerted authorities to the possible counterfeiting of high-end skincare products sold by one online store in October last year. Alibaba s platform governance team subsequently used big data to unveil a counterfeiting web that impersonated brands such as La Mer, Jo Malone and Calvin Klein. The authorities found that creams and serums were being manufactured in unhygienic conditions. Some products were complete fakes in terms of product and packaging, while other fake cosmetics were put into original, recycled packaging and passed off as authentic. [For more: WIPR] NY Pair arrested after trying to shoplift almost $600 in clothing A Geneva, New York, woman and 16-year-old from Waterloo were arrested Saturday afternoon after Ontario County sheriff s deputies say they were caught trying to shoplift $ in items from Kohl s in Victor. Stephanie M. Corrigan, 27, and the juvenile, whom the Daily Messenger is not naming because of her age, were each charged with misdemeanor petit larceny and possession of burglar tools in connection with the incident, which took place just after 2 PM. Corrigan also was charged with endangering the welfare of a child. The pair were observed by Kohl s loss prevention officers concealing clothing, shoes and a Fitbit watch in large purses and exiting the store, deputies alleged. The pair also were also found with tools used to remove security tags from the items, deputies reported. Both were released and scheduled to reappear in Victor Town Court at a later date to answer the charges. [For more: Daily Messenger] American Express and keeping the cool kids American Express cards, from time immemorial, has signaled affluence among holders particularly the Platinum Card. Unfortunately for Amex, the signal is a bit too bright, and obvious, meaning Millennials don t like it nearly so much as the unassuming Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Unassuming as a card that was minted in metallic stock, as opposed to the standard credit card plastic, and introduced to the world through a series of spontaneous unboxing ceremonies on YouTube can be anyway. And this, according to reports in The New York Times, has Amex worried to the point of paranoia.

3 Chase and the Sapphire Reserve card it rolled out in August had more than being less flashy than Amex to offer, it also dropped with an 100,000 points sign-up bonus and a slew of benefits. The generous rewards and benefits prompted a slew of applications on the part of Millennials and turned the card into an instant hit. Now Chase is the card of the cool kids, and the affluent ones considering Chase Sapphire Reserve comes with a hefty-sized annual fee to go with that big points bonus on sign-up. To keep up, American Express has had to roll out more generous rewards to counter Sapphire s. But seven current and former executives at American Express says it runs deeper than just trying to one-up a competitor s rewards, it needs to get its groove back with Millennials, and quick. In 2016, the number of Amex cards in use fell 18 percent, while Amex revenue in 2016 was down more than $2 billion from two years earlier, and its relationships with both Costco and JetBlue ended with the two retailers tapping other credit card companies. [For more: PYMNTS] Counterfeit market could reach US$2.3 trillion The International Trademark Association (INTA) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) commissioned the International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA) to compile the report, which claims the wider social, investment and criminal enforcement costs could push the figure even higher, taking the total to more than US$4 trillion with millions of legitimate jobs at risk. IHMA states that the rapid globalization of trade has spurred the counterfeit market, in addition to industrialization, advanced printing and reproduction technologies, the impact of the internet, vulnerable supply chains, consumer power, weak or ineffectual regional law enforcement and lenient criminal penalties. The battle to defeat the counterfeiters remains far from won, said Manoj Kochar, chair of the IHMA. Brand owners and those responsible for legislation must be alarmed at this latest report. More needs to be done, and quickly, to begin to stem the tide of counterfeit goods flooding onto the market. And this should include the wider integration of holograms as part of brand protection strategies. Towards the end of last year, the Coalition Against Illicit Trade (CAIT) published a white paper calling for businesses and public authorities to do more to tackle counterfeiting. [For more: The Spirits Business] Retailers say this is how they ll bring back traffic. But few are

4 truly delivering. It s one of the most common responses when retailers are asked how they plan to bring customers back into their shops: make the in-store experience more exciting. But few have figured out what, exactly, that buzz phrase really means, and fewer still have made meaningful efforts to roll out an effective solution. Time is running out. With mall traffic deteriorating in nearly every quarter since 2014, retailers need to hone in on what makes their brand unique and find a way to bring it alive for customers. I think people are falling back on experience [as a concept], and perhaps not thinking about it in the right way, Jeremy Bergstein, president of The Science Project, told CNBC. They have to look at what their ownable qualities are. Bergstein s company tries to help retailers find those kinds of distinct solutions. For example, if a swim shop wants to sell more bikinis, an interactive screen that virtually transports a customer to St. Bart s would likely be more impactful than a mundane magic mirror, Bergstein said. Traditional magic mirror technologies allow shoppers to see things like what an item would look like in different colors without them having to try on multiple versions. Thinking about what problem the retailer is trying to solve whether it s turning more shoppers into buyers, or getting additional customers to enter a store from the street allows The Science Project to come up with a useful and meaningful innovation, rather than just novel innovation, Bergstein said. [For more: CNBC News] Bebe plans to close all stores by the end of next month Add another retailer to the casualty list: Bebe. Bebe Stores Inc., a women s apparel store that is closing all of its South Florida stores and laying off 133 local workers, announced plans to shut all 168 of its stores nationwide by the end of May. The announcement, disclosed in a filing Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, followed news March 22 that it had hired financial and real estate advisers to discuss options about its leases.

5 Thursday s SEC filing said Bebe had reached a deal with Great American Group and Tiger Capital Group to sell its merchandise in existing retail stores along with furnishing and equipment. It also expected an impairment charge of $20 million in the third and fourth quarters related to the store closings. [For more: Biz Journals]