Cherene Aubert is the VP of e-commerce and digital at clean beauty brand Ilia Beauty, where she said she’s focused on “setting the foundation for the next stage of growth” for the brand, which Famille C Venture acquired in 2022. But navigating the e-commerce landscape and acquiring new customers hasn’t been easy, especially as competition has increased and consumer expectations have grown. To discuss Ilia’s drivers to success, we caught up with Aubert at a virtual Retail Brew event. Watch the full conversation with Aubert here.

What are some of the challenges that you’re seeing in the e-commerce space and the customer acquisition space?

It’s not as cheap as it was to acquire customers, back in the day, maybe five years ago, 10 years ago…The playbook has changed. Privacy laws have changed, the way that consumers shop and behave. The amount of choice and competition that’s out there has changed in the e-commerce space. Amazon has grown considerably, and retail businesses are investing a lot more in their dot-com side of the house, so there’s just a lot more competition in general. And I would say social ads are just not enough for continued, long-term scale the way that they were, so brands have to start to invest in brand building and establishing their moat from Day 1, and what that means at different sizes and scales is different.

Keep reading here.—EC

Traditional advertising just doesn’t resonate with audiences the way it used to. Instead, influencer marketing has taken over in a big way. It helps marketers maintain authenticity and increase brand awareness—all while giving revenue a boost.

Whether you’re an influencer marketing newbie or are a seasoned pro, impact.com’s Ultimate Guide to Influencer Marketing covers everything you need to know. You’ll find fundamentals, best practices, and tips to make the most of your influencer marketing campaigns.

Here’s a sneak peek at what you’ll learn:

• what influencer marketing is + how it works
• examples of successful campaigns
• best practices for launching influencer campaigns + programs

Get impact.com’s Ultimate Guide to Influencer Marketing here.

“We’re in a new era of retail,” according to Suresh Kumar, Walmart’s global chief technology officer and chief development officer, and this week, the company released its first annual State of Adaptive Retail Report in partnership with Morning Consult, identifying four key trends retailers need to succeed.

The retailer defines “adaptive retail” as “an evolved form of retail that brings shopping to the customer in exactly the way they want and need.” The report analyzes survey responses from 2,200+ US shoppers to get a sense of those retail wants and needs.

Keep reading here.—EC

This week in fashion: Shares of one major luxury conglomerate slumped, while another luxury retailer saw a profit boost.

LVMH share price drops

The stock price of one of the biggest luxury conglomerates in the world, aka LVMH, just slipped as much as 6.5% after its Q2 sales grew just 1% YoY to 21 billion euros, missing analysts’ estimate of 21.6 billion euros. The report came amid a consumer spending slowdown in China.

Why this matters: LVMH has been an outlier in a sea of luxury brands that have been impacted by a sales slump. Even Kering, one of its largest competitors, has been struggling with dwindling sales numbers. And much like other conglomerates and fashion labels, LVMH has finally fallen victim to a drop in profits in Asia, indicating that things are tough for pretty much everyone.

Keep reading here.—JS

Make every day count. BFCM will be here sooner than later. Is your cal prepped to crush it? No worries if you need a hand. Klaviyo’s 2024 BFCM Calendar has come to the rescue. It’ll help you set perfect day-by-day goals and even test new segmentation strategies. Get ready for the big days.