burberry
Latest
Instagram will let you buy products without leaving the app
Instagram is moving a little deeper into commerce by allowing you to buy goods without leaving the app. The checkout feature will at first be a closed beta in the US with more than 20 brands involved, including Adidas, Nike, Zara, Kylie Cosmetics, Uniqlo, Burberry, H&M, Mac, Prada and Michael Kors. More brands will join in the coming months.
eBay will now verify luxury handbags sold on the site
eBay is now offering a new service for sellers of high-end handbags. Today the company launched eBay Authenticate, a program that photographs, lists, sells, ships and verifies the authenticity of luxury handbags from 12 major brands. eBay says the goal is to provide would-be buyers with more confidence in the items they're about to throw down a lot of money for.
Burberry teams up with Snapchat to preview new collection
Burberry continues to prove that it's one of the most tech-minded fashion houses today. The British brand has joined forces with Snapchat to give fans a glimpse of its Spring 2016 lineup from its design studio before it's showcased at London Fashion Week. Also, the company will be posting behind-the-scenes snaps to show how it's preparing for the big event. You can see these pre-show snaps starting on September 20th, Sunday, at 2PM Eastern, if you add the luxury brand's account. In addition, Burberry will be posting photos and videos through Snapchat's Live Stories feature once the show begins. Like any Live Stories content, though, the posts will vanish into the ether after 24 hours.
Burberry is the first big brand to get an Apple Music channel
Apple Music's playlist "Curators" have so far been directly relevant (if often niche) brands like DJ Mag or Shazam. That certainly makes sense, but Apple apparently feels that it's time to shake things up: Burberry is becoming the first major worldwide brand to launch an Apple Music channel. Swing by its section of the service and you'll find both its collaborations with British artists (such as James Bay and George Ezra) as well as playlists that reflect the fashion label's tastes.
Apple hires digital retail exec from Burberry for 'special projects'
Apple has picked up another former Burberry employee. The company hired former Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts in October 2013, and has now added Chester Chipperfield to the Apple payroll. Chipperfield was previously Burberry's Vice President of Digital and Interactive Design and has joined Apple's Special Projects team. The announcement was made on Twitter this past December, but noticed today by 9to5Mac. Goodbye London. I have been lucky to call you home for 31 years, time to discover another city.. http://t.co/CRxTDxckQB - Chester Chipperfield (@chesterchip) December 28, 2014 Chipperfield's exact position with the company is not known, but his work with Burberry was largely in user experience and digital retail. His experience with online sales in the fashion industry may come in handy as Apple launches its first major wearable product with the Apple Watch in the coming months.
Who is Angela Ahrendts?
After a search that took nearly a year, Apple yesterday announced that Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts will be joining Apple this spring as the company's Senior VP of Retail and Online Stores. Make no mistake about it, heading up Apple's retail stores is an extremely challenging and important position. Indeed, the short tenure of former Senior VP of Retail John Browett underscores just how challenging it is to follow in the footsteps of Ron Johnson, Apple's original retail mastermind. Apple stores are well-oiled machines that together comprise the most profitable retail business in the country. The person charged with heading up this portion of Apple's business carries a lot of responsibility, which is likely why Apple took its sweet time in finding a replacement for Browett, who was unceremoniously dismissed last October. Here's an interesting fact to consider; the top retail position at Apple has been vacant for 15 of the last 22 months. So just who is Angela Ahrendts and is there any reason to think she'll be a better fit at Apple than Browett? In a word, yes. Ahrendts comes to Apple from the world of retail luxury whereas John Browett came to Apple from Dixons, a UK-based retail chain that many were quick to label as cheap and unorganized. In other words, while Ahrendts comes to Apple from the world of fashion, she undoubtedly appreciates the importance of premium branding and cultivating a top-notch shopping experience. Whereas the April 2012 hiring of Browett was greeted with skepticism, especially by those familiar with Dixons, the hiring of Ahrendts seems to be a much better choice. Even Ron Johnson heaped praise on the hire, telling Bloomberg TV that Ahrendts is a "terrific choice" who will be "exceptionally well received". On Apple's new hire, Ron Johnson tells @BloombergTV in statement she's a "terrific choice," will be "exceptionally well received" - Jon Erlichman (@JonErlichman) October 15, 2013 Over the past seven years, Ahrendts served as the CEO of Burberry where she helped revitalize the company's image and bottom line, taking it to new and more profitable heights. A native of Indiana, and a reportedly tireless worker who gets up at 4:35 am everyday, Ahrendts over the past five years helped Burberry triple its revenue while simultaneously increasing product margins. During her tenure as CEO, the share price of Burberry nearly quadrupled. One of the more interesting aspects of Ahrendts is that she was able to swiftly and effectively meld the worlds of fashion and technology. While Apple likes to talk about how it stands at the intersection of liberal arts and technology, Burberry under Ahrendts seemingly stood in a similar intersection, albeit in the fashion world. CNN reports: Burberry's Spring/Summer 2013 campaign video gained over one million YouTube views in just 48 hours. And the luxury brand now has 16 million fans on Facebook and more than two million followers on Twitter. Wander around Burberry's London flagship store on Regent Street and you'll find sales assistants armed with iPads. Meanwhile mirrors transform into screens displaying catwalk images thanks to special technology sewn into some clothing and accessories. What's more is that the actual store has been redesigned to recreate an experience that reflects the company's website, Burberry World Live. In September 2012, BrandRepublic described Burberry's Regent Street store thusly: The store's features include a 22ft-high screen, 500 hidden speakers and a hydraulic stage. It also showcases RFID microchips – radio-frequency identification – in some of its clothes. This means that when a customer wears the microchipped clothing, they can look into a mirror that transforms into a screen, which shows how the garment would look on a catwalk. There will also be a digitally enabled gallery and events space. The Wall Street Journal adds: Former colleagues say she stressed the growth of Burberry's website when other luxury brands shied away from e-commerce. She placed Apple iPads in stores, streamed Burberry fashion shows live on the company website and adopted new software to cut costs and improve profitability. "She just aggressively drove technology into every facet of the business," said Justin Cooke, Burberry's former global vice president of public relations. "She saw it as a real enabler." Also of note is that Jessica Lessin, formerly of the Wall Street Journal, was able to dig up a few interesting tidbits about Ahrendts. Apple's new retail chief Angela Ahrendts is a watch lady, say people who know her. I am certainly not implying that Apple, which is developing the iWatch, nabbed this high-profile executive because she loves watches or because one of her most recent additions to the Burberry line was a very high-end watch brand (both true). I also hear she took particular interest in the watch retailing space in Burberry stores. Let's just say her passion for watches is a coincidence. Or maybe just a plus. While this is likely nothing more than a coincidence, it's certainly worth sharing given the bevy of other rumors surrounding Apple's mythical iWatch. More so, it lends more credence to the notion that Ahrendts will fit in much better at Apple than Browett ever did. Recall that Browett a few months ago indicated that he just "didn't fit" with the way Apple runs things. "It was one of those things where you're rejected for fit rather than competency," Browett explained in March of this year. As for Ahrendts, it seems like she already espouses the Apple philosophy of premium pricing for premium products. During a 2011 interview with CNN, Ahrendts was asked about Burberry's refusal to cut prices during lean economic times. She answered: Actually just the opposite. I mean, we're doing everything we can to protect the long term sustainability of the brand. You know Burberry has been around 155 years and, no, nothing short term. Everything is for the long term. That's why these big flagship stores that we're opening up, I mean we're going from 8 to 25,000 square feet of selling space just right here in London alone with our Regent street store... When you're playing long term and you're playing the global luxury brand game, it's very different. Sound familiar? Apple has of course long been criticized for not lowering the price of its products, which typically command a premium over competing products. Most recently, Apple was criticized for not making the iPhone 5c as affordable as some analysts were hoping. Lastly, it's probably quite telling that Ahrendts will head up Apple's retail and online operations. Tim Cook noted in his email to Apple employees that he has "wanted one person to lead both of these teams for some time" but never found someone capable of doing so until he met Ahrendts. As one final point, note that Burberry has 479 stores worldwide, which is about 60 more than Apple currently has.
Apple hires Burberry CEO to spruce up its retail operation
Cupertino's latest hire is an interesting one, especially when we think that about all those cool wearables that could one day take pride of place in Apple's online and physical stores. Angela Ahrendts, currently CEO of Burberry, has been recruited to fill a position that will be created just for her when she switches allegiances next spring -- as a senior VP reporting directly to Tim Cook and responsible for the "strategic direction, expansion and operation" of Apple's shopping experience. Ahrendts has already demonstrated that she can work with Apple, as Burberry helped to promote the launch of the iPhone 5s (shown above), so hopefully this union of fashion and technology will deliver better results than some others we've seen.
OK, now I'm excited about the iPhone 5s slow-mo recording feature
When Apple showed off the slow-motion camera feature at the iPhone event last week, I thought it was a neat addition, but it didn't exactly blow me away. Maybe it was just the amount of information being thrown out in quick succession, or maybe it was the sample videos Apple used at the time, but whatever the reason, it took a pint-sized video from a fashion company to actually sell me on the idea. The video below was recorded by Burberry, a British luxury clothing and fragrance brand, during a recent fashion show in which they partnered with Apple to show off the capabilities of the iPhone 5s camera. As you can see, everything seems pretty standard until the smartphone's 120fps slow-motion recording feature is activated, giving the previously fast-moving flower petals an elegant fluttering effect. Now if only I had a good reason to carry flower petals around with me on a daily basis to capture something this fantastic. You can check out a whole gallery of iPhone 5s snapshots on Burberry's Instagram page.
Burberry fashion show in London to be captured exclusively with the iPhone 5s camera
Next week's London Fashion Show hosted by Burberry will be photographed by the fashion company exclusively with the new camera on the iPhone 5s, Burberry and Apple announced tonight. The company will use the iSight camera in the iPhone 5s to capture and share photos and video before, during and after the runway show in London on Monday, September 16. In a press release, Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of iPhone & iOS Product Marketing, said, "iPhone 5s makes it even easier to take great photos with the world's most popular camera. We're thrilled to see the amazing photos and HD video Burberry has captured with the incredible all-new iSight camera." The new iSight camera in the iPhone 5s offers a 15 percent larger sensor with bigger pixels, measuring 1.5 microns. It also has an aperture of ƒ/2.2 and a new dual-LED True Tone flash. Given that it now comes in Space Gray, white and silver, or white and gold, it seems even moreso like a natural fit for a fashion show. Announcing the partnership with Apple, Christopher Bailey, Burberry's chief creative officer said, "This collaboration celebrates our relationship and shared foundation in design and craftsmanship. We have a mutual passion for creating beautiful products and unlocking emotive experiences through technology, which has made it intensely exciting to explore the capabilities of iPhone 5s. We're inspired by what this could mean for the future as we continue to explore the merging of physical and digital experiences."
