From designer handbags to limited-edition shoes, the aftermarket for high-end goods is growing much faster than the luxury market itself. While resale is already worth $30+ billion, thanks in part to the rise of secondhand shopping platforms like Poshmark, issues of authenticity and traceability have made luxury a particularly tricky arena.

Most of retail isn’t heavily engaged with Web3 yet, but some luxury brands and investors are betting that a future where high-end resale is conducted on a blockchain is just a few months away.

In 2021, LVMH, Prada, and Cartier formed the Aura Blockchain Consortium, a nonprofit organization that operates a private blockchain and creates “digital twins”—virtual representations of physical goods—for luxury brands.

Daniela Ott, Aura’s general secretary, said blockchain technology benefits both consumers and brands.

“I’m totally convinced every luxury product will have a digital twin,” she told Retail Brew.

Opening doors: As brands move away from using NFTs as one-off projects or digital art, authentication is a huge area of opportunity, Insider Analyst Sky Canaves told Retail Brew.

It’s also a good point of entry for brands, because the authenticity of secondhand purchases is one of consumers’ biggest concerns, Canaves said.

A whole new world: Luxury is currently a linear business model, because there’s no way for brands to stay connected with those who purchase through a third party, or receive an item as a gift, Ott explained.

But she thinks that’s changing. In the future, circular revenue—resale, repairs, or recycling—will become a significant source of income for luxury brands, and the blockchain makes that possible. “I think blockchain is ready, not necessarily tomorrow, but in a few months,” she said.

Keep reading here.—MA

Men shopping more than women? Until recently, the idea seemed improbable to many people. But things are changing. Recently, both Capri Holdings (parent company of Michael Kors) and Tapestry (which owns Stuart Weitzman, Coach, and Kate Spade) said menswear will become an important area of growth over the next year.

• Euromonitor predicts menswear will grow faster than womenswear in the next four years, and hit $547.9 billion by 2026.

Staying put: The boom in menswear can be attributed in part to the pandemic, as consumers working from home became accustomed to casual and athleticwear. “The menswear market has been undergoing a category shift in which men are wearing more casual, sporty shirts and clothing to work and are wearing formalwear less,” Sunny Zheng, an analyst at Coresight Research, told Retail Brew.

• Among the top 10 men’s brands, the athleticwear category “and the top three athletic brands—Adidas, Nike, and Under Armour—have seen the largest gains over the past five years, from a combined market share of 8.3% in 2017 to 9.8% in 2021,” Zheng shared.

Luxury players are also taking note of the growth in the menswear category. Louis Vuitton, for instance, opened a men’s store in Beverly Hills in July. Meanwhile, to pique men's interest, Burberry, Gucci, and Balenciaga have signed male sports ambassadors or hired male athletes to walk in their fashion shows.

On the other end of the spectrum, pandemic-era restrictions have eased, boosting previously overlooked categories like men’s footwear. “Luxury men’s clothing and footwear accounted for around 8.5% of total US men’s clothing and footwear sales, by value, in 2021,” Zheng told us.

Keep reading here.—JS

On Wednesdays, we wear pink spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Today we’re getting to know Caitlin Keohane, who has spent the past decade at Zendesk, a SaaS company focused on customer communication. She held roles across sales, product, CX strategy, and operations—and even relocated from San Francisco to Singapore for two years—before landing her current gig as SVP of global consumer advocacy.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? I oversee Zendesk’s customer service. My focus is on creating a world-class support experience for our customers and our advocates.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? My side hustle. It pays in hugs and snuggles, and requires a lot of fruit chopping, freeze dancing, and diaper changing.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? Last year, we set out to transform our Support Operation by rethinking, redesigning and re-architecting our customer experience (CX). It was a highly cross-functional, CEO-backed program that involved a full rip and replace of how we use our own instance of Zendesk (which was in fact an old production instance—yes, true story, even technology companies go through their own major digital transformations with their own technology!), as well as a complete overhaul of our processes, workflows, and our overall channel strategy.

Which emerging retail trend are you most excited about this year, and why? Personalization is the future of customer service, especially for retailers. We’ve learned over the course of the pandemic that people’s preferences for how they want to communicate with businesses, and their expectations for brands’/retailers’ customer service, have changed drastically. Shoppers want to feel like they are being given personalized product recommendations, and a personalized approach to how their concerns and problems are being addressed. 

What’s your go-to coffee order? It’s fall, so if I have a coffee in my hand it will absolutely be a pumpkin spice latte!

Worst piece of advice you’ve received? “Go for the pixie cut—you have the face shape to support it” *shudder*.

What was your favorite retail product when you were 15, and what’s your favorite retail product now? I thought my pair of light blue, high waisted, flared corduroy pants were pretty darn cool when I was 15. These days, I count on my La Mer moisturizer cream to help me appear well-rested.

Today’s top retail reads.

Stealing time: To fight theft, retailers like Home Depot and Best Buy are locking up more items. The goal is to “stop the bleeding and give yourself some time,” said Scott Glenn, VP of asset protection at Home Depot. (The Wall Street Journal)

Hot sauce: From chili crunch to dukkah to mustard, condiments are on the rise—but which brands are on top? (Thingtesting)

Count your chickens: The Kentucky home of KFC founder Colonel Sanders, as well as a restaurant he built for his wife called the Claudia Sanders Dinner House, have been on the market since June. The sale includes Claudia Sanders’s name and likeness, causing a headache for KFC. (Entrepreneur)

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