Edition #36: Why Retail Is Betting on Circular Retail Models — Plus The Top Retail Stories This Week

 👋 Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to get Retail Detail every Friday.

This week was shaped by two forces moving in parallel: macro uncertainty (tariffs, softer discretionary signals, and labor-rightsizing) and a faster march toward agent-led commerce.

Brands are recalibrating leadership, channels, and cost structures while tech platforms quietly insert themselves deeper into discovery, checkout, and personalization.

🌍 World Retail Headlines

European Luxury Stocks Slump on Trump’s Tariff Threat
A renewed tariff overhang hit European luxury names, reviving concerns around demand elasticity and cross-border pricing strategy. The reaction underscores how quickly policy risk translates into valuation pressure for global discretionary brands.
Read more

Burberry Rebound Continues as Gen Zers in China, Asia Pacific Fuel Brand’s Growth
Burberry’s recovery is being led by younger consumers in Asia-Pacific, where fashion adoption cycles are fastest and cultural relevance compounds quickly. The durability of this rebound will hinge on full-price sell-through rather than promotional acceleration.
Read more

Sephora to Dedicate Curated Spaces to K-Beauty Rival Olive Young
Sephora is embedding Olive Young as a shop-in-shop partner, effectively importing Korea’s most influential beauty curator into its global footprint. It’s a fast-track distribution strategy ahead of Olive Young’s own U.S. expansion plans.
Read more

LVMH Sells Its Chinese Travel Retail Division
LVMH is exiting travel retail operations across Greater China while retaining DFS exposure in Japan, the U.S., and the Middle East. The move reflects a more selective approach to travel retail amid uneven recovery and regulatory complexity.
Read more

Smithfield Acquires Nathan’s Famous for $450 Million
Smithfield is converting a long-standing licensing relationship into outright ownership, securing a heritage brand with strong retail and foodservice leverage. The deal reinforces consolidation logic across branded protein and packaged foods.
Read more

Amazon Plans Thousands More Corporate Job Cuts Next Week
Amazon is preparing another wave of corporate reductions as part of its broader de-layering effort. The cuts signal continued pressure to improve efficiency even as revenue growth stabilizes across retail and cloud segments.
Read more

Beyond Meat Tests Protein Beverages in Bid for Growth Reset
Beyond Meat is experimenting with protein drinks as it looks to broaden usage occasions beyond meat alternatives. The move reflects a push toward higher-frequency formats as the plant-based category matures.
Read more

Henkel in Talks to Acquire Specialty Chemical Maker Stahl
Henkel’s interest in Stahl points to ongoing consolidation in specialty inputs that sit upstream of consumer and beauty brands. Control over formulation and materials is increasingly strategic as performance and sustainability claims rise.
Read more

US Consumer Spending Rises Solidly Despite Data Disruptions
U.S. consumer spending held up through October and November, signaling resilient demand even as inflation data was partially distorted. Retailers should still expect selective trade-down behavior across discretionary categories.
Read more

Nike Shakes Up Regional Leadership Team
Nike has restructured regional leadership roles as it sharpens focus on execution, speed, and accountability across key markets. Leadership changes suggest a continued push to realign global strategy with local demand signals.
Read more

📰 India Retail News

Deepinder Goyal Resigns as CEO of Eternal; Albinder Dhindsa to Take Over (Feb 1, 2026)
A top-level leadership transition at Eternal is likely to trigger a reset on operating cadence, capital allocation, and near-term priorities. In consumer-facing businesses, CEO changes often translate quickly into shifts in growth vs. profitability stance.
Read more

India Cracks Smirnoff Global Top Five: Diageo
India’s rise into the top tier for a global spirits franchise underscores the scale and premiumisation potential still building in large-format FMCG categories. The competitive battle will increasingly be about distribution depth, on-trade activation, and regulatory navigation state-by-state.
Read more

Adar Poonawalla to Make ‘Strong and Competitive’ Bid for Royal Challengers Bengaluru
The RCB bidding process highlights how sports franchises are now treated as long-duration consumer platforms—combining media rights optionality, merchandising, and brand partnership revenue. For consumer leaders, this is another reminder that “community IP” can outperform traditional paid media.
Read more

Retailers, Restaurants Cite Air Pollution for Weaker December-Quarter Sales in North India
Air quality is becoming an operational variable, not just a public health headline—impacting footfall, dine-out frequency, and discretionary spend in affected metros. Expect stronger emphasis on delivery mix, indoor experience design, and hyperlocal demand smoothing during high-smog periods.
Read more

Everstone to Sell Entire Stake in Restaurant Brands Asia (Burger King India Operator)
The reported stake sale points to an inflection moment: PE cycles are meeting public-market realities in QSR, where unit economics and same-store sales durability matter more than expansion narratives. The next phase will favor operators who can compound throughput without discount dependency.
Read more

Purplle’s Minority Stake Draws PE Interest; Deal Could Value Platform at $1.5B
Beauty remains one of the few D2C-adjacent categories still commanding premium expectations—driven by repeat purchase, higher gross margins, and defensible brand building. Minority interest also signals that investors are selectively re-entering growth platforms with clearer paths to profitability.
Read more

Aditya Birla Fashion Shares Slide 9% Amid Block Deal Buzz
Block-deal speculation is a reminder that listed fashion platforms remain sensitive to ownership moves and near-term liquidity signals. For the sector, capital-market narratives are tightening: investors are looking for cleaner visibility on margin recovery and portfolio focus.
Read more

💻 Retail Tech Headlines

Shopify Merchants to Pay 4% Fee on ChatGPT Checkout Sales
OpenAI’s revenue share introduces a new margin layer for brands selling via conversational commerce. The trade-off: incremental discovery versus tighter contribution margins and reduced ownership of the customer relationship.
Read more

TikTok Clinches Deal for New US Joint Venture to Avoid Ban
TikTok’s restructuring secures short-term continuity for creators and advertisers, but reinforces how geopolitical risk can reshape platform access overnight. Brands remain exposed to policy-driven distribution volatility.
Read more

LiveKit Raises $100 Million as Voice AI Infrastructure Scales
Funding momentum behind LiveKit highlights rising demand for real-time voice layers in AI-driven commerce and service. Voice is increasingly viewed as core infrastructure rather than an interface experiment.
Read more

Google Lets Users Personalise AI Search Using Photos and Email
Google is deepening AI-driven personalization by incorporating first-party data signals into search. For retail, discovery quality improves—but so does the sensitivity around data consent and perceived value exchange.
Read more

🔥 Top Funding, IPO & Earnings

• L’Oréal to invest $383 million in Indian beauty tech hub

• Andreessen-Backed Inferact Raises $150 Million in Seed Round

• Dhun Wellness raises $4 million for expansion

• Balaji Wafers inks pact for strategic investment from General Atlantic

• D2C Lifestyle Brand Salty Raises INR 30 Cr

• Unbox Robotics Raises $28 Mn

• Whizzo Bags $15 Mn

• Procter & Gamble misses revenue estimates due to slower US growth

👔 Key Retail Appointments & Exits

• Kering appoints a Chief Commercial Officer

• Target expands its board with former Nike and HanesBrands leaders

• A longtime Neiman Marcus merchant moves to Bloomingdale’s

• Anaita Shroff Adajania joins ZILO as Style Director and equity partner

• Livspace appoints Abhishek Gupta as Chief Financial Officer

• Charlotte Blechman joins Actum to help build its luxury, fashion, and lifestyle consultancy practice

🤖 Deep Dive: Is resale/recycle having a moment on the back of thrift shopping?

What’s Happening

Resale has moved decisively from the margins to the mainstream of retail. What was once viewed as thrift-driven or necessity-led consumption is now operating as a scaled, tech-enabled, culturally accepted retail model. Both digital platforms and physical retail formats are proving that circular commerce can generate growth, relevance, and repeat demand.

Key Highlights

• Goodwill’s e-commerce platform hit $450M in GMV in 2025, up 22% YoY, with cumulative lifetime sales crossing $3B.

• Digital still accounts for <10% of Goodwill’s total retail revenue, indicating significant headroom for online resale expansion.

• Sweden’s ReTuna recycling mall integrates municipal waste streams directly into retail, converting discarded goods into curated, sellable inventory.

• Secondhand gifting has gone mainstream, particularly during peak shopping events, signalling a cultural reset around “newness.”

• Younger consumers increasingly associate resale with status, sustainability, and discovery, not compromise.

What It Means for Retail & Consumer Brands

• Circularity is now a demand signal, not just a CSR initiative. Brands ignoring resale risk missing relevance with younger cohorts.

• Inventory lifespan is becoming a strategic asset—design, durability, repairability, and resale value now influence brand equity.

• Platform economics matter: nonprofit and peer-to-peer models with low “cost of possession” are structurally advantaged over warehousing-heavy resale players.

• Physical retail still plays a role, but as experience, curation, and repair hubs—not just transaction points.

• Expect resale to increasingly sit alongside primary retail, not in opposition to it.

The BIG Takeaway

Resale isn’t having a moment—it has crossed into permanence. The smartest retail systems are no longer asking how to sell more products, but how many times one product can generate value.

Circular retail is proving that growth and sustainability are no longer trade-offs—they are becoming the same strategy.

Sources:

Modern Retail | Times of India | Instagram Reel

Let me know 💬

Got a tip? Looking to work with us? Any feedback? Email me.