​Luxury retailer Matchesfashion has continued to boost its top team, and has named a new executive creative director, finding him – like current Matches CEO Nick Beighton – among the ranks of ASOS execs.

Dutch group Unilever, through its start-up investment programme Unilever Ventures, has injected $2 million into newly-launched Australian haircare brand Straand.

​Klarna has unveiled Paris Hilton as its new global face with an upcoming campaign featuring the “Y2K icon” that’s been created in collaboration with Hilton’s next-gen media company, 11:11 Media.

​Online retail has endured a couple of difficult years post-pandemic and January’s figures that have just come out show no signs of a change in the trend.

January sales reports on Tuesday were far from buoyant, although the fashion sector continued to see growth, presumably boosted by easy comparisons, high inflation and clearance sales. 

There was a time when warehousing in the UK was in short supply as the e-commerce boom shifted up several gears. No longer, it seems.

​Studio Retail’s CEO has exited the business almost a year after it was snapped up by Frasers Group in a rescue deal.

​Freemans said on Friday that it had “a cracker of a Christmas” with sales in the eight weeks to the end of the year up as much as 23%. Its customer numbers also topped a million, which was up 65% from two years ago.

​Footfall to UK retail destinations was up 12.5% in January, according to the latest BRC-Sensormatic IQ data. But while it rose, it was 2.6 percentage points down on December.

​There are big changes happening in John Lewis Partnership’s customer service capability, with the UK retail giant announcing new investment in its brands, data and technology “to give even more value to customers”.

Global fashion giant H&M is planning to shutter four of its regional UK stores, citing a “rapid change” in customer behaviour. Stores in Hartlepool, Maidenhead, Newport on the Isle of Wight and Burton are set to close.

How successful has The Very Group’s Everyday range been? Enough to expand the collection with more than 900 new fashion and home products “following strong customer demand since it launched in summer 2022”.

A new broom is expected to sweep in at Matalan following the acquisition of the fashion and lifestyle retailer last month, with interim chairman Tim Isaacs the first casualty.

Central London commercial property landlord Shaftesbury is to partner with Good On You, fashion’s source for brand sustainability ratings.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is looking into Farfetch’s purchase of a stake in Yoox Net-A-Porter, owned by Swiss luxury goods group Richemont, claiming it might reduce competition in the UK market.

​THG Ingenuity has inked a strategic alliance with And Digital, the software engineering firm, “to accelerate digital transformation, help brands bridge the digital skills gap and unlock the potential of commerce tech”.