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FASHION DESIGNERS MEET WITH INTEL: Members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America met with executives from Intel this week to discuss wearable technology. The meeting represents the first toward a larger partnership that still needs to be built between tech companies and the fashion industry. If wearables are to ever become mainstream, fashion designers need to embrace this new product category and design a product that appeals to the mass market. However, many designers still lack enthusiasm for wearables:
"Wearing tech is not that cool. It needs to be something completely invisible. Something that's seamless," said jewelry designer Pamela Love. That said, Love was intrigued by the possibility of collecting consumer data from "smart" jewelry. "To be able to see how frequently a woman wears one of our pieces, how long it sits on the table for, that's the kind of data that could help me," she said.
Another jewelry designer, Lisa Salzer, who is behind the brand Lulu Frost, agreed. "I'm hoping to create jewelry that's passed down from grandmother to mother to granddaughter. How great would it be if we could track where one piece has been over 40 years? It's like a time capsule."
However, for some fashion houses, they simply don't have the resources to throw into a new product category that's still unproven in consumer markets:
"What we spend our money on is so important and dear. We didn't start a fashion company to start a wearable tech company," said Sam Shipler, co-designer of menswear label Shipley & Halmos. (Fashionista)
PAYPAL LOOKING FOR PARTNERS: PayPal wants to service more multi-channel retailers (those who sell online and offline) by partnering with point-of-sale solution providers, processing resellers, system integrators, associations, and peripheral partners. PayPal began by helping retailers sell online using an online payments system, but now the company wants a larger footprint in bricks-and-mortars, where many consumers still prefer to shop.
PayPal's new partnerships will complement its recent innovations in bricks-and-mortar payment services, which we reported about earlier this week. (eCommerce Bytes)
AMAZON FLIGHT-TESTING ITS NEW DRONES: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos told shareholders in his annual letter that the company has been hard at work testing the fifth and sixth generation courier drones. Bezos also said that engineers are already designing the next generation of aerial vehicles, which will be strong enough to deliver shoebox-size packages to customers. However, before Amazon can launch its drone delivery service, it will have to work out an agreement with U.S. lawmakers and the Federal Aviation Administration. (CNET)
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BLUE APRON RAISES $30 MILLION: Blue Apron, which operates a subscription service delivering meals, is raising $30 million at a $500 million valuation, according to sources who spoke with Fortune. The company is now delivering 500,000 meals per month to customers, which sets it up for a $60 million revenue run rate. Blue Apron makes money by buying food in bulk, and then divvying it up among customers. That means that as Blue Apron expands it customer base, its margins presumably will improve as well. Although online grocery shopping has yet to really take off, prepared meal delivery seems to be finding its place in e-commerce. (Fortune)
FIRST DATA RELEASES SPENDTREND ANALYSIS. Payments processor First Data tracks monthly same-store electronic payment trends for U.S. merchants. In comparison to March 2013, March 2014 saw growth of 2.9%, 3.4%, and 1.1% in same-store dollar volume of credit, signature debit, and PIN debit transactions, respectively. Same-store dollar volume for checks fell by 4.9%, and dropped 5.6% for prepaid cards. While March saw year-over-year growth in electronic transactions with the exception of prepaid cards, spending growth dropped from 2.4% in February 2014, to 2.1% in March. The decline is likely a result of this year's late Easter which takes place in April instead of March this year. (First Data)
Overstock.com founder Patrick Byrne is stepping down as chairman of the company but will remain CEO. Long-time executive Jonathan Johnson will assume the role of chairman. (Wall Street Journal)
Footwear, apparel, and accessories retailer Deckers Outdoor Corp., which owns Ugg and Teva, has promoted two executives to lead its multi-channel (or, omni-channel) strategy. John Kalinich is now senior vice president of omni-channel operations and Brad Willis is the new senior vice president of information technology. (Wall Street Journal)
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