Introducing How to Sell Now

fashion business is a young publication; it launched in 2019 Fashionis a B2B companion, and since then it has gone through several iterations and edits (I myself joined in 2023).

The world is never peaceful, but in just these seven years, fashion business Through the pandemic, the luxury goods boom and subsequent economic slowdown, the e-commerce collapse, tariff wars, creative reshuffles, the rise of GLP-1 and peptides, and the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence.

It’s hard to keep up, but we’re always doing our best to solve our industry’s biggest pain points with journalism, in-depth interviews, executive reports and editorial packages that land first in your inbox.

But we want to turn all the knowledge we gather each year into a compendium of best practices. Today, I’m excited to introduce you to How to Sell Now: Our best-in-class interactive 2026 retail guide.

How to Sell Now includes six chapters: multi-branding, social and AI, resale, branding, product, and direct-to-consumer, the latter of which we released in partnership with Swap Commerce, the AI-powered storefront platform. The survey is based on data from Vogue Shopping, digital analytics from eight social platforms, a survey of 3,103 luxury consumers around the world, and paired in-depth interviews with 20 luxury consumers around the world to understand their shopping experiences. fashion business Custom insights team led by Anusha Couttigane. These include focused interviews with executives from some of the top companies in each category, such as Mytheresa, JW Anderson, Coach, Calvin Klein, Courrèges, Vestiaire Collective, Alo and Canada Goose.

Below you will find a brief outline of each chapter. You can read the full report only if you are fashion business Executive member. If you are not an executive member yet, you can click here to resolve this issue.

Consumers are conducting more extensive research before making a purchase — switching between AI tools, resale platforms, social media and editorial recommendations — while rising prices have raised expectations for quality, durability, versatility and service. As a result, brands are under increasing pressure to demonstrate the value of their products, not just their design.

In today’s luxury environment, against the backdrop of multiple macroeconomic crises and rising prices, cultivating brand love is more important than ever. Whether it’s a mug designed to look like the designer’s childhood, a cup of branded coffee, or a tarot reading on a megayacht in Cannes, branded moments are where luxury brands gain cultural credibility.

Brands are opening fewer doors, renegotiating terms, and becoming more selective about where and how they show up. At the same time, retailers are being forced to transform from scale-driven distributors into curators and cultural gatekeepers.

First gaining traction in the mid-2010s as a higher-margin alternative to wholesaling, it became a necessity during the pandemic. In the years since, as the multi-brand landscape has shrunk, direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales have developed into the industry’s core operating model.

Resale is no longer a separate downstream activity. It is becoming an important part of how consumers discover and interact with brands, with many using resale platforms to assess a brand’s value, authenticity and desirability. Technology—particularly AI-driven discovery—is starting to accelerate this shift, making resale more accessible.