Lands’ End Gets QVC Showcase

Lands’ End Gets QVC Showcase

Clothing and home décor retailer Lands’ End will showcase women’s swimwear in its on-air debut on home shopping channel QVC as part of an expansion of the companies’ eCommerce relationship that started late last year, according to a Thursday (April 14) press release.

The show will air Friday (April 15) at 10 a.m. Eastern time.

“We’ve found our third-party platforms and collaborations are an effective way for Lands’ End to build relationships with existing brand fans and connect with new customers, reaching shoppers in channels they might be frequenting,” said Angie Rieger, senior vice president of international and wholesale at Lands’ End, in the release. “It’s this customer excitement that has driven our unique, third-party approach to shopping Lands’ End, and we see it as a clear differentiator for the brand.”

The women’s swimwear collection will feature sizes 2 to 32 and run from petite through tall. It will also be featured on QVC’s digital platforms, according to the release. The move is part of Lands’ End’s push to find new platforms and collaborations to increase its audience..

“Our eCommerce launch with Lands’ End resulted in impressive customer engagement both within the online shopping experience and socially, especially given the brand’s inclusive offerings, which is an area where we continue to place emphasis here at QVC as well,” said Rachel Ungaro, vice president and general manager of apparel for QVC U.S., in the release. “Lands’ End has one of the most inclusive swimwear size ranges on the market — a synergy with QVC and the inspiration behind this spring’s on-air product focus. We look forward to seeing our customer’s continued response and the possibility of additional opportunities in the future.”

Earlier this week, Canadian athletic apparel retailer Lululemon Athletica announced an expansion of its Like New trade-in and resale program that will start on Earth Day (April 22), following a pilot last year in Texas and California.

Read more: Lululemon Expands Resale Program Within the US

Wayfair Deploys Google AI to Scale and Enrich Product Catalogs

Google, Wayfair, AI, retail, partnerships

Wayfair has reduced the time needed to curate product listings by 67%, saved hundreds of thousands of dollars and improved some conversion rates by 2% by deploying Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

The online retailer shared these results in a Sunday (Jan. 10) press release emailed to PYMNTS announcing that it is using Google’s Gemini models on Vertex AI to enhance its product catalog and unlock “the next generation of retail experiences.”

“With Google Cloud, we’ve been able to efficiently scale and enrich our product catalogs, enabling us to support a more seamless and engaging shopping experience for our customers,” Wayfair Chief Technology Officer Fiona Tan said in the release.

Gemini on Google Cloud improved Wayfair’s time-to-market by automatically categorizing products across its 30 million product portfolio, delivered cost savings by eliminating the need to manually tag attributes like color and style, and improved conversion rates by increasing the accuracy of product attributes and improving the coverage of attribute tags in the retailer’s catalog, according to the release.

The technology also automatically catches errors in product dimensions and flags inappropriate materials, per the release.

Wayfair is also using Gemini for Google Workspace to boost employees’ productivity, according to the release.

The retailer is using AI features in this suite of productivity apps to draft and respond to emails, summarize and proofread documents, build presentation templates and gain expertise in new areas, per the release.

“By harnessing the power of Gemini and Google Workspace, Wayfair is not only automating complex tasks and boosting employee collaboration, but also creating more personalized and engaging experiences for every shopper,” Matt Renner, president, global revenue at Google Cloud, said in the release.

The rise of large language models (LLMs) has thrust generative AI into the driver’s seat of retail technologies, prompting brands to reassess their strategies, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence and AI-ID collaboration, “What Generative AI Has in Store for the Retail Industry.”

The report found that 92% of companies are using AI-driven personalization to drive growth and that 77% of business leaders rank generative AI as the most impactful emerging technology.