Amazon exceeded second-quarter profit expectations by earning $7.8 billion, or $15.12 per share, but it failed to meet analyst expectations for sales, which increased 27% year over year to $113.1 billion. The company's performance was fueled by continued diversification into different business segments, such as cloud computing and advertising.
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During NRF Retail Converge, leaders shared how to frame the business case for resale. "We had a theory that this would attract a new and younger consumer, and we've seen that bear out in the data," said Karen Campbell, strategic planning and new business development director at Arc'teryx Equipment. REI's online used business grew more than 100% in 2020, said Ken Voeller, REI's director of circular commerce, who expects re-commerce to become a "meaningful chunk" of what it offers over the next few years. Read more.
Fashion content platform Who What Wear will debut the Who What Wear Collection next week. The direct-to-consumer fashion collection from editor-in-chief Kat Collings and Clique Brands President Brianna Mobrem will debut new styles monthly, the first of which will feature 27 pieces with prices starting at $55.
Coca-Cola is launching today its first campaign involving nonfungible tokens for International Friendship Day when it auctions the Coca-Cola Friendship Box containing NFT versions of Coca-Cola collectibles to support the Special Olympics. NFTs are one way to explore the growing artificial reality-enabled "metaverse," which "creates opportunities to connect with others like never before," said Josh Schwarber, Coca-Cola's global digital design senior director.
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Snapchat rolled out its biggest global campaign to tout its augmented reality capabilities, which features digital and out-of-home lenses and Snapcodes customized for major cities, including several in the US. Brand partners for "Open Your Snapchat" include Legendary Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures and Disney+, with AR try-on features from American Eagle, Jordan Brand, Ralph Lauren and others.
TikTok created a "Re:Make by TikTok" campaign that features some of the platform's top creators reimagining three classic ads -- TBWA\Chiat\Day New York's "Touch" for Skittles, BBDO New York's "Game" for Snickers and Wieden+Kennedy Portland's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" for Old Spice. The push was created by BBDO, Mars and Mars Wrigley's The Hive and Procter & Gamble, and #TikTokRemake encourages others to share their own ad remakes or suggest other spots to be remade.
Beauty brands including E.l.f. and Nars have joined companies from other industries in launching sales of nonfungible tokens as part of new marketing campaigns. "While there's undoubtedly been strong momentum around NFTs in recent months, we consider them to be an emerging and experimental class of digital product and collectibles," Nars executive Dina Fierro said.
