FASHION’S NEW MISSION: HIV CHARITY BORN FREE PAGES 4 AND 5 WWDWEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 2014 ■ $3.00 ■ WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY ALIBABA vs. AMAZON and EBAY and TWITTER and FACEBOOK and GOOGLE and NETFLIX... By RACHEL STRUGATZ ALIBABA IS COMING AND AMAZON — known as a quick learner and savvy marketer along with the other digital leaders such as with a growing interest in fashion. eBay and Twitter — need to be looking over Alibaba is a force in China, where it domi- their shoulders. nates the market beside rival JD.com. And, un- The Chinese Web giant, which is part e- like Amazon, Alibaba has its fi nger in almost commerce player, part payment solution, every type of Internet pie, from social media part social media platform and all megatraf- to online streaming, e-commerce to online fi c driver, is set any day to fi le paperwork for payment systems. That’s why it isn’t compet- its highly anticipated initial public offering in ing only with Amazon in the U.S., but also with New York this year. That will give the already almost every other online player out there — formidable competitor billions of dollars in from eBay to Twitter, Google to Netfl ix. cash as well as billions more in stock to build The company commands about 5 percent of out its empire, tighten its grip in China and ex- China’s retail market — or 80 percent of the pand globally — including in the U.S. e-commerce market there. The listing in New “They’re both behemoths, but Alibaba is York is expected to allow its founder, Jack Ma, two to three times bigger [than Amazon],” said and other executives to control the company Kosha Gada, principal in the media, consum- through a separate class of shares that carry er and retail practices at A.T. Kearney, refer- greater voting rights than those being fl oated. ring to the number of transactions each fi rm Ma, who established the company 15 years enables. “Amazon’s mission statement is to be ago, has grown Alibaba into a global leader Earth’s most consumer-centric company. They in terms of online transactions. It operates have a very clear and strong message and China’s largest consumer-to-consumer e-com- they’ve really earned that. On that standpoint, merce site, Taobao, a marketplace that can be Amazon is much stronger [in the U.S.]. Alibaba likened to eBay but charges vendors to adver- has an uphill battle.” tise instead of imposing a fee against sales. But Alibaba is coming on strong and is SEE PAGE 6 2 WWD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 2014 WWD.COM Easter Shift Lifts Weekly Sales THE BRIEFING BOX mist for ICSC, noted that the long this year, 20 days later than in IN TODAY’S WWD By ARNOLD J. KARR wait for spring weather hurt re- 2013, pushing sales into the cur- sults. “Sales during the pre-Eas- rent month but, along with win- THE SHIFT in Easter — and ter week posted a moderate gain, try weather, limiting sales gains even a hint of moderation in tem- with retailers stepping up their in March. ICSC forecasts a 3.5 On campus at Columbia peratures — helped U.S. retail- promotions, but Mother Nature to 4 percent increase in same- University. For more, ers increase their sales on both a refused to cooperate as another store sales for the current month. see WWD.com. weekly and year-over-year basis. bout of unseasonably cool weath- Its tracking estimates for the In their chain-store sales month include a 4 percent in- index, the International crease in comparable sales for Council of Shopping Centers Gap Inc. and a 3 percent boost at and Goldman Sachs calculated L Brands. In March, Gap’s comp that sales for the week ended 1.9% sales declined 6 percent while Saturday rose 1.9 percent over comp-store sales for Victoria’s those of the comparable 2013 Secret parent L Brands were off week and 0.4 percent over those INCREASE IN U.S. RETAIL SALES 1 percent. Gap’s figures include for the week ended April 12. FOR WEEK ENDED SATURDAY. e-commerce revenues while L In the prior week, sales rose Brands’ do not. AQUINO 2.3 percent versus those for the The SaleTally-ICSC prior-year week but fell 0.3 per- er hit much of the country,” he Promotion Index indicated JOHN cent from the preceding week. said. “Even so, the gain marks heightened promotional activ- BY The 2.3 percent uptick had been the second straight solid perfor- ity at department and specialty PHOTO the strongest performance by the mance from a yearly standpoint, stores in the run-up to Easter. index in two months. good news for when the weather Consumer spending continued Michael Niemira, vice presi- finally turns.” to be constrained by higher gas Alibaba’s pending initial public offering signals the coming of a dent of research and chief econo- Easter Sunday was April 20 prices, ICSC noted. tough new competitor to the U.S. market. PAGE 1 The fashion industry has designs on putting an end to mother- to-child HIV transmission through the Born Free project, which Verizon Points to Data Breach Controls today will begin offering merchandise on Shopbop.com. PAGE 4 Nudie Jeans, the Swedish jeans firm known for its dedication modation and food services — where card-present By VICKI M. YOUNG to raw organic denim and sustainability, is gearing up for a purchases are made. PAGE 8 In many instances, perpetrators have easy ac- substantial push in the U.S. PREVENTING MANY data breaches at retail via cess due to no password protection, or use of weak Bebe Stores Inc. basic controls seems so easy, it’s almost embarrassing. or default passwords. In some cases where fran- shares fell almost 10 percent after the Verizon’s 2014 Data Breach Investigations chisees of the same vendor were breached, stolen company warned that its third-quarter loss would be deeper and Report noted that 94 percent of all security inci- vendor credentials impacted all groups managed its sales lower than previously expected. PAGE 8 dents in 2013 can be traced to nine basic attack pat- by the same vendor system since they all used the terns that vary from one industry to another. Often’’ same password. In other instances, the POS intru- Ron Robinson wants to put his uniquely Californian mark on a simple control such as some form of password sion was on a nondedicated machine that was open women’s apparel by turning the casual style embraced by so protection can deter many security incidents. So, to the entire Internet, including social-media sites many locals into a highly fashionable endeavor. PAGE 9 too, is having a limit on the number of access at- and corporate e-mail accounts. tempts before a site becomes locked out. While last year’s retail data breaches include French actress Fanny Ardant, who stars in the film “Bright Verizon’s security team has compiled 10 years of attacks on the systems at Neiman Marcus Group Days Ahead,” discusses her life on and off camera. PAGE 10 data-breach analytics. This is the seventh year that and Target Corp. — where at least 40 million to as the team has published its data findings. many as 70 million consumers who shopped at the Tech, retail, fashion design and digital leaders will converge at According to Suzanne Widup, managing prin- discounter between Black Friday and Dec. 15 had the first annual Fashion Tech Forum, organized by Karen Harvey, cipal and senior analyst on Verizon’s Security their personal data stolen — the number of POS in- founder of Karen Harvey Consulting Group. PAGE 11 Services team, the latest survey includes data trusions has been trending down, Widup said. from 50 data-sharing partners. That’s up from the “We’ve been seeing fewer incidents. Some of the Independent multilabel retailer Otte is celebrating its 15th incidents that happened include a high number of 18 who contributed in 2013 and just five in 2012. As anniversary with a pop-up shop. PAGE 11 for other metrics, the most recent report analyzes cards being compromised, but the actual number is 1,367 confirmed data breaches trending down,” said Widup, Yahoo said Tuesday that it tapped Susan Kittenplan as and 63,437 reported security who explained that there PAGE 12 incidents. Over the 10-year actually have been fewer at- executive editor of media initiatives. period, there have been more A lot of times, tacks involving small busi- than 3,800 confirmed breaches nesses or franchises. Factory inspections continue in Bangladesh as the first across all types of industries. criminals go after In 2013, there were nearly anniversary of the Rana Plaza tragedy approaches. PAGE 12 In retail, the most common 200 incidents involving POS attack patterns are point-of- the easy stuff, where intrusions, with RAM-scraping ON WWD.COM sale intrusions, Web applica- malware used 85 percent of THEY ARE WEARING: Students at Columbia University are tion attacks and payment card the time as the primary tool to basic controls just taking on the unpredictable spring climate in New York in skimmers, Widup said. capture data. According to the For more, see WWD.com. The Verizon study noted Verizon report, RAM scrapers casual stride. that there were 467 security aren’t in place. allow payment card informa- incidents last year in the re- tion to be grabbed while being CORRECTION tail industry, with 148 of those — SUZANNE WIDUP, VERIZON processed in memory, where it Due to an editing error, Mayu Saini’s byline was inadvertently omitted incidents resulting in con- is unencrypted, versus being from a story from Dhaka, Bangladesh, on page one Monday.