Editors' Top Reads: News from eBay, Wolf & Badger, Ted Baker and more...

Here are some of this week’s news and features highlights handpicked by TheIndustry.fashion team.

eBay UK abolished seller's fees for fashion to boost the resale market

Depop recently axed its seller's fee and now eBay has followed suit. In a bid to boost the resale market, as it estimates there is £16.3 billion worth of unworn items in UK wardrobes, eBay UK has taken steps to encourage more people to sell their unwanted clothing on its site.

The abolition of the seller's fee was applied to all fashion items already listed. Similarly, Depop revealed last month that it was dropping its 10% seller's fee and plans to introduce a small marketplace fee for UK buyers from 15 April. Interestingly, the fees are being shifted to buyers rather than sellers. We await to see how this impacts both businesses and if rivals, such as Vinted, jump on the bandwagon.

Chloé Burney, Senior News & Features Writer.

Wolf & Badger launches commission-led ‘Tastemakers’ ambassador programme

A champion of up-and-coming independent ethical brands across fashion, beauty, homeware, jewellery and lifestyle, multi-channel retailer Wolf & Badger showed its forward-thinking credentials once again this week with the launch of its new ‘Tastemakers’ ambassador programme.

It will see invited content creators who sign up on the website given a ‘creator custom storefront’ with the chance to select their favourite products, create looks and edits, receive products to style and feature, share with their audience and earn a 20% commission on any sales that they generate. The sales can be directly linked to them as each Tastemaker has their unique tracking link.

So many brands these days talk about their ‘community’, but this programme underscores that ethos. What better way to feel a part of something than to get financially rewarded for generating sales (and more interest) for it? Not only that, Wolf & Badger gets the benefit of a diverse mix of creative minds putting things together – from various brands - that they might not have dreamt of themselves.

I don’t know exactly how it works, but presumably, Wolf & Badger takes the hit on the full-price sales to feed the commission paid, not the brands. Either that or it’s an equal split, which may well be the case. Either way, I guess it works, so long as there’s room in the margins for all concerned.

Tom Bottomley, Contributing Editor.

Ted Baker: Can running a fashion brand at arm's length ever be truly authentic?

Authentic Brands is arguably an inappropriately named fashion group. While it has some huge names under its purview, how many of them are truly authentic any more?

This is the question our contributing editor Marcus Jaye has been grappling with this week, and it’s been on my mind too.

Can you really run a brand at an arm’s length and delegate all responsibility from retail to design to a series of agencies and managers? They would argue yes but I would argue not always.

The situation at Ted Baker, which it acquired in 2022, is depressing. A poor choice of retail manager for the UK and Europe has led to its UK arm tumbling into administration. It seems likely it will emerge from administration when a new management company is signed but in the meantime, 15 stores have been lost.

Ted Baker was a brand with a singular vision that infused every seam of its clothing through every store and social media post. Now it has been carved up to be run by numerous different companies. I hope it can survive but I fear its spirit may be lost.

Lauretta Roberts, Co-founder, CEO and Editor In Chief

Fashion: Jimmy Choo Academy opens a gallery selling students' designs

I am always thrilled to see the championing of emerging, especially young, talent, so the news that Jimmy Choo Academy (JCA) will be opening the JCA Gallery in London’s Hanover Square, was more than welcome. The gallery promises to be "a celebration of innovation and the boundless potential of emerging designers ready to show their talent to the world”.

The JCA Gallery aims to offer both undergraduate and masters students a portal to the world of retail and allows members of the public to buy and rent students’ pieces for the first time.

At a time when purse strings are especially tight, particularly for students, the opportunity to showcase their work free of charge via their university is invaluable.

Katie Ross, Contributing Writer.