Rise of micro brands - Eck

Great article in AFR; directly applies to City Chic, particularly USA market growth, albeit own channel website sales most preferred. AFR today.

Excerpt:

Dennis Eck, a former chief executive of the Coles retail conglomerate, says the new retail landscape emerging across the world amid the rise of e-commerce giants like Amazon has paved the way for the rise of micro brands in consumer goods able to build a presence in very quick time.

Mr Eck, who is based in California but is in Sydney currently for meetings with ASX-listed company Cellmid in which he has $2 million investment and is also a director, said Amazon and its fellow e-commerce behemoths had overturned the retail rules in a short space of time.

But the new retail environment where social media and digital communication had a large influence on consumer behaviour and buying patterns, meant that new consumer brands could gain traction very fast in their particular segments, and they didn't necessarily have to become ubiquitous global brands which were household names.