Executive Summary

September 14, 2018

• This week’s note “From the Desk of Deborah Weinswig” discusses the prospects for US retail as we head into the fourth quarter.
• Amazon will be the No. 1 seller of apparel in the US in 2018, according to Wells Fargo. The e-commerce behemoth’s apparel and footwear gross sales are expected to top $30 billion this year.
• HBC and Signa, the respective owners of German department store chains Galeria Kaufhof and Karstadt, announced that they have agreed to merge the two chains.
• On September 10, 2019, Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang will replace Group Executive Chairman and cofounder Jack Ma as chairman of the Alibaba board. Ma will continue to serve as a member of the board until the company’s annual general meeting in 2020.