This statistic should be in the back of every fashion executive’s mind: 50% of U.S. Gen Z consumers prefer to shop and explore new brands. That makes them the least loyal generational cohort; brands can win them more easily, but they can lose them, too. But that only scratches the surface of a much deeper behavioral shift that’s redefining fashion commerce. 

Gen Z doesn’t browse clothing the way previous generations did by looking at their chosen brands’ websites, comparing prices across tabs, or saving items to wish lists. Instead, they: 

• Discover through social feeds: 73% find new fashion brands through TikTok and Instagram content 
• Purchase within platforms: They buy directly without leaving their social environment
• Expect instant gratification: Fast fashion cycles have trained them to expect new styles weekly, not seasonally. For example, Shein introduces 2,000 to 10,000 new items daily.
• Value authenticity: Nearly one-third of global consumers look to influencers for beauty purchase inspiration. 

This fundamental shift in consumer behavior is just one part of a whirlwind of change and challenge facing today’s fashion brands. Beyond capturing Gen Z’s platform-native shopping behavior, they also face new obstacles in protecting intellectual property (IP) in an age of rapid trend replication and maintaining brand integrity. 

What happens when traditional ecommerce funnels not only don’t work, but make your brand essentially invisible to the fastest-growing consumer segment? 

Why traditional fashion marketing no longer works with Gen Z 

Gen Z has collapsed the fashion cycle from seasons to days. By the time a quarterly drop hits, the moment may have passed. The fashion brands that keep up are designing faster, acting on real demand, and choosing platforms that support quick turns while protecting what makes the brand their own. They’re developing more flexible operations and strategic platform diversification to remain competitive without compromising their core values. 

The IP risk that comes with Gen Z reach 

One of the best ways to meet consumers where they shop is through major marketplaces. These help brands grow and overcome some of those Gen Z-based challenges. But it comes at a cost. To list products, brands often share detailed specs, launch calendars, pricing, sales data, and customer behavior. 

Brands have options to connect with Gen Z while mitigating those concerns. TikTok Shop is a good option for brands concerned about IP protection as a platform where they can maintain control over their data and product releases. 

How to protect your brand’s identity while scaling 

Brands that scale successfully are selective. They choose platforms that support their positioning, respect their data, and meet evolving customer expectations to better keep up with Gen Z, especially.  

For example, when Nordstrom launched its digital marketplace in 2024, president of digital and customer experience Miguel Almeida specifically noted that it was “not going to become the everything store.” Instead, Nordstrom focused on more upmarket brands while growing slowly, he said. These kinds of premium marketplaces often also offer favorable data protection terms and performance data. 

Social commerce platforms like TikTok Shop reach Gen Z where they are already spending their time. With the right integration, teams can run campaigns and manage listings without exposing launch timelines or product data. 

And of course, your best option is to use Rithum to manage growth and expand reach, protect your data, and keep your brand integrity intact. 

Learn how we help here. 

Michael Marte is a Senior Sales Engineer at Rithum. 

The post How Fashion Brands Can Win Gen Z Without Giving Up Control appeared first on Rithum.

From our Rithum-themed guitar hero game to our TikTok Shop and Amazon Happy Hour, the Rithum team had a great time meeting with brands, retailers, and partners at Shoptalk Vegas! After a few days of recuperation from the whirlwind, I caught up with James Lang, Dylan Hogan, and Matt Mallouk, to get their takes on what had the biggest buzz across everything they saw, heard, and shared at the conference.

One word: Social-Selling 

James Lang, Vice President of Client Partnerships

“The biggest question I’m hearing is whether social selling is really worth it—especially at a national level. If the answer is yes, the next step retailers are eager to explore is how to launch a private (curated) marketplace, enhance decision-making, and improve reaction time. Everyone is trying to figure out not just what tools to use, but how to use them to drive real outcomes.”

Next stop from Shoptalk: If social commerce is top of mind, check out these resources to keep exploring how it might work for you:

• Three Reasons Why Retailers and Brands Are Choosing to Sell Through Online Marketplaces
• AI & Automation, E-commerce Resilience, & the Power (and Pitfalls) of Diversification: 3 Hot Takes from the Future of 3P Commerce Webinar
• How to Sell on TikTok Shop

One word: AI

Dylan Hogan, Vice President of Sales

“You couldn’t walk around the Shoptalk floor without hearing about AI from every direction. The question now is about real-world integration. How can AI be interwoven into operations, the customer experience, and growth strategies.”

Next stop from Shoptalk: If AI is top of mind, check out these resources to keep exploring how it might work for you:

• 3 E-Commerce Trends from Cyber 5 to Carry into 2025
• On-Demand Webinar: The Rise of 3P Commerce: Why Multichannel Selling is the Future of E-Commerce
• Rithum Introduces AI Magic Mapper for Brands: Reduce Time and Effort for Channel Expansion

One word: Relationships

Matt Mallouk, Vice President, Client Partnerships: Relationships

“What I’ve heard the most is about how brands interact with their retail partners. Whether it’s item set up, running promotions, or updating pricing, the brand-retailer relationship is under the microscope. Every category plays differently, but the quality of those relationships is what’s really shaping success.”

Next stop from Shoptalk: If relationship optimization is top of mind, check out these resources:

• Explore Rithum’s Network & Platform
• Scale Your Retail Business Through Dropship and Private Marketplaces
• Demand for 3P Commerce Grows Among Global Retailers and Brands

Bonus takeaway: Tariffs

Another theme in the content sessions during the show was how to drive growth both in-store and online in the face of economic uncertainty. According to Dylan, “This is especially top of mind now that import tariffs have officially taken effect, adding fresh complexity to an already challenging macroeconomic environment.”

Missed us at Shoptalk Vegas? We’ll be at Shoptalk Europe in June, and you can always contact us here for any questions on what’s coming next in commerce.

The post Rithum Team’s 3 Shoptalk Takes in 1 Word appeared first on Rithum.

We’ve analyzed trends that stood out from the five-day period between Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday and how these lessons can impact 2025 e-commerce trends for brands and retailers. Consumers spent more online than ever before, according to Adobe Analytics data. For Rithum clients, AI, social commerce and retail media strategy took center stage. Here’s what brands and retailers are investing in to reach more consumers in 2025.

1. Explosion of product categories for third-party (3P) marketplaces is reshaping e-commerce in 2025.

Brands and retailers will continue to use artificial intelligence (AI) to manage product inventory across multiple sales channels including marketplaces and direct-to-consumer websites. Retailers like Amazon and Walmart use AI for real-time inventory management.

“Walmart’s rapidly expanding assortment presents new challenges to suppliers. However, our latest Walmart Categorizer, now in Rithum’s AI Magic Mapper, ensured seamless migration for hundreds of clients managing millions of SKUs. This highlights Rithum’s leadership in scalable AI solutions,” said Sebastian Spiegler, Director of AI, Rithum.

Rithum is currently focusing on Profitability Benchmarking, which is the process of identifying top channels, pricing strategies and returns insights.

“Profitability Benchmarking at the SKU-level is the ‘holy grail’ for brands. This process is a key 2025 focus area for Rithum and is already being piloted with strategic clients,” Spiegler said.

2. TikTok Shop will continue to revolutionize discovery and influence.

In just one year, TikTok Shop has become one of Rithum’s top 10 sales channels since launching in December 2023. This includes merchant giants like Amazon, Walmart, Target+, eBay and Zalando.

“TikTok’s innovative platform connects content with commerce enabling intuitive product discovery through viral, low-effort videos created by thousands of creators. TikTok account users with only a thousand followers are now product curators, streamlining affiliate marketing and enabling effortless monetization directly in the app,” said Lou Camassa, Director of Product at Rithum.

Currently, Rithum supports TikTok Shop in the US and UK, with launches in Spain and Ireland planned for early 2025.

“This is an incredible proposition for EMEA sellers to tap into a growing and dynamic market,” Camassa said

3. Brands and retailers are being more strategic about retail media budgets.

Consumers continued to shop well before BFCM in October. As a result, Rithum retail media clients spread-out retail media budgets.

“Rithum retail media brands and retailers had to strategically pace their seasonal budgets for a longer peak season before and after BFCM. Specifically, during BCFM week, we advised clients not to over-invest and instead ride a continuous wave of peak seasonality wins while managing the budget thoughtfully. While budget increases only averaged 3%, we were still seeing wins. This included meeting their efficiency goals with an average of 1.7 advertising cost of sales (ACOS) as one example,” said Meghan Barden, director, global retail media, Rithum.

Going into 2025, Barden believes that the promotional holiday period will continue to extend into October and well through the end of December. Clients should be prepared to extend their seasonal budgets to accommodate this length of time. Also, brands and retailers should be open to peaks and valleys in their spend and return. Leveraging product data YoY, such as noting high performing SKUs, is a strategic way to map the seasonal timeframe approach in 2025.

Delve deeper into what’s trending in third-party (3P) commerce in 2025.

Read more about trends in AI, cross-border commerce, social commerce, retail media and supply chain in Rithum’s 2024 State of 3P Commerce Report.

The post 3 E-Commerce Trends from Cyber 5 to Carry Into 2025 appeared first on Rithum.

As economies reopened and we learned to live with the virus, consumers flocked back to stores. However, many new online behaviors ‘stuck’ and e-commerce remained strong. Our survey results hinted at this, with 52% of respondents expecting to continue shopping more online.

As a consumer brand, how do you take advantage of these trends? Or, asked another way, how do you avoid getting run over by these trends? One key is to recognize that consumer journeys are highly diverse. According to our survey results, consumers discovered products they purchased online in a myriad of ways, including marketplaces (43%), brand or retailer sites (35%), TV or streaming ads (31%), social media (26%), Google ads (26%), marketplace or retail ads (19%), and more. In short, you need to appear in a lot of different places to maximize consumer reach throughout the buying process.

While it may seem overwhelming, here are steps to accelerate your brand on the path to e-commerce excellence: 

Start with what you know

Identify your target market and the popular known channels on which they shop. Understand your unit economics and the impact on channel selection, shipping options, and advertising budgets. You may not have all the answers. And that’s okay.

Establish ‘agile e-commerce’ operations

There are hundreds of channels, including marketplaces, advertising, dropship programs, your own website and more. Consumers are searching for your products on channels with which you’re unaware. And even if you knew them all, you may not have the IT resources to integrate your backend systems and processes with each channel. Fortunately, there are multichannel commerce platforms that allow you to quickly integrate and test these channels.

Don’t upset your retail channels

Direct-to-consumer sales can provide benefits such as higher margins, more control over pricing, and valuable consumer insights. However, for many brands, most sales still come through traditional retail or distribution channels. These are your partners. Take care of them! You can do this while still pursuing your own e-commerce dreams by:

• Making it easy for consumers researching products on your website to buy from you AND find online and offline retailers that have your products in stock.
• Making your ads shoppable via dynamic links to your site and in-stock retail partners. Digital campaigns aren’t just for brand building. 

Shoppable media or ‘where to buy’ solutions can help you show love to your partners by sending them high quality leads while easing the consumer path to purchase. 

Stand out from the crowd

Having a website doesn’t guarantee that consumers will come and buy from you. You need to promote your brand on Google, on social media, via display, and more. And, you need to do it in a way that makes sense for your unit economics and advertising budgets. The same holds true for channels. While marketplaces and retailers can expose your products to significantly more consumers, they’re doing the same for your competition. Take advantage of retail media programs to help your products stand out, but make sure the economics work.

Look your best

In the course of a buying journey, consumers may see your brand in multiple digital ads, on marketplaces, on retailers, and on your website. Your branding and product content should be consistent across all channels. Pay attention to each channel’s unique data fields and formats; a lack of channel-specific data may impact organic visibility. It’s also important to monitor your brand on retail sites. Are your products in stock? Is pricing correct? Do product descriptions and images comply with your standards? How many reviews do your products have and what are the ratings? Where do your products show up on the digital shelf for key category or product search terms? Each of these metrics can impact both the findability of your products and the conversion rate on these sites.

Optimize your programs and iterate. 

Your channel strategy is in place. You’re advertising to stand out. Partners feel loved. And, you’re monitoring key retail channels to ensure your brand shines. The final element is to aggregate performance data, keep a close eye on results, and make changes along the way. Remain agile. As we’ve seen over the past two years, e-commerce changes constantly. 

Good luck!

The post A Path to E-Commerce Excellence appeared first on Rithum.