Mapping out GoTo’s chief stewards and a new crop of Shein 'copycats'

In The Checkout this week, we map out GoTo’s key leaders following a reshuffle and how Shein may be inspiring a new crop of ecommerce companies. [Read from your browser]( The Checkout 🛒 --------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to The Checkout! Delivered every Thursday, this free newsletter breaks down the biggest stories and trends in ecommerce. You can find past issues [here]( or [sign up here]( to receive future newsletters. Also, If you’re not a subscriber, get access by [registering here](. Written by Melissa Goh Journalist Hello {NAME} Last month, Indonesian super app GoTo made top-level reshuffles as part of a plan to strengthen “operational efficiency.” The announcement saw Gojek co-founder Kevin Aluwi step down from GoTo’s board of commissioners and Anthony Wijaya leave the GoTo board of directors to focus on his role as Tokopedia COO - among [several other changes](. In this week’s Big Story, my colleague Budi helps you picture those changes in a comprehensive “org chart,” one of our most popular visual story formats. The chart shows the new figureheads who will be in the driver’s seat as GoTo [brings forward]( its ambitious profitability goal - on an adjusted EBITDA basis - by a year. Cost cuts come to mind in any discussion of profitability. For ecommerce firms, accurately forecasting demand - including what sells and how much to produce - is crucial in the cost equation. Major brands, from Levi’s to The North Face, are grappling with excess inventory due to increased orders to meet last year’s strong consumer demand. Shifting economic conditions in recent months mean much of that supply now risks ending up on the promotion rack. In this week’s Hot Take, I discuss how Shein’s on-demand manufacturing flywheel may be impacting the next generation of up-and-coming fashion labels - and why that can only be good for the apparel industry as a whole. -- Melissa  --------------------------------------------------------------- THE BIG STORY [Org Chart: Top brass realignment at GoTo Group]( With the latest restructuring, Andre Soelistyo and William Tanuwijaya will both sit at the top of the tech giant.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  THE HOT TAKE  Shein’s playbook inspires “copycats” Here’s what happened: - Global fashion labels from Vans to The North Face and Under Armour are facing a glut of unsold products after over-ordering last year, when demand was strong. - Shein’s on-demand manufacturing playbook may prove handy for retailers to improve the accuracy of their inventory purchases. - The ultra-fast fashion firm’s revenue is projected to hit US$60 billion by 2025, up from US$22.7 billion in 2022, Financial Times [reported](. Here’s our take: Claude, an Indonesia-headquartered fashion label, is [taking a piece out of Shein’s playbook]( as it sets sights on global expansion - and it’s likely not the last to do so. For all the criticism Shein has received - from encouraging consumerism to [using forced labor]( - the retailer could well be inspiring a new generation of ecommerce companies: those that are highly reactive to what shoppers want, and produce clothing on demand. Few can fully replicate what Shein has perfected - a nimble production chain that can forecast demand accurately and adjust inventory in real time, and at the scale and price point that it does. But the fast-fashion giant offers a lesson or two for any aspiring fashion label. In traditional fast fashion, the design to manufacturing process takes months. It takes months more to ascertain what sells. Retailers manufacture based on predicted trends, but demand doesn’t always materialize. When that happens, inventory mistakes can be costly: stocks pile up and retailers have to sell them off for cheap, which in turn hurts profits. Major brands like The North Face and Vans are facing an inventory glut after ramping up on orders last year, when demand was strong. VF Corporation, which operates both brands, said last month that its inventory levels in December 2022 had [more than doubled]( from the year before, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company attributed this to lower demand, canceled orders, and less-than-accurate demand forecasting, among other reasons. Under Armour also reported an almost 50% increase in inventory, which the sportswear brand is looking to reduce, between March and December last year. Claude co-founders Christie Johana and Tommy Budihardjo told me last month that, inspired by Shein, the brand employs an “adaptive” fashion business model where micro batches of clothing are produced to test out new products, minimizing inventory wastage and leading to healthier cash flows. Call it adaptive, on-demand, or real-time manufacturing - such a model, in whatever form it takes, is arguably more sustainable for the fashion industry as a whole. [Less than 6%]( of Shein’s inventory remains in stock for more than 90 days, thanks to its real-time retail model that can accurately predict trends. (Whether or not Shein’s ultra-cheap price points fuels consumerism, however, is a whole other discussion.) But younger brands like Claude aren’t emulating Shein wholesale, and neither do they want to become a clone of the fast-fashion titan. Claude’s dresses, for instance, range from US$49.90 to US$65.90, putting the label in a more premium category compared to Shein, whose dresses go for as low as S$6 (US$4.40). There may be merits to that approach. “Maybe in the next five to ten years, if there’s a brand that’s going to be cheaper than Shein, then Shein is going to lose out… That’s not the game that we want to play,” Budihardjo told me. (You can read my full interview with Claude [here]( Standing in the way of Shein’s ambitious sales targets are the same Gen-Z and millennial shoppers who have driven and fed into its initial popularity. These customers are open to trying new brands, including Shein itself, but are also likely to hop onto the next “it” brand that catches their attention. – Melissa  ---------------------------------------------------------------  NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW Check out Tech in Asia’s coverage of the ecommerce scene [here](. 1️⃣ [Coupang retains profitability in Q4 despite slowing growth]( Coupang, considered the Amazon of South Korea, remained profitable for a second consecutive quarter after reporting a US$1.5 billion loss over 2021. 2️⃣ [Northstar Group leads Una Brands’ latest $30m round]( To date, the Singapore-based ecommerce roll-up company has committed US$158 million to acquire labels in South Korea, Indonesia, and Malaysia. 3️⃣ [Social commerce firm RateS scales back operations]( Co-founder and CEO Jake Goh denied reports that the Indonesia-based startup, which provides dropshipping solutions, was shutting down. 4️⃣ [JD.com, Pinduoduo battle out in new price war]( JD.com is reportedly earmarking US$1.5 billion in subsidies to self-listed shops and third-party sellers to drive down prices. 5️⃣ [Alibaba’s net income returns to positive in latest quarterly results]( Its Chinese ecommerce business contributed US$24 billion, or 69% of total revenue, for the third quarter of the 2023 financial year, while the firm’s international ecommerce made up 8% of the revenue. 6️⃣ [Indonesian B2B platform banks $1.35m in seed funding]( Founded in 2022, Proglix simplifies the procurement of raw materials such as metals, steel, polymers, and electrical supplies for industrial use.  --------------------------------------------------------------- That’s it for this edition - we hope you liked it! 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