Popular stories in FashionUni​ted in 2012

From Marks & Spencer to Richemont, the unstoppable advance

of the Eastern markets, secreted from behind the scenes of the most commented deals within the apparel industry or new technologies applied by fashion and apparel retailers... Discover the most popular stories published in 2012 by FashionUnited in the United Kingdom.

Mirroring not only the last trends of street style, yet also those shaking the fashion and apparel industry from the foundation, FashionUnited UK has recapitulated the most popular stories in 2012: from Mark and Spencer to Richemont or the ailing JJB Sports, including all those rising stars from Eastern markets or well established luxury labels that have known how to accommodate to the new times.

Beloved British Marks & Spencer has topped the popularity chart as featured in two of the 25 most read stories of the year. Particularly, the retailer's agreements with Visa to bring contactless payment facilities to its stores and the Shwopping mosaic flag it created to support the GB Olympic team have awarded Marks & Spencer with the coveted “most read” title in 2012.

At a distance, Swiss luxury watch maker Richemont, second in this particular podium, also with a couple of stories among those that arose the greatest deal of interest. Richemont became the main actor of the third most read story when it reported sales growing by 29 percent in May.

Other trends that set the tone in 2012 were the implementation of new ways of payment and promotion, specially mobile, with luxury retailers turning to mobile sales.

In terms of thriving markets, China and Eastern countries proved to be the most popular and the articles talking about them, the most read.

Finally, and given the current tense economic background, financial news appeared to have been read with much interest. Nearly a third of the most popular stories published by FashionUnited in the UK talked about financial and corporate reports, profit warnings, trading updates and stock performance. Struggling retailers such as Esprit or JJB also arose much interest.

On the positive side of the financial news chapter, the likes of Tod’s and Columbia Sportswear owned some of the top stories in 2012.