Monique Lizette

One of the big challenges with buying goods online is not knowing who the seller is, according to Jim Rose, founder and chief executive officer of the San Francisco startup Copious. 

Fashion conversation: The company launched its new website which features the ability to “follow” users, bloggers and sellers, and “love” trends and items, in order to create a “socially-curated” shopping experience.

This lack of trust between buyers and sellers is why he, along with his two co-founders, Rob Zuber and Jonathan Elhrich, developed a “social marketplace” based on knowing buyers and sellers through their existing online personas.

Copious requires users to sign in using their Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or Instagram account, which gives other users a chance for familiarity and connection before engaging in a transaction.

In this article Jim Rose and his two co-founders Rob Zuber and Jonathan Elhrich came up with a  new idea to online shopping.  When you shop online you are required to sign in using your Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or a Instagram account.  Doing so, it gives the buyer some sense of security and familiarity.  According to them unlike ebay and esty which they consider to be the first generations of online marketplaces.  

I think this is a good way to make consumers feel comfortable and secure.  By seeing other peers who they have things in common with shop their they can feel confident in what they are buying.  To me its about time that they came up with a new way to shop online since this is how most people from all generations shop now and days.  Since all different people are using Copious to sell their products it gives everything a sense of uniqueness and individuality which is something I prefer as oppose to something mass produced.  It just feels more personal to me.   

New York — The ax has fallen at J.C. Penney Co. The company on Thursday laid off 600 workers from its corporate headquarters Plano, Texas, as its looks to streamline its business model amid a major reinvention of the business. The staff reduction, which equaled 13% to 14% of the headquarters staff, did not include any senior executives, according to The New York Times.

J.C. Penney said its new approach to pricing, promotion, merchandising and the customer experience requires a more competitive operational structure, with fewer layers of management. In a statement, CEO Ron Johnson said J.C. Penny was going to operate like a start-up.“We are going to extend the reach and span of control of our very best talent,” he said. “We are going to be nimble, quick to learn, quicker to react and totally committed to realizing our vision to become America’s favorite store. Often in business, companies must streamline in order to leap forward. In our case, this has involved some very difficult decisions that have had an impact on many of our associates, but these changes are essential to help us achieve our long-term goals and, ultimately, grow our associate base as we grow our business.”The staff reduction is of J.C. Penney’s previously announced plan to reduce annual expenses by $900 million by the end of 2013. This includes $200 million in savings from its corporate headquarters, as well as $400 million in cost savings in store operations and $300 million in advertising expense savings. The changes are expected to reduce expenses to below 30% of sales by the end of 2013.In addition, the retailer said it will close its customer call center in Pittsburgh, on July 1. The move will eliminate 300 jobs. 

J.C Penny cut 600 jobs from their headquarters and in July they will close down a customer call center in Pittsburgh which will will bring the grand total up to 900.  New CEO Ron Johnson says cutting the corporate structure is an important step to becoming a start up company.  By making the company smaller it is going to be easier to control quick to learn and and help them focus on their goal on becoming Americas favorite store again.  

I think this is a smart decision for the company because it will cut down cost and help put that money into bigger and better ideas like promotion and better merchandise.  Now that the company is reinventing themselves they will probably change who their target consumer is.  For me J.C Penny is not a store I would think to shop at but with the new brands and the transformation with the existing favorite brands they carry I am looking forward to taking a look around.  

With all the talk of the upcoming Olympics in June, it’s little surprise that, deliberately or not, showgoers at London Fashion Week are sporting athletic-inspired gear. But they’re doing so in a thoroughly modern, and thoroughly British, manner: dressing up black-and-white track pants with graphic Lucite pumps and pairing saffron elastic-waist bottoms with an otherwise traditional preppy look on top.

There’s been a lot of color to perk up the long days—check out the glorious marigold blazer—and at least one sighting of the quintessential London accessory: the umbrella.

London’s street wear is a lot more bold then some of California’s street wear.  London has more  coats and is more covered up cause of the weather so they get to use a lot more accessories like gloves, umbrellas, hats, scarfs, and boots.  I really enjoy what the street wear over there is and I can’t wait to see more.