Tech tools and investment pieces prove strong for YNAP's sites over Cyber Weekend

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 3, 2020

Yoox Net-A-Porter said it saw two orders placed every second from customers around the world on its full-price and outlet luxury webstores during the long Cyber Weekend.

The Net-A-Porter, Mr Porter, Yoox and Outnet owner also said that “consumers increasingly embraced technology to make their purchases: from VR styling tools to AI powered collections”.

But first, the consumer trends it saw in the period. YNAP said "timeless investment pieces” were key, including heeled pumps, black boots, coats, and fine jewellery. Own-brand Mr P’s shearling-trimmed jackets were among the top performers on Mr Porter.

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Despite the main focus of Black Friday generally being discounts, customers also continued to shop full-price, with top-selling items including a Brunello Cucinelli jacket, Jaeger-Le Coultre Dress Watch, Gucci 1955 horsebit-detailed shoulder bag and Piaget rose gold watch.

Lots of companies focused on altruism as much as commerce around the shopping event and YNAP also said its charity partnerships were popular. The Laura Bailey x Iris & Ink Isabella dress from The Outnet was a top performing full-price item (10% of its proceeds were donated to Save the Children).

And in an encouraging sign for its promotion of new talent, its Vanguard designers saw sales up 30%.

Shoppers also bought beauty and focused heavily on “self-care, embracing ‘at home’ beauty and grooming products” on both the full-price in-season sites.

Hero beauty tools and products included CellReturn Platinum by Angela Caglia LED Wireless Mask, the Vibrating Rose Quartz Face Sculpting Roller, and Boost Advanced LED Light Therapy Face Mask (all at Net-A-Porter) and Dr Barbara Strum products (at Mr Porter).

As mentioned earlier, technology was key, both at the outlet and full-price sites. The personalised product visualisation tool Yoox Mirror proved popular and saw its its highest-ever day of orders on Black Friday. Meanwhile app downloads over the Cyber Weekend period increased by 41% year-on-year.

Clearly, shoppers are focusing heavily on using technology to help them visualise what they’re buying, which is particularly important given that parts of the world were under lockdown last weekend and not all shoppers could visit physical stores so online shopping had to try to fill that gap.

The company added that its new Visual Search tool is proving its worth with orders placed using it up 30% at Net-A-Porter and 150% at Mr Porter compared to the previous weekend.

And Yoox’s AI-powered 8 by Yoox collection was among the site’s top three bestselling brands by volume and and was ranked fourth when listed with the most popular items purchased.