In preparation for the fifth anniversary of Net-a-porter’s beauty vertical, the luxury e-tailer shared some insights on its beauty consumer at a New York press event.
Speaking to attendees, Net-a-porter’s beauty director Newby Hands explained that 70 per cent of the site’s customers shop across both beauty and fashion, citing the sale of “a $USD17,000 Cartier watch alongside a $USD20 nail polish” as one example of this cross-category buying behaviour.
Sales like these are traditionally made by one of the Net-a-porters’s “EIP” customers, or “Extremely Important Persons”. According to Hands, EIPs make up three per cent of Net-a-porter’s clientele, but account for 40 per cent of its total sales. EIPs also often buy in multiples, “one for each boat,” Hands explained.
While in New York consumers are buying ingestible supplements and candles; in London they’re buying skincare that’s all about “speed and results”; and in Dubai they’re buying “a lot of [makeup] brushes and Beauty Blenders,”; ultimately an overarching trend is an increase in sales from Net-a-porter’s “clean beauty category”. Hands notes that the vertical including brands such as Vintner’s Daughter, Tata Harper, Kjaer Weis, RMS Beauty and Kypris, has seen a 400 percent sales increase year-on-year.
Products for sleep — like This Works Deep Sleep Spray and Slip silk pillowcases — are consistent sellouts. “This sums up our beauty customer — beauty is literally down to the silk pillowcase she uses so her skin’s not so dry and her hair is smooth in the morning,” Hands said.
Finally, Hands noted that “Money is no object for the Net-a-porter consumer,” as she cited the sell-out of a $USD1,000 Tom Ford beauty kit.
