Talk about understanding your customer and her guilty secrets.
Net-A-Porter is one of our favourite designer websites for fashion porn (that’s looking at beautiful designer clothes on line that we are probably not going to buy). Owner and founder Natalie Massenet is 43 and although she dabbles in the top end of the clothes market (who wouldn’t look good having NAP as your extended wardrobe?) she is never seen looking anything other than lovely.
The Women’s Room sees her regularly on the gruelling fashion show schedule and with her New York-y groomed style she’s a great ambassador for her brand (we always feel a little shabby in her presence). We like the fact she set up NAP with no knowledge about business or websites, just a strong hunch that women might like to buy clothes on line and she’s stuck to it, balancing kids and family life along the way.
She absolutely knows what (wealthy) glamorous women want and provides a service to match and we’re betting a good percentage of her customers are over 40, as we’re a wealthy demographic.
Net-A-Porter has great service too (another thing we love), with orders delivered to your home or work beautifully wrapped in glorious black and pink packaging.
However, it appears that even older women suffer from the guilt factor, as this week Net-A-Porter sent out an email to its best customers (many of whom work in the city) saying that, if they needed to stay ‘undercover’ with purchases, the website would send out deliveries wrapped in inconspicuous brown paper, with no frills or identifying marks.
Guilt free purchasing during the credit crunch. Now that’s what we call customer service.
