Yoox

[type-r]

(Deleted)

 

[type-r]

In my very limited view, the days of YOOX bargains could be ending. I've noticed recent changes to their pricing strategy - which I mentioned in previous posts - and given they are still heavily loss making (€1.5bn for last FY) and heavily dragging Richemont's overall profitability, my guess is once Richemont manage to finally sell it off, the new buyer will almost certainly look to restructure the business to turn it around. That will mean changes to how and what YOOX sells and ultimately at what price point. MyTheresa is currently the model for profitability. The days of bargain basement quality could be numbered and possibly a shift elsewhere.

Richemont counts losses from Yoox Net-A-Porter

Group sales at luxury group Richemont – owner of Yoox Net-A-Porter (YNAP), Chloé, Alfred Dunhill, Lancel among others – were up for the year to 31 March 2024, however losses incurred through YNAP amounted to €1.5bn in the period.

www.drapersonline.com

On a side note, I picked up a brand new 100% wool Borrelli blazer for 113 GBP - an incredible bargain. Not sure of another place where such a bargain could be had - even ebay would be a struggle.

 

[single_origin]

On a side note, I picked up a brand new 100% wool Borrelli blazer for 113 GBP - an incredible bargain. Not sure of another place where such a bargain could be had - even ebay would be a struggle.

Wow, what size / colour?

 

[type-r]

Wow, what size / colour?

Grey, size UK38 / IT48. I got an additional 15% off too using the promo trick mentioned in my previous posts above, so final price was 113 GBP. See below:

It was either an error by YOOX or a part of their recent bizarre pricing strategy. No idea but less than 24 hours later they put the price back up to 375 GBP. See below:

 

[trndsttr]

As a longtime Yoox shopper, I noticed that my Superstar status was removed. I contacted customer service and they told me that they no longer will be renewing Superstars after end of April 2024 (this information is on the website). However, if you made the cutoff then you are a superstar until the end of your one year. This is extremely disappointing, as even though I have spent enough to be a superstar, other customers are getting the benefit of the private room, free return shipping, and additional discounts simply because they were renewed on an arbitrary date. I will definitely be purchasing less from the company due to the return fee and lack of discounts. It's also just bad business strategy to isolate your highest purchasers.

On the finance side, the reason they are -1.5bn under is not because of their business, but because they had to write-down inventory to a liquidation price as part of the sales process. In reality, YNAP is still loss making but only by a couple hundred million.

In terms of business strategy, on average, their inventory sits for about 17 months before selling, which is quite long. Their issue is the thousands of small brands that no one knows sitting on their website. Think they should focus on the larger brands that already have brand awareness built by the brands themselves. I've noticed the bigger brand stuff going quite quickly for a high price.

 

[harlemriver]

As a longtime Yoox shopper, I noticed that my Superstar status was removed. I contacted customer service and they told me that they no longer will be renewing Superstars after end of April 2024 (this information is on the website). However, if you made the cutoff then you are a superstar until the end of your one year. This is extremely disappointing, as even though I have spent enough to be a superstar, other customers are getting the benefit of the private room, free return shipping, and additional discounts simply because they were renewed on an arbitrary date. I will definitely be purchasing less from the company due to the return fee and lack of discounts. It's also just bad business strategy to isolate your highest purchasers.

On the finance side, the reason they are -1.5bn under is not because of their business, but because they had to write-down inventory to a liquidation price as part of the sales process. In reality, YNAP is still loss making but only by a couple hundred million.

In terms of business strategy, on average, their inventory sits for about 17 months before selling, which is quite long. Their issue is the thousands of small brands that no one knows sitting on their website. Think they should focus on the larger brands that already have brand awareness built by the brands themselves. I've noticed the bigger brand stuff going quite quickly for a high price.

What country are you located? I am in the US and cannot locate information about SUPERSTAR ending. Also, I’m not sure that US based Superstars get free returns automatically. I really hope that they rethink ending the program if that’s on the table.

Part of the beauty of YOOX is that they have blockbuster labels AND more obscure labels. Most of my clothing spend goes to YOOX, and overall they’ve been amazing to me for the last 20 years.

I understand your disappointment but the world will be a lot less stylish without them. I love discovering labels I’ve never heard of.

 

[trndsttr]

Absolutely. And some of the smaller labels have excellent quality that rivals the big designer labels.

I'm currently in the UK. The returns were free for everyone up until a month ago - now there is a 9 GBP charge which is equivalent to USD $12, which is understandable as the goods are shipped directly from their warehouse in Italy. They have stated on their website that returns would still be free for Superstars.

You can find the information about the Superstar program ending by going on the Customer Care section of the website and typing in Superstar. In my opinion, I think they do not want to manage customer retention anymore due to the impending sale - this will be the job of the new owner.

 

[harlemriver]

Thanks. That language on the website is confusing because I didn’t choose a superstar date when they auto erolled me so there isn’t any end date that I’m aware of and I’ve never seen where they show my progress to status. It just renews based on spend, which they say they check bimonthly.

That’s great that the UK had free returns - that was never offered to me unless I was doing Moneyoox and even that was years ago.

What they did stop for me was free express shipping about a month ago.

I am hoping they stay in business - they never should have merged with Net-a-Porter, they were overzealous.

 

[trndsttr]

I think the way the superstar program worked is that they evaluated your spend bi-monthly. Once you reached the required spend you got the superstar status for one year. After the one year was up they'd re-evaluate your spend again.

As for the progress to status, they do not disclose that information. I asked customer service.

I hope so too. It's a good concept but needs some refining on the business strategy side of things. TK Maxx (TJ Maxx in Europe) is doing extremely well here so the issue isn't selling discounted clothing

 

[styleforumfan]

Absolutely. And some of the smaller labels have excellent quality that rivals the big designer labels.

It's really a shame if Yoox stops carrying these obscure brands because they are next to impossible to find outside of Italy.

 

[type-r]

Interesting reading about the Superstar status - I thought it was just myself and my spend that had me removed (silently) from this program. But looks like it is across the board and customer retention is not a priority for them. It's a shame as since around May when I first noticed my Superstar status had suddenly disappeared, I have placed just 3 orders - the £9 return fee and £9 shipping charges for sub £200 UK orders feels like a needless psychological barrier that my orders have substantially dropped. But it's also linked to the new pricing YOOX looks like it has adopted (see below).

New pricing strategy? Some prices have gone up (instead of the usual down) which if I was to guess probably means they aren't buying as much new stock in (if any). I might be wrong but in all my time on YOOX prices have only ever gone on in one direction and that is down.

Prices on most pieces are still going down (over time) but the price reduction feels like a lot less than previously.

Appreciate people aren't buying as much as they were before due to worldwide economic conditions but this pricing strategy (if my suspicions are true) does feel counterintuitive to get people spending.

Really hope YOOX do continue to sell obscure brands as the quality of some items are often on par or in some rare cases actually exceeds some of the top fashion houses who have mega marketing budgets, often at a fraction of the price. But perhaps part of the "clean-up" by the new potential buyer to ensure YOOX has a profitable future similar to MyTheresa may need to weed out these obscure brands unfortunately.

 

[styleforumfan]

I keep noticing from time to time an unique, one of a kind, "last one available, FINAL SALE" piece of clothing gets sold, goes OOS and then becomes available again. Does it usually mean the item is defective and is returned by the person who bought it previously?

 

[harlemriver]

I keep noticing from time to time a unique, one of a kind, "last one available, FINAL SALE" piece of clothing gets sold, goes OOS and then becomes available again. Does it usually mean the item is defective and is returned by the person who bought it previously?

It could be but most likely someone is just returning it and maybe it wasn’t FINAL SALE for them.

I have had issues with some FS and then saw it right back on the website tho and other times I highlighted an issue and it never went back up.

YOOX gives 60 days for returns (at least in the US) and some people really wait to the very end of that window to return. I suspect YOOX will reduce the return window soon back to near 20 days.

I make a lot of returns to YOOX, but I -always ship them back the next business day or sometimes even the same business day that they are delivered to me. I go review the order and try on quickly, and make decisions and get it back to them very swiftly.

 

[styleforumfan]

It could be but most likely someone is just returning it. YOOX gives 60 days for returns (at least in the US) and some people really wait to the very end of that window to return.

I suspect YOOX will reduce the return window soon back to near 20 days.

I make a lot of returns to YOOX, but I -always ship them back the next business day or sometimes even the same business day that they are delivered to me. I go review the order and try on quickly, and make decisions and get it back to them very swiftly.

But how can you return when the item is marked as "final sale, no return"? So I assume it's defective.

 

[harlemriver]

But how can you return when the item is marked as "final sale, no return"? So I assume it's defective.

I responded to soon before I addressed the final sale part of your question. I updated my response.