Whatsapp to pair with Yoox Net-a-Porter

By

Kate Dingwall

Published
Mar 10, 2017

Yoox Net-a-Porter has announced it is working to develop a way for customers to purchase items through social networking site WhatsApp.

Chief Executive Officer of Yoox Net-a-Porter, Federico Marchetti, announced in an interview with Bloomberg that the luxury retailing powerhouse plans to further develop how it uses WhatsApp.

Yoox Net-a-Porter already utilizes the app in its personal shopping division – shoppers use the social messaging website to work with clients around the world, but Yoox Net-a-Porter would be one of the first luxury retailers to sell directly to customers via WhatsApp. “We’ve made some of our biggest sales to EIPs by chatting to them through WhatsApp,” said Marchetti.

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Yoox Net-a-Porter has found that 40% of its in-season revenue comes from just 2% of its clients. Building a communication platform would give Yoox Net-a-Porter the ability to further connect with these high-spending clients.

Both Prada and Versace have been turning huge sales online. Developing its WhatsApp capabilities would allow Yoox Net-a-Porter to further this growth.

While the western market has been slow to capitalize on WhatsApp, brands in China have been thriving on WeChat – a social media app boasting 697 million users across the world that recently launched an in-app payment function.

Research firm L2 found that over 90% of fashion labels in China use WeChat, but not many of the brands actually sell through the app. However, over 200 million users access the WeChat Pay feature regularly, for everything from small daily purchases to booking travel.