Stephanie Phair, Director, TheOutnet.com | Source: The Outnet

LONDON, United Kingdom — Nineteen months ago at the time of its launch, The Outnet was better known as Net-a-Porter’s cheap and cheerful younger sister. Now, it seems, the discount fashion retailer is all grown up, and getting an extreme makeover.

Each month, The Outnet receives over one million unique visitors, less than ten percent of which overlap with the existing Net-a-Porter customer base. The United States, where The Outnet has experienced year on year growth of over 90 percent, now constitutes its biggest market. And, 70 percent of the product on The Outnet does not come from Net-a-Porter, so The Outnet has its own buying teams and relationships with brand partners. All of this seems to be working wonders, leading to an estimated annual turnover of more than $50 million, something that took more than 5 years for Net-a-Porter to achieve.

But like a teenager coming-of-age (nineteen months is a long time in the digital world), the Outnet is carving a new path to move out of its big sister’s shadow. On Thursday, the company will unveil a new brand identity and website design which, according to the Outnet, gives “a wink to French Vogue.” Gone is the ubiquitous pink circle and in is a new minimalist, streamlined look that has a much more upscale feel. It seems that The Outnet wants to show that just because you shop at a discount doesn’t mean you can’t look and feel like a million bucks.

BoF got the exclusive interview with Stephanie Phair, Director of TheOutnet.com, to learn more about the website’s new branding strategy, its plans for mobile commerce and the state of online discount fashion retailing in general.

… Continue Reading

LONDON, United Kingdom — London, of course, is widely known in the fashion world for its unbridled creativity and superb emerging fashion talent. But, increasingly, it could also be described as fashion’s Silicon Valley, with a growing number of innovative fashion ecommerce startups sprouting in the city, following in the footsteps of the ultimate luxury e-tailing pioneer, Net-a-Porter.com.

During my visit to Vienna for the 9 Festival for Fashion & Photography, I had the privilege of hosting a discussion amongst some of the newest fashion e-tailers on the London scene, bringing together Sarah Curran, CEO of my-wardrobe.com, José Neves, CEO of farfetch.com and Stephanie Phair, Director of theoutnet.com.

Thanks to our easy-to-use Flip Video Mino, we managed to capture some of the most poignant responses from our illustrious panel and are pleased to share them with you in the coming weeks. First up: How are your clients changing their shopping habits in the downturn?

RSS and email subscribers, click here to watch the video.

Burberry Store, courtesy of Bloomberg

Burberry cut to neutral at J.P. Morgan (WSJ)
“J.P. Morgan downgraded fashion company Burberry group to neutral from overweight, saying the group is now trading at a 5 percent discount to the luxury goods sector, compared to a historical average discount of 20 percent.”

Taobao Partners with UNIQLO to Grow China’s Online Fashion Market (Businesswire)
“UNIQLO, a new-style casual wear brand under Japan’s leading apparel retail group Fast Retailing Co., today announced a strategic partnership to launch the online sales business of UNIQLO’s casual wear products in China.”

Apparel Prices Slip in March, Up on Year (WWD)
“Recessionary pressures created volatility in retail apparel prices in March.” (Subscription required)

Net-a-Porter launches off price website (Drapers)
“Net-a-Porter has launched its off price designer fashion website theOutnet.com, (which) sells around 200 luxury brands at prices discounted by up to 80%.”