Federico Marchetti Founder and CEO of YOOX Group, Photo:Luca Cottinelli
MILAN, Italy — Federico Marchetti is one of fashion’s online pioneers. In 2000, when Marchetti established Yoox.com, online fashion retail was still in its infancy. in 2008, the Yoox Group, which includes the original YOOX site, as well as white-label sites for 18 fashion brands, including Emporio Armani, Marni and Pucci, and thecorner.com, shipped more than 1.7 million products to over 53 countries around the world, with €101 million in revenues, a 48 percent increase over the previous year.
Always looking to stay on the online fashion frontier, Marchetti’s latest move is to partner with another online visionary, Nick Knight, and Ruth Hogben (recently featured on BoF), to launch an online film, marking the launch of womenswear on thecorner.com. The film, which debuts today, features brands including Maison Martin Margiela, Haider Ackermann, Ann Demeulemeester, Viktor & Rolf, Proenza Schouler, Rick Owens, Hussein Chalayan, Raf Simons, Kris Van Assche and Sophia Kokosalaki.
2009 is also shaping up to be a big year for the YOOX Group in financing terms. Up until now, YOOX has been funded by a series of venture capital firms, including Benchmark Capital, and private investors. But later this year, YOOX is expected to conduct an initial public offering of its shares on the Milan Bourse.
Federico recently spoke to me about his new creative and business initiatives, which continue to set the pace for online fashion retail.
