Luxury Briefing: Net-a-Porter wants its best customers back

In the quarter ended June 30, the two retailers’ combined net sales rose 5.6% excluding currency effects, marking their first growth since Mytheresa acquired them in April 2025. Yet their active customer count fell 11.1% over the year. Michael Kliger, CEO of parent company LuxExperience, told Glossy that rebuilding the entire customer base is not his immediate goal.

“I’m comfortable with the minus 11, but I’m not comfortable with the amount of top customers we have,” he said. Around 35,000 shoppers make up that group, according to Kliger. He wants to add roughly 3,000 more.

Those customers already account for an outsized share of the business. In fiscal 2026, the top 4.3% of Net-a-Porter and Mr Porter customers generated 49.1% of their combined gross merchandise value. Kliger said the company is working to bring back shoppers who once spent heavily with the sites but have since gone elsewhere.

“They once had Net-a-Porter or even Mr Porter as a trusted source for fashion and styling,” he said. The task now is to show them that the product and service warrant another look. “It’s easy and fast to lose customers. It takes a bit more time to bring back customers.”

The U.S., which accounts for nearly half of the two retailers’ combined sales, offers an early indication of progress. In the quarter, sales there rose 15.1% excluding currency effects. Kliger attributed that growth chiefly to winning back lapsed customers and getting existing top customers to spend more, rather than recruiting people entirely new to the sites.

Some of the work has been technical. Until recently, Kliger said, U.S. shoppers could see only products held in the company’s U.S. warehouse. They can now browse stock held in Italy, too, though those orders may take longer to arrive. Previously, a customer looking for a particular size may not have been able to see that it was available elsewhere in the business. The company has also changed its email delivery system to help more customer messages reach inboxes.

On the fashion side, this fall-winter season is the first assortment bought under Brigitte Chartrand, Net-a-Porter’s chief buying and merchandising officer. The spring-summer collection was still assembled under the previous team. And chief brand and customer officer Claudia Plant has led a renewed push into social content and editorial, Kliger said, including Porter covers with Serena Williams and Cindy Crawford.

The company is also bringing customers together with designers and brand partners through events. Kliger cited a recent New York Fashion Week gathering with Crawford, Williams and Katie Holmes, alongside smaller occasions for clients. He expects the fuller pipeline of events and product initiatives to become visible late this year and early next year.

That sounds familiar to anyone who has followed Mytheresa’s success with its highest-spending customers. Kliger said the principles are shared, but the retailers should remain distinct. Mytheresa tends toward intimate dinners; Net-a-Porter can build a larger event around Porter. Customer overlap between Mytheresa and Net-a-Porter is only about 12%, Kliger said.

Net-a-Porter and Mr Porter also posted about $8.5 million (€7.4 million) in adjusted EBITDA for the quarter, giving the combined business a 2.7% margin. That result needs context: On the earnings call, CFO Martin Beer said tariff refunds added 250 basis points to the quarter’s margin. He said the segment would still have been slightly positive without them. It recorded an adjusted EBITDA loss of roughly $6.9 million (€6 million) for the full fiscal year.

Kliger said the refunds were recognized in the quarter but related to tariffs paid over a longer period. He expects Net-a-Porter and Mr Porter to remain profitable on an adjusted EBITDA basis through fiscal 2027 as the changes already made begin to show up in the results.

His immediate test is whether customers notice them. “We want to come back from position five to No. 1 in their ranking,” he said.

eBay wants luxury resale to cross borders

eBay is using Fashion Month to make a case for buying archival luxury across borders. After expanding its Authenticity Guarantee program to France and Italy, the marketplace is planning showrooms in Milan and Paris where shoppers can see its inventory and learn how the authentication process works.

A shopper in Berlin can now buy an eligible Phoebe Philo-era Céline piece from a seller in Paris, an eBay representative told Glossy. “We want to show people the quality of inventory,” the representative said. For shoppers unfamiliar with secondhand luxury, seeing the pieces in person could help address questions that are harder to settle through a listing.

London’s Endless Runway show takes a more theatrical approach to the same task. Now in its third year, the shoppable event brought together pieces contributed by figures including Daisy Edgar-Jones, stylist Harry Lambert and costume designer Sandy Powell. “The best wardrobe actually already exists,” said Kirsty Keoghan, eBay’s general manager of European fashion. The company’s styling team assembled the looks, and columnist Raven Smith hosted the sale on eBay Live.

Keoghan said the live format gives sellers a chance to explain an item’s condition, designer and provenance as people shop. “You can talk to the condition, you can talk to the history and the provenance of all these items,” she said. “That is what is so amazing about eBay Live.” In New York, eBay chose an archival exhibition and sale instead of a runway. “We were testing different formats,” Keoghan said. London’s live show lets shoppers hear the stories behind individual pieces as they become available to buy; the planned Milan and Paris showrooms will let people examine the inventory in person.

During Thursday’s show, Glossy saw more than 300 viewers in the eBay app, while multiple pieces were marked sold out during the livestream. The urge to shop was visible in the room, too. As an Alaïa skirt came down the runway, one seated guest was seen trying to secure it on the eBay app. The company will continue streaming from 180 studios through Monday, with sales spanning pre-owned fashion, luxury accessories, sneakers, watches and jewelry.

Keoghan also identified authentication as a possible point of cooperation with Depop, which eBay acquired in July. The companies have yet to announce any integration, but the sale has now closed successfully. “It’s really important that Depop continues to run as its own brand with its own identity,” she said. “But there are perhaps things that we can do to help them scale.”

Executive moves

• Dario Vitale is joining Armani as creative director of Emporio Armani and Giorgio Armani accessories. The former Miu Miu and Versace designer is the first outsider to take a major creative role at the house.
• Alexandre Arnault has joined Nike’s board. The LVMH executive previously worked on Nike collaborations at Tiffany and Rimowa, and now takes a seat as the sportswear company works to revive sales.
• Jil Sander has named Marco Viganò CEO. He joins from Moncler as the brand builds on Simone Bellotti’s early collections.
• Frasers CEO Michael Murray is now chairman of Hugo Boss’ supervisory board. Frasers holds roughly 48% of the company, so this is a consequential seat.

News to know

• Swiss watch exports rose 9.1% in August, even as shipments to the U.S. fell 19.4%. U.K. exports were up 46.1%. These are export figures, not retail sales, but the split is striking.
• The long-running LVMH–Hermès share dispute has another twist. A previously undisclosed 2002 agreement concerning Hermès heir Nicolas Puech’s shares has come to light. Whether he authorized the sale of his stake remains disputed.
• Harvey Nichols’ new ownership is already drawing criticism from suppliers. Paul Smith executive chairman Ewan Venters questioned Frasers’ takeover as brands face losses on money owed by the retailer.

Listen in

Uniqlo has opened its 87th U.S. store, but its next challenge is reaching shoppers beyond the East and West Coasts. On the Glossy Podcast, Danny Parisi spoke with Uniqlo’s North America marketing head, Nico Cessot, about where the retailer is opening next and why brand awareness still matters after two decades in the market. Listen here.

News to know

Brooks Brothers wants to be a billion-dollar brand again. Stanley’s next act after the Quencher comes from new products and collaborations. Brands are giving stores another look because of AI. Kendra Scott has bigger plans for fashion at NYFW. Wedding gowns are half of the business for Tanner Fletcher.