Arriving at the net-a-porter homepage, the layout is simple and images are plenty. The minimalist style of the toolbar allows users to browse the e-commerce store by the tabs ‘what’s new, designers, boutiques, clothes, bags, shoes, accessories, magazines, gift or tv’. The homepage allows viewers to click most recent trends in sales (currently leather jackets) and to browse through their online magazine. The concept of net-a-porter is based on a pioneering idea about women and high-level fashion shopping. The experience is about convenience and a personalising shopping, allowing users globally to purchase designer clothing which may have previously been restricted. Founder, Natalie Massenet says “we have to be ready to reinvent ourselves because innovation is happening faster, fashion-wise, technologically, and in the way customers are living and behaving”.
The look of the controls once in the shop mimic an organiser, calendars of arrival dates appear, sortation categories appear to shop by colour, designer, price, clothing type. The interface is even adjustable to customers in the way they view their products (by slideshow, arranged together in an outfit, viewing runway videos). The standard view is a medium sized photo of a product with a brief description and price underneath. Hovering the mouse over this image shows the product on a model, and further clicking on the image allows the user to see multiple views of the item, as well as read editors notes, details and information about the size and fit.
The experience was pleasing, each process compliments the one which precedes it, gradually unravelling a story about the product they are selling. The interface is simple to navigate and the items are simple to purchase. The experience is similar to other online stores such as Victoria’s Secret, but pays more attention to detail (undoubtedly because of the high pricing point of their items). Purchasing the items follows the same format in terms of ‘signing in’ to an account, ‘shipping, payment and conformation of order’, these processes not being entirely interesting but rather entirely necessary from a logistical point of view. The website provides pure delight and excitement, reinventing designer shopping to be internet-ordered and delivered to your door.
The experience is very much fantasy and the website creates a sense of voyeurism, in Australia customers do not generally have access to these products and would be unable to view them in a different setting. The escapism of the website is created through the prestige and the diversity of the products, allowing customers to be enthralled for hours searching through the site. It is also managed for those women who know what they want rather than browsing. The time spent and the experience of the website is dependent upon the users intention; those who cannot afford the products can linger tirelessly through the database admiring the aesthetics while a wealthy yet time-conscious working woman with 15 minutes to spare can experience the same joy with a fast purchase.
about the business from the website and Vogue Magazine Australia, December 2010:
NET-A-PORTER.COM is the world's premier online luxury fashion retailer.
“The whole office is wired for sound and video. Everyone in the company here, in New York, and the distribution centres can see what’s selling, when, where, what the turnover is” In the offices positioned in the sight lines of every desk, they display a visual of Google Earth, and every time someone makes a purchase, a Net-A-Porter shopping bag pops up on the location. On the screen above, the shopper’s order is pictured, along with how much she spent, where she lives, and a running tally of the day’s takings”.
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