Net-A-Porter Hires Barneys’ Exec as Managing Director
Yoox Net-A-Porter Group has tapped luxury e-commerce veteran Matthew Woolsey to head up its Net-A-Porter business. Woolsey, who spent the past four years as the executive vice president of digital at upscale retail chain Barneys New York, will take over as Net-A-Porter’s managing director and head up its global expansion plans. Woolsey will be responsible for day-to-day management and overseeing marketing at Net-A-Porter. His new role has been created to help parent Yoox Net-A-Porter achieve its target of 20 percent increases in sales each year until 2020. The company also indicated that Woolsey was hired in part because of his content-generating skills.
Total Retail's Take: Poaching Woolsey was a good idea for Yoox Net-A-Porter Group, especially given its goals of increasing sales by 20 percent each year until 2020. Under his watch, Barneys’ online sales have grown 40.3 percent during the past three years. What's more, Woolsey oversaw the relaunch of Barneys’ website last year. In developing its new site, Barneys focused on providing more editorial content via The Window, a section which spotlights influencers and trends, and making the site easier to use for mobile shoppers.
