Mytheresa Sees Widening Gap Among Luxury Shoppers

For Mytheresa, the high-end retail segment is diverging.

This, as the newly listed luxury brand marketplace says it sees a difference between what it calls “aspirational” customers and “wardrobing” shoppers, who frequent its upscale eCommerce site. Where the former saw weakness, the latter saw strength as it reported bifurcated buying trends in its latest earnings release.

Commenting on Q2 fiscal 2023 ended Dec. 31 on its Thursday (Feb. 23) earnings call, Mytheresa CEO Michael Kliger noted that global inflation, the war in Europe, and COVID in China contributed to a tougher selling environment for luxury eCommerce overall.

However, Kliger said, “Mytheresa was able to distance itself somewhat from these significant macroeconomic challenges due to our unique focus on the high-end wardrobe building customer [and] our highly adaptive business model.”

By focusing on the high-end wardrobe-building customer and the luxury brands these shoppers favor, he said the luxury marketplace is “far less exposed to the aspirational luxury customer who is greatly impacted by negative sentiment at the moment. This is clearly supported by our customer KPIs and our continued success with money can’t buy experiences for top customers in the second quarter.”

See also: Mytheresa CEO Says Luxury’s Online Shift Growing, Resilient

As Mytheresa doesn’t own the inventory listed on its site and pays brands post-sale, Kliger said the company was insulated from inventory issues that plagued retailers last year.

Kliger said, “solid growth in the second quarter sets us apart from other digital platforms in the same period. It is driven by the clear focus on the true high-end wardrobe-building luxury customers and not the aspirational occasional luxury shopper. The latter are and will be impacted significantly by an economic downturn while a true luxury customer is more resilient.”

Kliger noted the company’s success in clienteling events with brand partners, including such as “the highly visible launch of the Pucci Pusad collection with a multi-day experience in St. Moritz and attendance of creative director Camille Miceli, as well as a private dinner for our top customers at the home of Diego Della Valle, chairman of the Tod’s Group,” as well as an exclusive showing at Manhattan’s SAGA restaurant with the Oscar de la Renta line.

He said Mytheresa was able to grow its base of top customers in Q2 FY23 by 25.3%, adding, “it is evident that the occasional aspirational customer shopped less in this quarter,” noting that in categories, women’s clothing, kids wear as well as the recently launched featuring home and lifestyle products grew, saying these categories attract more top customer share “while bags and sneakers showed much slower growth as they typically attract more aspirational customers looking for investment pieces.”

CFO Martin Beer noted, “We are already seeing that the luxury customer is coming back the earliest,” but added that customer acquisition costs rose in the quarter as did shipping and payment-related costs.

See also: Luxury Industry Digitization Drives YOOX Net-a-Porter, Farfetch Partnership

The performance of upscale apparel and lifestyle marketplaces has been hurt by macroeconomic conditions, and the market is awaiting earnings from Farfetch after the bell on Thursday (Feb. 23) and Yoox Net-A-Porter, which is expected to show a similar split between high-end wardrobing customers and aspirational shoppers hunting for select investment pieces.

Last August, Farfetch acquired a 47.5% stake in YOOX Net-a-Porter.