YOOX NET-A-PORTER GROUP Speeds Product Development with Centric PLM

Luxury Fashion, Direct to your Door

In October 2015, two companies that revolutionized the luxury fashion industry, YOOX GROUP and THE NET-A-PORTER GROUP decided on a game-changing merger. YOOX NET-A-PORTER GROUP (YNAP) is now the world’s leading online luxury fashion retailer.

The Group, a global company with Anglo-Italian roots, is a unique business with an unrivalled offering including multi-brand in-season online stores NET-A-PORTER and MR PORTER, and multi-brand off-season online stores YOOX and THE OUTNET, as well around 40 online flagship stores “Powered by YNAP” for some of the world’s leading luxury houses.

Uniquely positioned in the high-growth online luxury sector, YNAP has an unrivalled client base of more than 3 million high-spending customers, over 29 million monthly unique visitors worldwide and combined 2016 net revenues of €1.9 billion. YNAP has offices and operations in the United States, Europe, Japan, China and Hong Kong and delivers to more than 180 countries around the world.

Fashioning Luxury

In addition to being the online retail partner of choice for leading fashion & luxury brands, YNAP also designs and produces its own Private Labels, accounting for over 4,000 SKUs per season across a number of different brands.

“With 17 years of luxury fashion ecommerce experience, we have a unique perspective on our customers’ buying habits and patterns. We use our expertise to deliver products that fulfil their demands.” explains Marco Gallo, Product Developer at YNAP.

“And when we started developing our Private Labels, we approached the whole process with the same start-up mentality that underpins this entire Group,” continued Gallo. “We used what we had – email and spreadsheets – which worked perfectly at the beginning but as the volumes increased we quickly realised we needed a single view of our product, from design to delivery, with a detailed view of all the processes in-between.”

Selecting Centric

YNAP began its search for a solution that fitted its requirements: “We needed a holistic view of production. We hoped that having the right PLM would help us to manage the entire lifecycle of a product from prototype to production, check the gap between the initial budget we have for each brand and the real cost of goods ordered, track the cost of samples, and communicate with suppliers using one standard format and platform,” said Gallo. “We felt that Centric Software provided the best tool for our specific requirements.”

YNAP selected Centric Software to provide its PLM solution in January 2017 and kicked off a six-month implementation project shortly afterwards. The company selected Centric PLM™ Enterprise suite, with Adobe and ERP integration.

First Reactions

YNAP’s Italy-based Private Labels team now uses Centric. “It took some time to adapt. We now know that everyone has access to correct information all the time. Even better, there is no data duplication required or even allowed, which saves us a lot of time,” explains Gallo.

“Although the product developers are the only people using the PLM at present, the merchandisers and designers will soon be on the system. Eventually, we’ll use the tool to collaborate with suppliers. Our processes are more or less the same but the PLM concentrates all of these in one tool. We can track costs, samples and production in a way that is traceable and easy for everyone to understand, working on a single platform.”

Planning for the Future in PLM

“Although we are in the early stage of this project, we are aware of the potential the platform holds and we look forward to exploring further,” said Gallo. “When we extend the system to suppliers, it will allow them to easily and rapidly communicate with us regarding all information and provide visibility on collections.”

“We’re excited by how easy it will be to collaborate,” explains Gallo. “Our designer will put a sketch in PLM, and with one click, I will be able to send it to suppliers. I will be able to ask them to give me one sample in this fabric, one sample in that fabric… It’s a lot more efficient than sending presentations, spreadsheets or sketches. It will all be concentrated on the PLM platform and completely traceable.”

Continuous Contact with the Centric Team

For YNAP, Centric’s PLM solution has already resulted in a faster and more efficient product development process. Centric and YNAP will work together closely to ensure the PLM is continually updated to meet YNAP’s evolving needs.