A Smart Solution – Exclusive interview with FARFETCH’s Global Vice President, Private Client

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A Smart Solution

Jamie Freed, Global Vice President, Private Client at FARFETCH is the brains behind the strategy for the newly launched pre-order offering that sees the global marketplace take market share across the industry

Tell us about your role as Global Vice President, Private Client FARFETCH? I essentially work with all business areas to develop our strategy for the most engaged and loyal customers at FARFETCH – our private clients. We spend a lot of time scrutinizing every aspect of the customer journey and offering in order to create memorable experiences for the most incredible clients in the world. I’m excited to get out of bed every day knowing that our teams at FARFETCH are working to make a real di erence in our customer’s lives. Your role requires you to understand the differing demographics that exist globally. How has this impacted the decision to launch pre-order? We conduct customer research to help inform our decision making, and we really listened to the feedback received from customers all over the world when thinking about what pre-order would look like for FARFETCH. We were encouraged by the fact that so many of our customers told us pre-order was something they wanted. As we hope that many customers will adopt this way of shopping, we decided to create a democratic o ering open to all customers. Which brands were key to have as part of the launch for this concept? For launch we wanted to work with brands that are both in high demand from our customers and could work with us on providing a compelling offering early in the season. You’ll soon see new brands joining our pre-order roster and new items continuing to be added from the brands included at launch. What was the most challenging aspect of this launch and how did you overcome it? What do you do when clothing isn’t yet available to be bought or shipped and how does that relate to the proposition? The most exciting and challenging part of our launch was thinking through this question in order to reimagine the traditional marketing campaign. Our teams were able to leverage innovation in a I think that continuing to educate consumers in the benefits of pre-order will help to overcome uncertainty or resistance. What is the key piece of business advice you would impart to others? Bring your heart, mind and gut to the table every single day and make sure they’re always included in your decision-making process. How has social media a ected the business and which platform has been most useful? Instagram was the platform we used for our pre-order digital only influencer campaign. We wanted to collaborate with the FARFETCH Community and build an aesthetic centred around innovative fashion with a futuristic feel. The influencers we worked digital-only way that was truly meaningful with were already familiar with the digital for the industry and the customer. fashion space and had a genuine interest in Long-term, FARFETCH hopes to go one taking part in such an exciting project! We stage further than pre-order in tackling fash- also worked with a company called DressX ion’s sustainability issue, with a made-to- to digitise products that will be available for order o ering. Can you expand on this? Sus- pre-order. DRESSX digitized 20 menswear tainability is a major topic for the fashion and 20 womenswear pre-order looks from industry now and we want to ensure we use the latest collections of O -White, Balenciour strengths and position to be the plat- aga, Palm Angels, Dolce & Gabbana, Khaite, form for good. Positively FARFETCH was and Nanushka for the launch. launched in 2019 and since then we have What advice would you give to your younger launched a number of initiatives and pilots. self starting out? Perfection is boring, so stop This movement empowers our community spending your energy on striving for perfecto choose positively and as a result of this, tion. When you fail, pick yourself up quickly we have set ourselves a goal to sell 100% and make time to reflect upon the pain and Conscious products by 2030. lessons learnt. If you can use failure to your

One of the big causes of waste in our in- advantage and see it as a growth opportudustry is mismatched supply and demand, nity, you’ll lead fearlessly. which leads to overproduction. A model This is ‘The Renegade Issue’, and we see where pre-order is o ered pre-production thinking outside the box as a positive thing. and applied at scale could help to solve this Who for you is a renegade or when have you overproduction problem and work towards taken this approach to life yourself? Amanda reducing waste in the industry. Gormon – her poem “The Hill We Climb” Do you see particular regions globally adopt- was a hopeful call for unity and for a nation ing this concept and how do you engage those to heal. She did this with the world watching where there is more resistance? It’s still ear- and didn’t hide from the reality of today and ly, but what’s encouraging is that we’ve seen injustices of the past. She was frank in a way customers from all areas of the world, both that many would avoid, whilst still touching new and loyal, shopping in this way with us. in a way to move millions.