Jessica Seinfeld is a Net-a-Porter superfan, checking it every morning. She’s also a big spender on the luxury e-commerce site, which has earned her Extremely Important People (“EIP”) status at the company, something her husband, Jerry Seinfeld, shared on his Web show “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.”
As egalitarian as online shopping seems — after all, you can shop anywhere, anytime and in your PJs — luxury e-commerce-only retailers are increasingly catering to the demands of their biggest spenders.
Net-a-Porter’s EIP program launched in 2006 and has been growing ever since. As a Net-a-Porter EIP, you get access to new items before everyone else, and your orders are shipped first. And then there are the front-row seats at fashion shows, a buying team on the hunt for items especially for you, and should you need a gown at the eleventh hour, a person who will jump on a plane and deliver it to you.
Finance executive Dina DiLorenzo, who shops on Net-a-Porter three to four times a month, recalls how the company came to her rescue when she arrived in East Hampton last summer and realized her bathing suits were still in the city: “I ordered some [new suits] online in the morning, and someone dropped them off at my house at 3 p.m.”
Net-a-Porter’s keeping mum on just how much its roughly 15,000 EIPs spent to get there; its top client, a New York City-based lawyer, spent more than $1 million over the course of 12 months. Generally, it’s estimated that you need to shop well and often — to the tune of more than $70,000 a year — to win favored status.
Moda Operandi has catered to big spenders since it launched in 2010, but the online boutique formalized its VIP loyalty program last year. “Clients who are spending $100,000 with us, we know they are also shopping around,” says Jamie Freed, Moda Operandi’s vice president of customer experience.
Samantha Chen is a self-professed Moda Operandi addict, splurging on a big purchase around once a month, like a one-of-a-kind Alix of Bohemia bolero jacket, which runs upward of $800. “There’s just so much stuff out there,” says the NYC-based fashion exec. “They help me curate my shopping list.”
Among the other services Moda Operandi provides top clients are private events with such designers as Rosie Assoulin and Emilia Wickstead, and customizing some items, like the artist-painted Hermès Birkin a client wanted to give as a wedding gift. They’ll even style entire vacations.
One Moda Operandi stylist planned every outfit for her client’s trip to a tropical weather resort, using her client’s vacation itinerary as a guide, then sending the haul to the hotel. The concierge unpacked everything, steamed it and hung each outfit in the order in which it was to be worn.
Another stylist completely overhauled a client’s closet. “We sent one of our stylists to a woman’s home in Los Angeles and, with a photographer, catalogued every item in this woman’s closet — over 25,000 items,” Freed says. “Now to find a bag, [she knows to go to] door nine, top row, in the east wing.”