Luxury women’s apparel retailer Moda Operandi recently launched Moda Operandi Man, marking the first time the e-retailer has sold men’s apparel.
Moda Operandi Man debuted with more than 50 luxury brands, including Prada, Maison Margiela, Givenchy, Ralph Lauren, Balmain and Burberry, among others.
“After seven years of success in offering women looks straight from the runway, we have identified a gap in the market for men to experience the same exclusive opportunity,” says Moda Operandi CEO Deborah Nicodemus.
Moda Operandi, No. 403 on the Internet Retailer 2018 Top 500, has web traffic that skews female: 73% female compared with 27% male, according to Top500Guide.com. But now the retailer is looking to ensnare part of the under-served luxury men’s market.
While Moda Operandi is growing quickly, it still has a ways to go before it catches up to luxury brands that sell direct to consumers online. The luxury retailer is competing in a market already dominated by women’s and men’s apparel retailers such Farfetch and Yoox Net-a-Porter Group (No. 78), which sells men’s apparel on Yoox.com and MrPorter.com but not Net-a-Porter.com.
Moda Operandi made an Internet Retailer-estimated $90.7 million in 2017 web sales, a 93.3% growth over 2016, according to Top500Guide.com. Yoox Net-A-Porter generated $710.1 million in 2017 web sales, growing 11.8% year over year.
Nicodemus told Business of Fashion she expects Moda Operandi to grow another 54% in 2018, fueled in part by the new men’s offering. The luxury retailer also plans to open more store locations in the Middle East, Europe, North America and Asia, Nicodemus says. Currently, Moda has two store locations: Moda Operandi Madison in New York City and Moda Operandi London.
The launch of men’s apparel also triggered a redesign of ModaOperandi.com. The process for the redesign started in late 2017 and launched June 22, the retailer says.
From the homepage, shoppers on ModaOperandi.com can enter mirror-image women’s or men’s sites. And once a shopper clicks through the women’s or men’s side of the site, the shopper can navigate between the two sites by clicking ‘Women’ or ‘Men’ above the main navigation bar.
“We mirrored the experience we have on our women’s site for our men’s site,” says a spokesperson for Moda Operandi. “The current design allows for full visibility and access to our key trunk shows, curated boutique product and editorial content. With our universal checkout, customers will easily be able to shop both men’s and women’s in one shopping session.”