041 Vikki Kavanagh - THE OUTNET'S Secret Weapon

Vikki Kavanagh is the Global Buying and Merchandising Director at THE OUTNET, the sister e-commerce website to Net-a-porter and Mr. Porter. And the reason she has held that venerable position at the company for almost three years now is because she is a true buyer’s buyer.

What I mean by that is that she has the art of buying coursing through her veins. Since she was a teenager she has been fascinated by this aspect of the fashion industry. And it was right out of school, at her first job working in a House of Fraser department store, where she first laid eyes on the glamours women who were crisscrossing the world ordering up the stock that would line the shelves of the store in the season to come, that she knew that being a buyer was going to be her calling.

She liked the idea of finding just the right products for the people who frequented the store she worked for, be that online or within the walls of a storefront. To find for them both the things she knew they would need, but also those they didn’t know they needed until she found it for them and those items that they didn’t need at all, but wanted, and couldn’t live without.

Over the years, she has proven herself to be very skilled at being in tune with her customers. Be that buying for Fenwicks, House of Fraser, Harvey Nichols, the fashion e-tailer Very Exclusive or The Outnet.
THE OUTNET, which just celebrated its 10 year anniversary, has become so much more than just a place where the end of season stock goes on sale.

In fact, today 90% of the stock is sourced directly from the brands on buying trips Vikki makes with her team to the fashion capitals of the world. She has helped build deeper relationships with brands which has lead to exclusive partnerships like a recent one the company did with Mary Katrantzou as well as unexpected collaborations.

Vikki helped put into place a collaboration between the brands in house line - Iris and Ink, which - by the way - consistently ranks in the company’s top 5 selling brands on its website, with the style icon, model and entrepreneur, Julia Restoin Roitfeld – A first for the company.

Today, for Vikki, being a fashion buyer means being nimble, using data to help hone your choices but, making sure to still leaving room to follow your gut. In our conversation, Vikki talks about what it takes to be a great buyer, the evolution of the luxury consumer and the new landscape of seasonless shopping as well as THE OUTNET's role in a circular economy and why she will never understand the appeal of bicycle shorts.