As the global luxury industry flounders amid tepid consumer demand this year, Mytheresa continues to buck the trend.
The luxury e-tailer finished its fiscal year, which ended in June, with sales up 10 percent to €841 million ($927 million) and €26 million in adjusted earnings before interests, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, it announced in its full year earnings call on Thursday.
Despite the relatively strong results, Mytheresa wasn’t completely immune to market volatility: In the first half of its fiscal 2024 that ended last December, the company reported paltry sales growth of 5 percent to €385 million, and its adjusted earnings fell 77 percent to €7 million, as excess inventory forced it to increase discounting, though it was able to reduce markdowns in the second half of the year
Also in the second half of the year, Mytheresa ramped up its focus on its top spending clients, wooing them with exclusive capsule collections from brands like Loewe, Brunello Cucinelli and Bottega Veneta, as well as in-person events, such as a a two-day yacht cruise with Valentino in Nice for 35 customers. Its highest spenders accounted for 39 percent of overall sales for the full year, and the average amount spent per transaction topped $700 for the first time in the e-tailer’s history.
Mytheresa also generated 20 percent of sales in the US in 2024, a region many luxury brands and retailers are underperforming in. In the US, “there’s a market opportunity for customers that want to shop high-end luxury at a very elevated level,” said Michael Kliger, Mytheresa’s chief executive. “The size of the offer at department stores, online and physical, seems not to capture this audience well enough.”
Mytheresa’s customer experience strategy continues to help it benefit from its competitors’ struggles. But as the luxury sector faces further uncertainty, it has to make sure that its playbook doesn’t become stale. The company’s stock dropped 5 percent on Thursday following its earnings release.
“The main task is really to be focused on these individual customers, and what is the success factor is that they feel cared about and appreciated as a person,” Kliger said. “That’s a challenge in terms of you wanting to do that for many of them but still don’t want to do it in a standardised or cookie-cutter approach.”
The company is already taking steps to prevent any stasis. In September, it hired former Tapestry and Farfetch executive Amber Pepper as its chief customer experience officer. Under Pepper’s leadership, Mytheresa will introduce events centred around networking, bringing together clients in leadership positions in art, business and entertainment for dinner to meet and connect. The e-tailer will also increase its number of personal shoppers — who offer top customers styling services and handle tasks like product returns on their behalf — in the US, Europe and China, Kliger said.
Mytheresa is reportedly looking to acquire rival Yoox-Net-a-Porter from Richemont, which could help expand its assortment of covetable brands. (Kliger declined to comment.)
Mytheresa expects sales to grow as much as 13 percent in 2025.
“That’s what everyone has to do in this industry; keep [customers] excited and interested, and one key element of this being emotional. That’s the source of excitement. That’s the source of desirability,” Kliger said. “It’s an emotional state, and past success doesn’t guarantee future success. But we are pretty confident.”
