Mariam Nihal
Saudi Gazette
We have to admit Mr Porter has helped develop and educate men in fashion. From the exclusive handpicked collections to style guides, Mr Porter is our go-to when it comes to men’s fashion. The online luxury fashion retailer sells sophisicated high-end brands but that is not it’s only unique selling point. In fact it serves as an international atelier that collaborates with fashion forward intellectuals across the globe.
Saudi Gazette caught up with Toby Bateman, Managing Director at Mr Porter, who leads the business across all departments including marketing, buying, personal shopping, tech and editorial. He joined Mr Porter as Buying Director in late 2010 and was responsible for growth from 80 brands at launch to over 350 for fall 2015. In November 2015, he was as should have been, promoted to Managing Director.
SG: How do you think Mr Porter plays a role in the evolution of men’s fashion?
TB: I think that the Internet has played a role in changing how men approach style in general, because it has opened up information and advice to men via magazine sites, blogs, social media feeds and of course Mr Porter. At Mr Porter, not only do we have both established brands and niche specialist brands on site, but our unique point of difference is our content - where we are able to educate our readers and customers regarding these brands in detail - from design inspiration through to craftsmanship. Coupled with a range of advice features and the fact that we concentrate on featuring real men with real jobs, we inspires men to experiment and be more adventurous in their style choices in an educated and curated manner.
SG: You also promote new and unconventional brands like Blackmeans, how does this fit the Mr Porter portfolio?
TB: Blackmeans is a great example of a niche brand, which we love because of its origin and its craftwork – it’s not very attainable throughout most parts of the world and we’re able to catapult it to our global customer and contextualize through enterprising forms of content. See the behind the brand video we made to see what I mean. (Check it out on their Facebook page)
SG: Who are your customers? What is the return rate to the website and how does it affect sales?
TB: Around the world the Mr Porter customer is confident and independent, making his own choices about what fits his personal style, whilst researching about style, fashion, with an assertive ‘in-the-know’ attitude. His average age is 35, in his late 30’s in the US, and on the lower end of 30’s in Singapore, for example. More than half of our customers visit Mr Porter once a week, and almost 20% of them purchase from the site at least once a month.
SG: Men have always paid attention to grooming and with sites like Mr Porter, it has become easier to learn the ropes of fashion and trends. What are your views on the changing sense of fashion with time, especially for the younger generations?
TB: My sense is that men no longer have a dress code like they used to and this has been the fundamental change over past 5 years. Of course, there are some jobs where men still have to wear suits every day, but these are increasingly few. Men will instead wear a very diverse wardrobe during the working week - maybe a suit one day, jeans and blazer another, chinos and sneakers another, depending on the needs of his work and what makes him most comfortable.
SG: How would you say Mr Porter has changed since 2011?
TB: The product assortment is certainly wider! But this has occurred quite naturally as we’ve added new brands 80 at launch, to 400 to date, developed new categories including Sport, Grooming and Lifestyle, and with Shoes and the Sneakers being a hugely successful category and subcategory too!
SG: What are you expectations from 2016?
TB: MR PORTER is celebrating its 5th Year Anniversary in 2016, which we kicked off celebrations around that benchmark in February. From a content perspective, we are excited to have launched ‘The Daily’ in April, providing readers with bite-sized style content 3 to 4 times daily, alongside our weekly digital magazine ‘The Journal’ our bi-monthly printed newspaper ‘The Post’. From a product point of view, we have a number of recent exclusive capsule collections from Officine Generale, Maison Kitsuné, Public School, Saturday’s Surf and Reigning Champ, and we’re excited to announce more exciting launches for Fall including Ermenegildo Zegna, Solid Homme and more.
