Why Kay Barron Left Net-a-Porter for the World of Live Shopping

Vogue: Why do you think luxury has been slow to experiment with video shopping?

I think because often it’s people in their houses, it’s scrappy, so brands look at that and think, “Oh god, that’s not for us.” But there are so many different entry points for live shopping. It can be personal shoppers doing one-to-one appointments with clients, or a one-to-many video or even customer service. The most important thing is having that video and human connection. It works hand-in-hand with developments in AI and how you sell products elsewhere. It’s about finding the right treatment, the right concept, the creative, the host’s scripting — and that’s just live shopping.

Then, with shoppable video, the same approach applies. There’s a way to apply the same luxury and editorial credibility from the rest of a brand’s content to live shopping and shoppable video. And by choosing their hosts and scripting, brands can actually have more creative control than some partnerships with creators, who are not always the best people to sell their product.

So many brands also have these incredible flagship stores that are already merchandized, everything’s been approved at every single level. On a Tuesday morning, they may be empty, so then you’ve got a video set there. Sometimes, brands are scared because they hear “video” and immediately think a production with 800 people that’s going to be expensive. But actually, they’re sitting on stores that can instantly be turned into studios for something that looks really curated. We’ve seen Whatsapp used by personal shoppers to constantly communicate with luxury clients — video commerce feels like the next step to me.

Anything new and tech focused in fashion usually takes a while to land, because luxury is wary of change. But sometimes, all it takes is for one big luxury brand to experiment and then it opens the floodgates to everyone else trying it. We do love a trend. I think we need to be more in the mindset of: what’s the worst that could happen?