This Luxury Retail CEO Is Staging a Comeback by Asking Customers to Complain More

Luxury retailer Net-a-Porter is staging a comeback — and using customer complaints as the groundwork for what to improve. 

CEO Heather Kaminetsky took complete the business in April 2025, and for complete a year, she has been relentlessly asking customers for feedback. According to a latest study from The Wall Street Journal, at all instant she gets, she asks shoppers a uncomplicated question: How can we do better?

Customers are enthusiastic to contribute their opinions.

They have asked Net-a-Porter to reshape everything from its white-glove assistance to its shipment experience. Shoppers asked for additional personalized notice from their personal shoppers, a broader mix of bequest names and emerging designers, improved bundle tracking and an easier returns process. Some equal weighed in on the drivers’ wardrobes, saying that their uniforms needed an upgrade.

Not all petition made the cut. One client projected deliveries by private jet, an idea Kaminetsky deemed unrealistic. But many additional have led to tangible changes.

Return labels now arrive inner all order, eliminating forms and the need to imprint item at home. Delivery drivers, who were formerly permitted to deteriorate any dreary clothing, are now outfitted in uniforms. 

Additionally, following customers spending summers at the Jersey Shore questioned why same-day shipment was accessible in the Hamptons but not throughout the water, Kaminetsky expanded the assistance to the Shore.

Kaminetsky additionally approaches certain requests alongside the persistence of a top personal shopper. When one client wanted a sold-out brace of Khaite’s half-calf leopard-print pants, Kaminetsky contacted the brand’s CEO, who ultimately arranged for a one-off brace to be made specifically for that shopper.

Kaminetsky’s strategy

Kaminetsky built her occupation throughout luxury retailing and fashion. She is no alien to Net-a-Porter, archetypal joining the business in October 2013 as vice chairman of promotion for the Americas before leaving in 2016 to work at retailers akin Mytheresa and M.Gemi. 

At Net-a-Porter, Kaminetsky identified an “opportunity to win rear customers who had lapsed complete the way of many years,” per the Journal.

The archetypal stage was talking to these customers. According to the Journal, concerning 4% of Net-a-Porter’s shoppers accounted for nearly fractional of its sales. Kaminetsky targeted this collection by sending them emails introducing herself and asking for their honest critiques. 

She has additionally made in-person community-building a bigger part of Net-a-Porter’s scheme by bringing customers together alongside business workforce for informal fireside conversations. 

Kaminetsky additionally sharply expanded the retailer’s calendar of decorator experiences, staging more events in the former twelvemonth than in the former three years combined.

At all gathering, Kaminetsky made herself immediately accessible, sharing her communication particulars alongside attendees and encouraging them to dispatch her candid feedback.

Kaminetsky’s shove for betterment has helped Net-a-Porter phase a comeback. The company’s latest results item to a strengthening business. Revenue rosy 4.3% twelvemonth complete twelvemonth in the fourth ended June 30, driven by additional than 13% growth in the U.S. 

Meanwhile, the average command value is now $1,016, an addition of 9% complete the former 12 months.