Net-A-Porter new buying and merchandising chief Cranfield starts at firm

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 1, 2021

Net-A-Porter said Monday that the new head of buying and merchandising it announced in November has arrived to take up her role.

Lea Cranfield is chief buying and merchandising officer, rejoining the company where she worked for seven years earlier in her career after more recently having been commercial director at Matchesfashion. She has also worked for Liberty and Comme des Garçons and in her previous time at Yoox Net-A-Porter (YNAP) was a key player in the launch and growth of Mr Porter.

Her newly-created strategic role puts the luxury e-tailer’s buying and merchandising teams under a single, broader leadership, “forming an integrated, dynamic model that enables the group’s customer-first emphasis,” YNAP said.

It added that her “proven skills and original outlook will further cement the group’s leadership in selective distribution and accelerate its modern approach to buying”.

She reports into YNAP Luxury Division President, Alison Loehnis.

In the role, her focus will be “continuing to drive the connection between the impeccable talent of Net-A-Porter’s buying teams, renowned for their creative and discerning fashion flair, with the precision of data, to curate a finely-tuned selection of products that inspire its global customers and match their desires”.

As part of this, she’ll use “the know-how of the in-house data analytics team as well as those within the China Alibaba JV, to aid accuracy in predicting trends and deeply understand local preferences”.

YNAP chairman Federico Marchetti said: “As a dataphile, I have long believed in the power of analytics in the fashion world to enrich the design, selection and service experience for customers. We have pioneered the union of style excellence with the precision of data, carefully finding the balance between human and machine to enhance our curation of the world’s most coveted brands. I am delighted to welcome Lea back to our group – her innovative mindset matches ours and together we will accelerate our journey to a new era of luxury and fashion buying”.