No longer invitation only, e-tail behemoth net-a-porter.com‘s now-public social shopping network, The Net Set, is open for business. And it’s about to change everything about how you shop…
Once upon a time, when I worked for net-a-porter.com, I spent many a daydream gazing idly at the giant plasma screen fixed at the head of the office, looking down on us like the all-seeing eye. We all did it. It was mesmerising to watch the relentless, real-time loop of exactly what was being bought, where in the world, and how much was being spent on it.
So mesmerising in fact, that some years laternet-a-porter.com put a smaller version on their website so that everyone could enjoy the culturally-exposing sartorial microscope that was watching how many Louboutin Pigalles someone in Qatar was buying on a Monday morning.
Poppy Delevingne stars in The Net Set campaign
Fast forward to May of this year and net-a-porter.com seemed to have taken this fundamental idea and laced it with their special brand of clairvoyance, founding The Net Set – a ‘social shopping network’ where you can see exactly what the style icons you admire the most are buying, and buy it too. It’s voyeurism at its best; combining the brilliant principles of Pinterest, Instagram and e-tail and packaging it all in Net-a-Porter’s inimitably slick branding and functionality.
“Shopping is better with friends” they say, and they’re absolutely right, especially when those ‘friends’ can be anyone from their Style Council – think super-bloggers Elin Kling and Hanneli Mustaparta, ultra-cool casting director Natalie Joos and model Erin Wasson.
Join up (for free, no less) and be privy to their shopping lists. Everything (and we mean everything) is shoppable – if you upload an inspirational picture of, say, a street style starlet in an amazing pair of shoes, the app will find you similar styles which you can buy. Even if you take a picture of a beautiful bunch of flowers, it will still use them as a basis for finding you floral-print items to add to your basket. Clever isn’t the half of it.
The familiarity of Instagram (scroll and click on things and add them to your ‘love list’), and the addictive nature of Pinterest makes The Net Set an absolute winner. One more app to check/ pin/ like/ hashtag – but one we’re happy to fall down the social media rabbit hole for. If this is the future, we’re double tapping it.
