It's Now Just a Click Away

By Marion Hume

VITAL STATISTICS:

NAME NATALIE MASSENET

CURRENT JOB CHAIRMAN, NET-A-PORTER

FIRST JOB SHOP ASSISTANT IN A BEVERLY HILLS STORE

INSIDE TRACK SECURED FINANCING FROM LUXURY GROUP RICHEMONT

CLAIM TO FAME WAS ONCE A CO-WORKER OF LENNY KRAVITZ'S

"When I was a teenager, a psychic told me, 'Your biggest challenge will be life-work balance'. That's certainly turned out to be true!" laughs 42-year-old Internet entrepreneur Natalie Massenet, who juggles motherhood with helming Net-a-porter.com the multibrand e-tailer that ships fashion's must-haves to 150 countries.

Massenet, who was born in Los Angeles and lives in London with her French financier husband and their two daughters, was a magazine editor and pregnant with Isabella, now 8, when she came up with the idea of an online store selling the hottest items of the season at the click of a mouse. Six years later and pregnant with Ava, now 19 months, Massenet decided to expand the London-based company Stateside, with a vast distribution center in Long Island City, N.Y., offering same-day delivery to Manhattan and overnight delivery across the U.S. "Pregnancy is a very creative phase for me," says Massenet. Indeed, figures for the last financial year saw turnover leap 75%, to $72 million, and pretax profits up 62%, to $4 million.

Net-a-porter, which launched in June 2000 on an investment of just over $1 million, has doubled its turnover each year since then and is now in its fourth year of profitable trading; this while those with far deeper pockets flamed out in the early years of the Internet gold rush. Massenet puts her against-the-odds survival, then success, down to the vision of "merging a magazine with a store," coupled with user-friendly technology. "Don't show me a shoe rotating 360DEG," she says. "This is a service business. It's about showing the clothes, not showing off the technology."

Astute editing by a buying team directed by Massenet adds offbeat choices such as Brian Atwood heels and Devi Kroell bags to offerings from big guns like Marc Jacobs and Chloe. "Net-a-porter is an environment where a woman can really indulge, browsing through more than 160 brands in our fashion playground," says Massenet. To guide the search, editors' favorites are highlighted, while onscreen Post-it notes offer styling suggestions. Then there's the lush packaging, rapid delivery and, just as crucial, free returns service. Net-a-porter gets more than 1 million visitors a month, 140,000 of whom are regular shoppers spending an average of $800 a click.

Massenet, who has inherited the slender frame of her former-Chanel-model mother, says what she gives up is personal indulgence. "I don't work out. I don't get manicures, pedicures. I don't get my hair done as often as I should," she says, "and my social life has taken a beating. I'm sure friends think I'm out somewhere glamorous, but I'll be home reading a story with my kids." Ask her what she wishes were available to buy at the click of a mouse, and she answers, "Sleep! I can't tell you how valuable that is to me!"