MILAN — Yoox is on a rebranding journey, and in an exclusive interview chief executive officer Mirko Nobili shared with WWD his vision for the next phase of the off-price e-commerce platform, defining it as a “rebirth.” 

A key step is “returning to being closer to the customer, not only as a transactional platform, but as becoming part of the culture, creating a community based on art, culture and creativity — which were always part of the Yoox DNA — where pieces of exceptional design at more accessible prices can be discovered. Our ambition is to offer unique experiences and for our customers to express their individuality,” said Nobili at the Yoox Milan headquarters.

Nobili was promoted to CEO of Yoox last year, having most recently served as chief operating officer of Yoox Net-a-porter also known as YNAP. He joined YNAP in 2020 as global operations director. Earlier in his career he spent seven years at Burberry, where he held top roles in beauty supply chain, transformation and global customer fulfillment. Prior to that, he held senior operations roles at Nestlé Italiana and Lactalis Group.

Last spring, Mytheresa took control of YNAP from Compagnie Financière Richemont and rebranded as LuxExperience, and Nobili underscored that “only 3 percent of customers overlap with the rest of the brands in the group.” LuxExperience comprises Mytheresa, the Net-a-porter women’s luxury website and Mr Porter men’s luxury website. The Outnet off-price website was sold off. Net-a-porter, Mr Porter, Yoox and the Outnet were all part of YNAP.

Upbeat and energized by the potential of Yoox, the executive underscored that the brand will remain off-price and that “the Yoox customer reflects our unique selling proposition, is attentive to style but is independent in taste, does not follow the trends and fashions of the moment, is perfectly at ease with digital channels, is curious, and is interested in culture, fashion, design, cinema, art. They like to discover,” argued Nobili. “Giving second life to products at the end of the season is also an added value for our customers.”

Yoox carries “thousands of brands,” said Nobili, touting the “even stronger and more durable relations with them now.”

A new visual identity and new communication campaign will progressively be rolled out starting at the end of March, introducing a new color palette that includes cobalt and “electric blush,” described as “electric, high-saturation tones, it creates a visual language that feels immediate, recognizable, energetic and modern.“ Yoox will also introduce new proprietary shapes, layouts and fonts. A second release focused on CRM will be out in mid-April, followed by the enhancement of the website and app, “improving beyond cosmetics, and then a new packaging and gifting by the end of the year.”

Surprise is another pillar developed “through unexpected product drops, rare finds, and experiences that feel like secret discoveries.“

Nobili said the third pillar is elevation, as the aim is to offer “memorable and unique experiences, editorial content, and access to events and opinion leaders, as well as fashion to build and elevate yourself. To elevate is to lift people higher, above the ordinary, into the extraordinary.“

Nobili touted the “very ample catalogue,” but said more editing and personalization will evolve with the customer.

He has been working on improving efficiency of operations and technology. “We have our Interporto [Italy] central hub, but there’s been changes in the logistical setup in the past few months,” he said. For example, in Asia-Pacific, Yoox no longer has a local warehouse, as part of a strategy to simplify its logistic footprint, which leads to increased efficiency in operations. “The technology has been phenomenal from the beginning, but it needs simplification and a renewed focus on investments to meet the demands of the customer.”

Nobili also spoke about giving “a more specific identity to the storefront, in terms of buying, curation, the number of brands, and references, so much so that an independent structure was created for Yoox based in Italy with its own independent technology and distribution network.”

At Yoox, gross merchandise value declined 12.1 percent in the second quarter ended Dec. 31, but that’s an improvement over the 19.9 percent decline in the first quarter. Sales were 125.3 million euros compared to 142.5 million euros in the prior-year period, though there was a larger decline of 19.3 percent in the first quarter, suggesting some sequential improvement.

Commenting on the results, LuxExperience CEO Michael Kliger said “together with Net-a-porter, Mr Porter and Yoox, we will seize the tremendous opportunities that present to us going forward. As LuxExperience, we possess the secret sauce in digital luxury.”

Kliger has pointed to the aim to decrease selling, general and administrative expenses and the trend in the second quarter compared with the first has been “very positive, with promising results,” said Nobili. Yoox reported a significant decrease of the adjusted SG&A cost ratio from 28.6 percent in the first quarter of 2026 to 26.9 percent in the second quarter.

Yoox counts more than 1.2 million customers, of which 60 percent are women, said Nobili, adding that “the core Yoox lovers have great affection for the brand and its history, but they want to deal with a site that is more than transactional, and this is what we are working on, building different touch points, while we also aim to acquire new customers, touching upon their interests.”

Europe is the main market for Yoox, and Nobili said there is much potential in Italy, Germany, France and Spain. In the second quarter, Yoox posted double-digit growth in net sales for Europe compared with the same period in the previous year.

Asked about the issues of returns, which “are part of the game,” he said, to contain them, Yoox is working on “making the information even easier to interpret and understand, leading to a more precise purchase.”

Yoox’s recent brand activations include an event in Berlin earlier this year, which explored the intersection of fashion, art and film, and one called “Timeless” during Milan Fashion Week in February. Central to the evening event was Il Camerino, a conceptual installation reimagining the fitting room as a space of transformation and self-expression.