Farfetch’s chief brand and growth officers exit

Dive Brief:

Farfetch Chief Brand Officer Holli Rogers and Chief Growth Officer Martin Avetisyan are exiting the company “to pursue other opportunities, the luxury fashion platform announced Wednesday.
At the same time, Farfetch has named Elizabeth von der Goltz as its new chief fashion and merchandising officer and CEO of its Browns business, according to the press release. Von der Goltz previously held positions at Bergdorf Goodman, Matches Fashion and Yoox Net-a-Porter Group.
The company also appointed Sindhura Sarikonda as president of Americas and Stephanie Simon as its vice president of community and Web3. Sarikonda was the general manager of Walmart U.S. e-commerce, head of beauty for Jet.com and global head of in-store at Klarna, and Simon previously was the head of community at the audio chat app Clubhouse, according to the press release.

Dive Insight:

Farfetch is shaking up its leadership team as it chases profitability.

The company brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in cash in recent years with Alibaba and Richemont each investing $300 million into Farfetch Limited and $250 million each into Farfetch China Joint Venture. Kering shareholder Artemis also invested $50 million to expand its ownership interest in the company.

Two years later, Farfetch teamed up with Neiman Marcus to invest $200 million into the department store company. As part of the deal, Bergdorf Goodman will use Farfetch platform solutions to update its website and mobile app, a move that will enable it to offer its services internationally.

“Our 2023 plan is very much focused on continuing to advance our platform vision whilst delivering growth, profitability and free cash flow. These hires will help us achieve that,” Farfetch founder, chairman and CEO José Neves said in a statement. “Elizabeth will play an integral role in curating and securing incredible merchandise to ensure Farfetch customers continue to have access to unrivaled supply. And Sindhura’s leadership will position us to provide a differentiated shopping experience to luxury customers in the Americas, including our largest market, the United States. Finally, Stephanie brings her incredible experience on how fashion can engage in Web3 and all the opportunities still to explore in this space.”

Farfetch isn’t the only company looking for veterans to oversee Web3 operations and launching Web3 experiments. Last May, Crate & Barrel named Sebastian Brauer as its senior vice president for product design, development and metaverse, a role that would entail managing the retailer’s strategic vision for the metaverse and Web3. In November, Nike unveiled its Web3 platform, dubbed .Swoosh, where Nike members can collect, trade and customize virtual goods such as shoes and jerseys.

Brands and retailers are diving headfirst into the metaverse, but some experts warn that the concept has a long way to go before it reaches maturity. In July, Forrester released a report predicting that while consumers will have very immersive experiences 10 years from now, they won’t be able to move freely between metaverse environments with their digital goods.