January 27, 2025

Luxury, Loyalty, and Lifestyle: Michael Kliger on Mytheresa's Unique Model

22 minutes

Under Michael Kliger’s stewardship, Mytheresa has emerged as perhaps the most profitable platform of its kind. Unlike its sprawling competitors, Mytheresa thrives on a philosophy of precision—offering a tightly curated selection shaped by an intimate and ongoing dialogue with its discerning customer base.

Where most brand events aim for maximum visibility and the optics of adjacency to “the right people,” Mytheresa takes a different route. Their gatherings are a masterclass in exclusivity, designed with their fiercely loyal repeat customers in mind—a rarefied echo chamber that isn’t trying to be everything to everyone, but everything to the few who matter most when it comes to their bottom line.

"You need to define your audience and then be as good as you can to serve them and to stay close. Again, it's this dichotomy of they are looking for inspiration, but they're not willing to scroll through 500 depictions of products" - Michael Kliger

Episode Highlights:

The son of two entrepreneurs, Michael Kliger decided to study business and initially pursued consulting while being unsure of which sector or function he was ready to fully commit to.

After spending 12 years in retail, but never in digital, he made the move from McKinsey to eBay to gain a deeper understanding of the marketplace that was rapidly becoming the present and future of commerce.

Michael recognized early on that the customer experience is the cornerstone of a company’s success, whether in digital or brick-and-mortar environments. Rather than tell them what they wanted, he first asked.

While more complex designs and customer experiences emerge with the expansion of technology and its capabilities, Michael committed early on to having their content strategy guided by a deliberate simplicity.

Understanding that their customer had significant buying power but a limited budget when it came to time, he quickly learned that their role was to inspire while curating a thoughtful, edited selection that met their customers' unique needs. Ultimately putting forward a smaller, yet more targeted, offering than their competitors.

Like many others in the luxury sector, they have recognized and began catering to the growing demand for new categories, particularly in home and decor.

Partnering with brands like Dries Van Noten and Valentino, part of their distinctive offering includes frequent capsule collections or exclusive product drops.

Despite the platform’s ongoing and impressive success, Kliger describes their strategies as being in a constant state of evolution, likening it to a snake shedding its skin.

A firm believer in the importance of consuming data points—whether through personal anecdotes, customer feedback, or other sources—Michael highlights how new ideas often emerge when different pieces of information suddenly connect.

Michael also discusses the acquisition of Net-a-Porter and its implications for the future of both companies' respective businesses.

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