Neiman Marcus ends e-commerce partnership with Farfetch

Neiman Marcus Group is no longer replatforming its Bergdorf Goodman subsidiary with the help of Farfetch.

In an email to Chain Store Age, Neiman Marcus Group confirmed reports that it has decided to end its commercial partnership with global online luxury fashion marketplace Farfetch. 

"The Bergdorf Goodman website and app will continue to serve as the luxury e-commerce destination for its customers and will no longer be re-platforming onto Farfetch Platform Solutions," Neiman Marcus Group said in the email. "Neiman Marcus Group is well-positioned with exceptional technology, talent, and resources to further invest in and expand our digital and e-commerce capabilities. Our focus remains on continuing to deliver a differentiated luxury experience across all facets of our integrated retail model, and to position our business for sustainable, profitable growth."

Farfetch, which took a $200 million stake in Neiman Marcus Group in June 2022 in what was said at the time to be an effort to "further accelerate growth and innovation through investments in technology and digital capabilities," will remain a minority investor in the retailer. 

Coupang, which is sometimes called the Amazon of South Korea, acquired Farfetch, which had been struggling and was nearing bankruptcy, in December 2023, giving the company access to $500 million in emergency capital. As part of the agreement, Farfetch, which once dominated luxury fashion, will be taken private. 

However, Neiman Marcus Group will no longer follow a plan, initially announced when Farfetch made its investment, to use Farfetch Platform Solutions to re-platform the Bergdorf Goodman website and mobile application. The result of this endeavor was supposed to be Bergdorf Goodman introducing its digital customer experience and curated offering to customers globally, integrating seamlessly with the iconic New York City flagship,

Now, Neiman Marcus Group (which is reportedly in merger talks with Saks) is indicating it will internally handle the replatforming of Bergdorf Goodman’s e-commerce infrastructure. The company’s internal technology resources include Stylyze, a machine learning platform that offers product attribution data and curated content to support relevant shopping experiences across the customer journey, which it acquired in 2021. 

That purchase kicked off what Neiman Marcus Group said at the time would be a three-year, $500 million-plus planned gross investment in digital technology to support its integrated luxury retail strategy. In February 2023, the retailer realigned part of its leadership structure and laid off roughly 500 employees, or about 5% of its workforce.