In the lobby of the Milan headquarters of Yoox.com, the online luxury retail giant, a big screen relays details of its 14.8m monthly visitors shopping in real time.
At 3pm on a Wednesday in late May, shoppers from Corvallis in the US, Naples in Italy, St Petersburg in Russia and Kent in the UK are all online and clicking “buy”.
The diversity of customer locations is matched by the diversity of their purchases. Half of all the orders placed on Yoox.com – which sells brands from Stella McCartney and Prada to Kartell and Fornasetti – combine design items with fashion, or art with fashion. The other 50 per cent of orders are either for fashion, design or art.