Farfetch Boss José Neves: ‘The Magic Of Bricks-And-Mortar Shops Will Never Die’

Revealing the limitations of your business is an unusual move for any chief executive, particularly one who is hoping to take his company public in the near future. But José Neves, the boss and founder of luxury goods website Farfetch, is passionate about why the world of internet retailing can never fully recreate the “magic” of bricks-and-mortar shops. “Around 90pc of luxury goods are still sold in shops. It is changing but I think we will reach a maximum of 25pc to 35pc of luxury goods sold online. So, at the end of the day, around two thirds of sales will still be in physical shops”, the Portuguese entrepreneur says calmly smiling, crossing one bare, tanned ankle over another in Farfetch’s Shoreditch office. The entrepreneur is dressed for our interview in a Gucci pin-tuck shirt, available to buy on his site for £585, a pair of cropped black trousers by edgy designer Ann Demeulemeester (£438) and a pair of shoes by Swear, the footwear brand he launched almost two decades ago and of which he still remains a shareholder. “I get about one pair of them a month,” he says with a nonchalant wave of his hand. Read more at The Telegraph.