Staying relevant in a noisy world with James Nuttall from Highsnobiety
A conversation with James Nuttall, GM of Commerce at Highsnobiety, and building the art of adding value and creating trust with customers.
Welcome to Commerce Thinking, an ongoing content series where we tell stories about the world's fastest-growing brands and those shaping the new luxury market.
We’re excited to introduce you to James Nuttall, GM of Commerce at Highsnobiety.
James is a friend of the THOUGHTS brand, and he’s a book of knowledge when it comes to the intersection of fashion, media, and marketing.
One bit we enjoyed the most was chatting with James about his philosophy on content, how to add value for the customer, create compelling stories across different channels, and how to ultimately leverage content + commerce in a meaningful way to drive revenue in business.
Let us know what you think about the interview!
Tell us about your journey to your role at Highsnobiety.
I started working on the sales floor at Selfridges while studying at university when I was 17. I'll always be grateful for that experience because I was surrounded by a group of fun, fashionable people and learned first-hand about great brands and products.
After graduating, I got my first job working in the agency world. I spent time at different agencies early on, and I thrived there because of my fashion knowledge and the fact that I was one of the few who understood how the Internet works.
It gave me an advantage in the space, and I was quickly put on managing the fashion businesses at my work.
One thing led to another, and ultimately, I built strong relationships over the years that have opened new doors for me and eventually led to what I would describe as my dream job here as GM of Commerce at Highsnobiety.
What did you learn from those early years at Selfridges that you've applied to your thinking today?
Yeah, maybe this is bigger than Selfridges, but it's easy to be "high brow" (and wrong) about how dialed in many of these more established retailers can be.
Whether it's department stores like Selfridges or the large biggest multi-brand retailers from Mr. Porter to Zalando, if you look at their brand and product offering, there's always a decent niche representation.
The breadth of their offering and how they tap into the right cultural moments, occasions, and niches to multiple audiences is impressive and interesting.
And it's also hard.
On the opposite end, for Highsnobiety, we're differentiating ourselves by focusing on one niche, one audience. And that's to our advantage.
So, the questions we ask ourselves are:
How can we lean into our niche and super-serve our audience?
How do we push the boundaries?
How do we take more risks when it comes to curation?
And how do we put in the work to find surprising products?
What was it like to jump from your retail and agency experience into media + commerce at HS?
So, one thing that's been interesting is working in a space where you're constantly fighting for someone's attention.
In this business, if the content and storytelling you're trying to sell a product with doesn't cut it when you're up against content people are entertained by, you won't make it very far.
Another challenge has been learning to think about what grabs a reader's attention and what will create shopping intent for them.
It's a different mindset to adapt to.
We've found that the stronger and more interesting the initial hook is, the easier it is to accompany the content with shoppable products.
If you start with the intention of a hook and to entertain others, your chances of converting that consumer are higher. If you start with a hard sell and build no initial trust, your chances of failure are higher.
Interesting, so how do you think about “top of funnel” to conversion with readers?
We see things in segments. First, customers want to be entertained, then they want to see the products, then they convert.
For example, we use our main accounts to be entertaining first, then pull them in from there.
And when the consumer is already into it and wants some pragmatic info on the product or drop, we have a separate account for sharing that information with them, like a drop email.
That way, there are clear and consistent expectations about what they'll get, and when they'll get it, so there's trust.
By the time they are ready to make a purchase, the product is placed alongside the existing context they have on that drop, with the content that sold them in the first place.
How do you consistently make compelling content (paired with commerce) without making it a race to the bottom for clicks?
We avoid clickbait stuff. The content has to be deeper than just getting clicks.
Are you reading the article?
Are you actually shopping for that product later on?
To us, pure "clicks" is a bad indicator of success. Instead, the goal is to accompany the product with entertaining content that adds value.
For example, if we're writing a piece on wearing Jorts (jean shorts), we can take the angle of talking about it as a trend, how it's come into form again when it started to come back, and layer in nostalgic, iconic people who've worn Jorts over the years.
You can then accompany that content with a shopping link. This way, we're not leading with cheap, negative clicks; we're adding value first, then presenting a different way to engage with the content—i.e., through commerce.
The goal is to answer "why should someone
care about this?" before "why should someone buy this?"
How does a brand like HS stay fresh and innovative over the years?
Part of staying "on it" is about hiring great, young talent. And we're lucky to have loads of young people who want to push themselves and innovate on new channels and fun new ways of reaching people.
But you can't put all the pressure on them to perform.
It’s good to balance that with having people who've been through it in their careers too. That said, what’s more, important is that you constantly test your assumptions and never get too comfortable.
The best approach to staying sharp is to constantly test new ideas, in new ways, on different channels. And never put your eggs in one basket because no platform will answer all your questions, and always have multiple irons in the fire when it comes to so many new platforms.