In this week’s Store Associates Strategies series, Glossy spotlights the high value of strong store associates amid consumers’ return to retail.
Store associates and in-house personal shoppers are finally getting overdue attention, at least on paper. According to John Antonini, former svp of store growth at Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, luxury retailers are rethinking how they attract and retain this top client-facing talent.
“Retaining the best in-store advisors is a growing focus,” said Antonini. “Investments in their professional development, recognition and personal brand building are key. Engaged advisors are the best recipe for strong clienteling.”
As brands are starting to build out CRM systems and VIP programs, they are also defining the difference between clienteling and personal shopping. Personal shopping focuses on styling and executing purchases for clients, often as a one-off service. Clienteling, meanwhile, is about building long-term relationships, anticipating future needs and using client knowledge to offer highly personalized outreach. Most successful luxury businesses need both, often blended into one role. “It’s all about timing, trust and taste,” said Antonini. “Data helps, but people seal the deal.”
Some brands are taking this seriously. Miu Miu, Loewe and Sacai have invested in dedicated client development teams and VIP programs. “I think MyTheresa is killing it [at customer service],” said Alli Sims Peter, co-founder of discount designer outlet Bessette and a former private shopper at Matches and Threads. “They do amazing events, which definitely draw in that top client, and their private shopping program is set up really well.”
Sims Peter has seen how critical private clients can be for business growth. “The private shopping department at Matches made over 50% of its revenue, which shows how important the private client business really is,” she said. Matches closed officially in June last year. In the years since, the U.K. personal shopper market has become “extremely saturated and competitive,” she said. As a result, their sales targets have gone up, while their pay has gone down. “I had friends [who work retail] who couldn’t find jobs for a year because there are so many people doing the same thing now,” she said.
Innovating on the customer service model is key for a salesperson to stand out, Sims Peter said. She pointed to the success of Charlotte Warburton of the styling agency To Be Created, who collaborates with influencers and creates unique edits. “You have to find a twist, because everyone is doing WhatsApp edits. That’s the bare minimum now,” she said.
In addition to a social media strategy, loyalty programs support the success of a store associate, Sims Peter said. “If you have a really great loyalty program, then that helps keep a VIP customer. At Matches, some clients stayed not for the personal shopper but for the exclusive edits or loyalty benefits.”
Client expectations have escalated. According to Sims Peter, “They want same-day delivery, hand-curated edits and WhatsApp access [to their shopper] at all hours. And they expect that one-on-one attention as standard.”
She recalled traveling to Switzerland to source a single T-shirt and sending an intern to a DHL depot to retrieve an urgent order. “We literally Ubered it straight to [the customer’s] house and then credited her account to apologize,” she said. “Customers will message on a Saturday saying they want to come in right now and grab that piece, and you make it happen, because that’s how you build loyalty.”
One person doing just that is Ruth Gebru, a private shopper at a London department store and previously a personal shopper at Net-a-Porter and Matches. “At Net-a-Porter, we had Salesforce. We knew what clients owned, what they browsed and how to target them. That doesn’t exist in stores,” said Gebru. Many department stores in the U.S., including Saks, use clienteling platforms by the likes of Salesforce in-store. Gebru asked to keep her employer private. “On the shop floor, luxury stores have been manual for so long. They haven’t caught up to your Net-a-Porters. That’s not the model.”
Gebru now manages more than 60 ultra-high-net-worth clients, including Middle Eastern royalty, manually, without a digital system tracking purchases, for example. She thinks department stores still have a ways to go to improve the VIP clienteling experience. “Mistakes are made,” she said. “[As a department store] you have to take accountability. The customer experience can be clunky, and that’s where we lose them.”
The end of tax-free shopping in London has also made the relationships that Gebru has built more important than one-off personal shopping appointments. “You have to make up for it in service. If your client is having a really great time with you, then they won’t worry about the 16.67%,” she said.
She added, “We’re genuine friends. I got a gold necklace with my name in Arabic from one client. Another sent me a personalized bag. They send me pictures of their kids.” And many clients have followed her to new stores as she has changed jobs. “If I say, ‘Take it off, I hate it,’ about an item, they listen. I’m not going to sell them something they already own or don’t need.”
Jessica Lazzeri, private client manager at the luxury clienteling service Ellidore, has seen similar shifts in her role. “It used to be purely sending clients WhatsApp and Shopify links. Now, we’re involved in their travel and fittings, and are facilitating face time with designers. Clients want storytelling. They want the designer to serve them tea, explain the piece and be part of the process,” said Lazzeri.
Some brands are moving in the opposite direction, limiting stock access for external shoppers. “Chanel is the trickiest,” said Lazzeri. “They used to reply to a text in 10 minutes. Now it takes days, if at all. They’ve put limits in place and want full control over client relationships.”
Other brands are reimagining the personal shopping opportunity. Lazzeri recalled taking a client to an invitation-only Bottega Veneta showroom in Venice where there were no bags on display. Instead, the space was staged with furniture and design objects. “You walk in, and it’s couches, not handbags. They take you through the craftsmanship, offer you a drink. The shopping happens last,” she said. “That client ended up buying six interior pieces and several bags. It feels like you’ve been let into a world rather than a store.”
For Gebru, the stakes are high. “There’s only so much that personal shoppers can do. I may have a dazzling personality and they love me, but I can’t carry the store on my back,” she said.
As Antonini said, omnichannel clienteling is only successful when the store associates have the tools and flexibility they need. “Advisors must be able to navigate all platforms seamlessly. Using data to inform outreach is now table stakes. You need to reach clients at the right moment with the right message on the right channel,” he said.
As luxury faces a period of slower growth, one thing is becoming clear: The people who own the client relationship will own the sale.
