Is One-to-One Shopping the Solution in a COVID World?

It’s more than fair to say that the eruption of COVID-19 has changed the retail landscape forever. What we buy, how we buy and where we buy - our behaviour as consumers has changed...forever. Trends and strategies are accelerating faster than we could have predicted, and inflexible retailers choosing not to evolve or take risks are struggling. So, I ask, is one-to-one shopping, a model that is in no way new to the retail game, the way forward?

We’ve probably all heard of Trunk Club - a Men’s & Women’s personalised mid to high end clothing service which began in 2009 in Chicago. They were seen as the pioneers of the “try on at home” model where after completing an online questionnaire, each customer is assigned a personal stylist, who curates boxes or “trunks” based on their client’s needs. After a preview is emailed through, the customer is charged a US$25 stylist fee and the trunk is then shipped to the customer where they have 5 days to try on the garments in the comfort of their own home. The customer can choose to make payment on the spot during their try-on period through the app or they can simply send back the unsuccessful items. Once received Trunk Club will charge for any items that were kept minus the stylist fee.

After the success of the at home trunks, they added in-person styling in six locations they called “clubhouses” in Chicago, Boston, New York, LA, Washington & Dallas. The same new customer questionnaire is completed online and an appointment is set with a stylist at a preferred location. Before the appointment, the stylist pulls garments ready for the customer’s arrival and a preview of the pieces is sent to the customer to edit. After arriving at the clubhouse, the customer is welcomed, offered a beverage at the bar and then they’re whisked away to a change room of their choosing, which is quite literally an entire room which has been designed by a well known fashion house or brand. Here they have access to pre-selected garments as well as the entire back of house inventory to shop from.

The Trunk Club business was acquired by Nordstrom in 2014 for US$350m. The founder, Bryan Spaly, said at the time the business was “barely profitable” and sadly, by 2016, Nordstrom had to write down the value of the acquisition by more than 50% ($197M). In March of 2020, just 1 month before the US went into lockdown, Erik Nordstrom the CEO of Nordstrom, announced they’d be taking the Trunk Club brand and service in house and closing its clubhouses. Spectators suggest that whilst Nordstrom sought the opportunity to take on Trunk Club’s database of clients, they didn’t initially understand how to integrate the one-to-one shopping model or existing booking systems. This leaves me guessing - did the Trunk Club model simply peak before its time? Because it’s obvious to me, that this type of personalised private clubhouse shopping experience as well its try on at home model is precisely the way to shop during COVID times.

We could compare Trunk Club’s misfiring to Australia’s Kent & Lime, who was forced to shutdown after mounting costs from customer returns and dissatisfaction with its subscription-based model. The customised menswear retailer was saved from administration in 2018 by online boutique marketplace Archfashion who relaunched the brand with new technology and scrapped the subscription model for a good old-fashioned incentive scheme with their stylists (and free returns, of course). But again, I question whether this business would have been more successful had it launched in a COVID world?

It’s important to note that there are big name retailers who are consciously making an effort to launch / relaunch their personalised shopping experience - and nailing it. Take Paris’s very own Le Bon Marche: inside this historic building, way, way up high, there is a series of private shopping rooms, each one immaculately decorated and different from the next. This paid for service entails the customer being accompanied through the store with a personal stylist to help them select options to then try on in the private salon. Alternatively, you can opt for a phone consultation with your assigned stylist who will then hand pick a selection for you to try on in private.

It would be impossible to discuss one-to-one shopping and without mentioning the great Saks Fifth Avenue, who’s entire philosophy is built around their customer / stylist relationship. Within their database (20% of which is made up of internationals), customers can be found who have shopped their store over multiple decades, and are rumoured to spend upwards of $5k on average in each transaction (it is reported that customers will spend four times more than normal when assisted by a stylist).

And finally, we have Nordstrom’s first attempt at private styling since the acquisition of Trunk Club. This service can be utilised virtually as well as in person in their private stylist rooms. Similarly to most personalised shopping services, the customer is asked a series of questions about their needs and the garments are selected prior to the customer coming in store or they can be sent directly if the appointment is done virtually. I believe Nordstrom did themselves a great service in acquiring TrunkClub - along with its database came the knowledge and expertise in personalised shopping which was missing from the Nordstrom store.

Something we’ve been hearing about constantly this year is business’s adapting to the current conditions, and Nordstrom is no different. Their effort to keep staff employed by not only offering virtual support services but also express alterations, curb side pick up, 24/7 delivery and pick-up, plus 1-hour denim hemming and garment personalisation should be applauded.

These examples don’t just portray the significant value of one-to-one personalisation in a COVID world, but they speak to the importance of investing in a first-class booking system, creating exceptional change rooms which meet the customer’s needs (and hygiene standards) as well as adding a touch of luxury to their in-store experience, and finally, investing in the people working within the stores.