Personal shoppers are people who buy things for other people who do not have the ability or the time to go out themselves. A personal shopper can also be hired in retail businesses to help people find certain items that work for the customers.
While you do not need a degree or certification to be a private shopper, there are courses or programs that you can take that can help you get all the required skills to be effective on the job. With a lot of hard work and a little bit of knowledge, you can start working as a personal purchaser for people and make it a full-time job.
To know more about this topic, you can visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Shopper for more information.
Developing the needed skills
Choose the kind of shopping you want to specialize in – a private shopper can offer their services to any types of goods, that is why you need to pick one area to focus or concentrate on, while some private shoppers buy regular household items like toiletries or food supplies.
Other specializes in purchasing personal items like clothes, jewelry, perfumes or makeups. You need to decide what king of personal shopper you want to be so you can find the right target market and be competitive. A personal shopper for older people includes buying household items and groceries. The most common type of private shopper is the one that selects and buy clothes for people who do not have time to do their shopping needs.
If you are planning to shop for clothes or fashion items, you are required to focus on specific aspects of fashion like tops, pants, long dresses or shoes. That way, you do not get overwhelmed by trying to select an entire wardrobe.
Work on your customer service skills – a private shopper requires to work closely with their customers so that they can provide the best shopping experience possible. Make sure you stay very attentive to your customer’s needs and adequately communicate with them. Personal purchaserneeds to be patient with their client so that they will feel comfortable working with you. You need to give your full attention to your clients so you can develop a better personal connection with them.
Learn to manage your client’s budget – a privatepurchaser needs to work with the client’s budget to get the most out of their hard-earned money. You are required to use programs like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel so you can make a budget chart easily. You need to pay attention to what the client needs and the market prices for those items, so you can give your client the best possible things for their money. See if a family member or a friend can provide you with the items that they want so you can practice your shopping skills.
Click here to know more about the history of online shopping.
Make sure you have flexible working hours – a lot of private shoppers have regular paying jobs, that is why the only time they can work as a personal shopper is during the weekends or during their free time from their regular jobs. If you want to make it as your full-time job, make sure that you will have a flexible time, so your client can contact or hire you in their free time.
You need to manage your time correctly so you can meet with your customers and shop for them even on short notice. Some privatepurchasers need to visit different stores to get the lowest price possible, so make sure you can get around the area easily on time. Make time for your clients, so they can rely on your services to get the job done.
Follow fashion craze and trends to see the styles that are popular at the moment – look through fashion logbooks and magazines to see the latest styles and trends that are popular among celebrities and fashion icons, Visit shops and stores as much as possible to see their new items that are coming in, and get familiarize yourself with the products.
Make sure you have knowledge about these items and how to pair them with other clothes or accessories. If you are planning to be a personal grocery or household shopper, you do not need to pay a lot of attention to what is the trend in the fashion world.
A big tip: If you want to be a private fashion purchaser, make sure that you look at the trends for all lifestyle and body types so that you can accommodate different types of clients.
Finding a job
Look for retail positions in shops or stores with personal shoppers – A lot of large department store chains have an in-house personal shopper at standby. Look for department stores or clothing shops in your area and see if they have a position available. For example, you are living in Chicago; you can do a local search like “Personal Shopper in Chicago” to make sure that you can cover all the possible openings in that area.
Even if the nearest department stores do not have that kind of position, you can still communicate with clients or customers and see if they want to avail your services. Other established clothing chains have a job available that lets you fulfill customer orders on the Internet.
Look for people who are willing to mentor or accepting internship for this job – search the Internet of any private assistant in your area and find out how they run their business. Communicate with them and find out if they are willing to mentor you or if they are offering internships.
Let them know that you are eager to pursue this job as a full-time career, and if they can help you in any way possible. If there are no private personal purchasers near you, find the nearest department store or clothing shop and ask if they have a personal shopper in their payroll.
Create social media account or a website to market your services – since a lot of people who have this kind of job run their own businesses; you need to market your services so potential clients can find you on the Internet a lot easier. Create a website or social media pages so people can just search you on the Internet and follow your services.
Post contents regularly so that people can see what you are doing and you are currently looking for potential clients. If you have extra money, make sure to hire a good web designer that can make your website, so that potential customers can quickly contact you if they want to hire you and learn more about your services.