How to Become a Personal Shopper of People’s Choice

How to Become a Personal Shopper

Are you passionate about shopping? Then becoming a personal shopper is the best career option for you. Personal Shopper’s job is to guide, advise, and shop services for customers who have no interest in shopping. Some clients are very bust that have no time to shop for themselves or their home.

Personal Shopper jobs don’t stop with assisting clients with clothing purchases alone. It can be anything and everything. You don’t need to have a license to work as a personal shopper. But you need to get a permit to work as an independent/freelance contractor in your state.

How to Become a Personal Shopper

Personal Shoppers shop for the clients considering their likes and dislikes. Clients hire secret shoppers to shop for clothes and accessories. At times, groceries and other necessary items are added to the cart. A personal shopper either accompanies the client and advise on their purchase. Or they pass on the image of products in smartphones to get approval from the client before purchasing.

Steps to Become a Personal Shopper

Now that you have decided to take up a career as a personal shopper, you need to focus on developing the necessary skills.

Step 1: Pick the area of shopping you want to specialize in. Some shoppers prefer shopping for household needs, groceries for clients. While others prefer shopping for clothes and accessories, quickly decide on what type of shopping you would like to keep as your primary service.

Step 2: Start building your customer service & marketing skills. As a personal shopper, you have to associate more often with the clients. This will help you by providing them with the best service. Pay attention to the client’s needs and have precise communication. Patience is an important virtue to possess.

Step 3: Learn to manage your client’s budget. Do so, by preparing a budget chart in MS Excel or Google Sheets. Make a note of your clients’ needs and the budget so that you can give them the best experience.

Step 4: Have flexible work hours so that your client’s job is done. Plan your day in such a way that you can accompany or shop for your client even on short notice.

Step 5: Keep yourself updated on fashion trends. Update yourself on the latest trending styles. Look through fashion magazines and keep a note on the prominent styles. Have a window shopping to know about the latest arrivals in apparel and have a knowledge of it.

Step 6: Prefer to take up communications or marketing degree after graduation. Personal shoppers need to interact with the clients and market themselves. Take up courses in financial management and interpersonal communication for enhancing your skills.

Step 7: Though it is not mandatory, holding a fashion degree is an added advantage if you choose to become a personal shopper on clothing.

Step 8: Get certified as a personal shopper with AICI (Association of Image Consultants International). AICI certifies personal shoppers in the fashion industry as well as image consultants in other industries. You need to appear & pass an online exam, and then submit your online portfolio along with client evaluations. If AICI accepts your collection, then you are certified.

Step 9: Set your market presence in social media. Create a webpage for your service as well. Brand yourself so that your potential customers can find you. Be active on social media regularly so that people know what you are doing.

Step 10: The final step is to set your fees. Prefer to get paid hourly, since some clients will want you to go to multiple stores and it would take a while.

Personal Shopper Job Descriptions

Personal shoppers provide customized assistance to customers in shopping. You should build a client base of loyal shoppers and promote long-lasting relationships with new clients. You should cater to the individual needs of the clients in shopping for clothes, accessories, groceries.

You need to advise the client on the best products keeping in mind the latest trend and the client’s budget. In case your client is not satisfied with the items they receive, as a personal shopper, you should help the customer with an exchange or replace the product for them.

Skill & Working Hours

A personal shopper should have the following skills.

  1. Passionate & creative for styling
  2. Excellent interpersonal communication skills.
  3. Patience in dealing with demanding customers
  4. Strong marketing skills.

Apart from the skills mentioned above, personal Shopper should have a flexible approach to their work. As stated earlier, the personal Shopper should have flexible work hours and must be willing to work on after work hours and weekends too.

Personal Shopper Salary

As a personal shopper(1), you can choose a starting rate for consultation around $25 to $30 and can get to know their expectations. You can then charge an additional $25 – $30 per hour that you spend shopping. On average, a personal shopper’s salary per year is $38,000, as stated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Once you are experienced, you can charge more for the services you offer.

Like any other freelance job, your success as a personal shopper depends on how well you can convince people to hire you. Start making the list of benefits your service offers. Find ways to reach your clients.