Personal Shopper Business

Offer to BE a Personal Shopper before you start a personal shopper business. If you know some shut-ins or very busy people, perhaps you could offer to be their personal shopper. If you just do it occasionally, you can consider it a kind deed. Especially if you are able to work it in when you go shopping for yourself.

[Looking for how to hire a personal shopper?]

This is becoming a fast growing line of business. Naturally, there are some considerations to work through if you want to make a serious profit at it.

Preparing for Your Personal Shopper Business

Do you know someone who needs this service on a regular basis? You might offer to shop for them a time or two, to test the waters. If it looks promising, take time to research your costs in time, and driving, etc., and in dealing with the people who need a personal shopper. Then you must work out your sliding and/or flat fees for your service.

You will also need to work out how the client will provide you with lists. Some fussy people might give you a few words on a slip of paper or by email, and then rant at you if you don't buy certain brands and sizes of those products. You can't read their minds, so be creative about simplifying this process, yet keeping it accurate enough to cover your responsibility well.

Running a Personal Shopper Business is a bit more complicated than dashing off to buy stuff for yourself!

What could you charge? PayScale.com is saying right now (Dec. 2010), that in New York, the going rate is $13.27 to 22.38, and in California it is $9 - 30/hour. In New Jersey they get $8.88 - $25/hour. That may be the ones who are hired to work as a personal shopper in a retail store. Those who freelance, and especially if they can act as good fashion consultants, and have a higher bracket clientele, charge anywhere from $30 - $100 per hour.

Part of your business plan would be to decide whether you are looking for a job in a company, or will freelance, and do your own promotion and marketing for clientele. And of course, what type of clientele you will specifically seek out for your personal shopper business? Are you going to cater to house-bound seniors? Career women who don't have time to shop for themselves? Or, the well-off, who can afford to hire for what they don't want to do themselves?

Ask yourself which clientele you can best relate to, and which ones you have best access to for setting up good relationships. You may need to start with a narrow field, and then expand as your personal shopper business grows.

Don't forget - If you are a really smart entrepreneur - you could do most of this shopping online, extending it to other categories as your client base grows. You might get to shop all day for a living! If you can use a shopping community like BigCrumbs.com you'll even get rebates trickling into your PayPal account. Nice fringe benefit!

The hardest part would be advertising for, and lining up clients that will call on you fairly regularly. But if you already have lots of well-off friends, or make new friends easily, it should not be so hard to build up a loyal clientele. So much depends on what kind of person you are and what you make this job to be.

The Shopping Online Advantage

If you are a savvy online shopper, (besides taking advantage of BigCrumbs.com as just mentioned) you might want to teach them to make up their list from the online stores to streamline your steps, and perhaps you'd even teach them how to order online - or do it for them, if they insist they can't learn.

Nor should you try to keep all those secrets to yourself. For every person you teach how to shop online, you will gain the respect and a strong relationship with someone who may then call on you in a crisis, or when she gets stuck. The more people see you as an expert in the field of shopping - the more your reputation will go before you and open opportunities for more work and income for your personal shopper business.

You Could Specialize

The best advantage probably, is that you can specialize. Again, it all depends on your tastes, skills, and type of clientele. You might want to focus on grocery shopping for busy families where the parents work. You might even want to narrow that down to a service for the handicapped, or house-bound seniors who still live alone. Of, if you have great fashion and decorator-sense, you might do best at shopping for designer wardrobes, home furnishings, and other gadgets for the wealthy men and women.

If you have connections in the corporate world, you might get some accounts to buy the gifts and cards that companies give to their important clients, or employees. Just a few such accounts might be all you need. Another option would be buying Christmas presents for those who hate to shop. (Mostly men would seek you out then, one would think - but don't disregard the women). A lot depends on how savvy you are for finding and choosing the right gifts. There is a different air in that world.

You might also create your own niche when you see a particular need that recurs in certain types of people, or you could offer your services in different packages, one geared to one niche, and another to a related one or totally opposite.

Startup Resources

Unless you specialize in online shopping only, you will need your own transportation - a car.

If you research online, you will find sites that say you can start this business without any financial backing. That assumes that your clients will provide their funds for your shopping assignment ahead of time. Most of them, however, will expect you to go shopping, bring back the items and if they are satisfied they will reimburse you and pay your fee - after the fact. This implies that you should have some basic shopping money in your account, or a credit card, that hopefully you can pay off on time if they pay you on time. I think I would want a cushion of $200-500 so I don't run into debt before I get paid, and if your first clients throw a tantrum and refuse to pay you, you could have a bigger crisis on your plate. That's just my debt-free, cautious opinion and advice; take it or leave it.

The next most important thing would be your website, introducing you as a personal shopper, giving your qualifications, and the reasons why you are the one people should contact, if they want a personal shopper. That needs some promotion too.

Naturally, you want people to be able to reach you, so you should have business cards, an answering machine, a cell phone, and a digital camera (or perhaps the one in the cell phone might do) to send photos of some choices to your client.

Here's a few other things you want to have ready in a professional manner before you start:

Prepare a bio/resume brochure, (basically a summary of your website) and a short oral speech to explain why YOU are the right personal shopper for this prospective client. Remember, you will have to sell yourself for this job, that's your "boss" or public relations role in your personal shopper business.

Prepare a list of questions to ask the prospective client - because you want to make sure they are the right match for your skills.

Prepare a client profile or information form that you can keep on file for the next time they call, so you don't have to quiz them all over again.

Prepare a contract template on your computer, but also a printed one, so that when you finalize an agreement with a new client, you can quickly produce a copy for them, and one for your own files. (Having it on the computer means you can edit it before printing if you make some consessions for this one client).

Prepare an invoice template on your computer, which you can fill out in a matter of minutes and print out for them when ready to present your bill.

Prepare also, an attractive card with blank lines, so that when a client raves about your services, you can ask them if they'd like to jot down their kind thoughts on the card. If you like what they say about your services, you may ask them if you could use that as a testimonial in your advertising.

Prepare a list of stores or vendors where you are likely to shop and go ask them ahead of time, if you may have arrangements whereby you can take items to your client for approval before the sale is finalized. It will save you and your client a lot of hassles with returning items that are not "just right." Some stores will cooperate, some will not.

Aids for Personal Shoppers

aislebyaisle.com - is an online site that you can use (trial year or buy) to create your shopping lists according to the aisles in the stores you frequent. You can make up a fresh shopping list from these lists, including notes you want to remember (or remind the shopper you are sending), and also the coupons you want to use. Print out the list and you will end up shopping much more frugally and sensibly.

Not only can individuals use this for their own shopping convenience, but you can use this site to set up an online shop of your own, whether for groceries or any other products. (Not on a very large scale though, I would think). Or, if you wish you can use it to aide your own Personal Shopper business, so that your clients can make up their lists and you do their shopping for them.

Or, if you have a simple delivery business, it could allow your clients to place their orders online, and all you do is pick them up and deliver them to their door. This could be an add-on to your Personal Shopper business, especially if it is taking a while to build up a clientele, or if you have a family member who can drive, and would like to be doing something profitable too.

If you are taking this personal shopper business route, I would be pleased to hear about your experiences and what you learn as you go along. In fact, if you would be so kind as to report them here, I'll share the best ones on this site, each one with a page of it's own!

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More & Deeper on Grocery Shopping

Grocery Shopping Online - Discoveries about Grocery Shopping Online in the UK, USA and Canada, including short reviews of the first flush of such sites found.

Grocery Shopping Online in Canada - with some basic information on the online grocery stores listed here to get you started.

Grocery Shopping Online in USA with descriptions and reviews of some national and regional grocery shopping sites that can deliver groceries to your door.

Grocery Shopping Online in UK - and the results of my search for such online grocery sites in that country. At first I thought they had a corner on this novel idea.

Need to send a Personal Shopper for your groceries? - Tips to either arrange for a personal shopper to do it for you, or for you to offer to be a personal shopper for others.

A Power Shopper, - and how to become one in several stages as you develop your online shopping skills.

Suggestions for setting up your own personal shopper business, - where you use your skills on behalf of those who do not have time or otherwise cannot shop for themselves.

Main index - Default entry point for this website about online shopping guides.