How Sourcewhere Is Seeking To Disrupt Personal Shopping Services
Personal shoppers extend great value to customers by offering them personalized experiences while also helping them get their hands on hard-to-find pieces. But for personal shoppers to thrive, it is important for them to have enough volume as their margins can be fairly slim.
That is a challenge a new breed of personal shopping startups are seeking to solve by leveraging technology that helps personal shoppers find new clientele and scale their businesses for the long term.
The latest startup that is jumping into the pool is Sourcewhere, which is aiming to help customers in Europe and the U.K. find luxury fashion items of their liking without having to pay a fee. The company has been founded by former Net-a-Porter and Mytheresa PR executive, Erica Wright, who is looking to go up against luxury retailers such as Net-a-Porter, Neiman Marcus, Farfetch, Mytheresa, Saks and Mytheresa that already have in-house teams of personal shoppers that cater to high-spending clients.
When a personal shopper within Sourcewhere’s network finds the desired product, a user receives a “match.” If the shopper agrees with the match, the personal shopper is required to ship the product through an approved courier, which allows the customer to track the product using the app. Finally, once the product exchanges hands, Sourcewhere takes a commission from the seller on the total order.
Sourcewhere has been designed to help customers get access to vintage finds as well as in-season items. It also allows customers to shop and instantly purchase rare, in-demand items that have been sourced by sellers within its network through the “available now” section in the app.
Gab Waller, personal shopper to celebrities such as Hailey Bieber and Rosie Huntington Whiteley, is joining Sourcewhere as a founding advisor and lead curator, who will oversee a team of 15 established personal shoppers.
The iOS app is available in early-access mode, with a waitlisted approach to onboarding users.
