Personal Shopper??

I'm just wondering what you think.....would their actually be a need for this in sl, or just a waste of time. I'm just trying to be creative here and find my own little piece of the sl pie. Any thoughts or ideas?

I have already been hired twice to shop for friends that hate to shop, or have problems putting together an outfit. I believe there is a market for your talent.

lol welllll......I didn't say I actually had talent! I just love to shop and I'm running out of my own L$ so I thought Hey! Lets spend someone elses!

meh you so do to have talent

I've learned from the best!! BTW.....meet my partner in crime.... We have seriously thought about this so I'd love to hear some more opinions....good or bad, come on, I can take it!

Put up an ad babe! The only way to know is to try it out!

There's no way to tell what the market is until you try it. Pay attention to how you market (use the product announcements board, for example, maybe a blog you can stick in your profile and sig lines) - you could even set up a small shop on rental property (not expensive, you can rent a kiosk for under $50L a week) with scripted notecard givers and online sensors that people can use to send you IMs.

Sometimes the weirdest things catch on. You can't know until you try, so go for it!

we would get to dress ppl up like barbie dolls with their own money!!!
oh this is fun, who is first?!?!?!
/rubs hands in glee

Well... is a pain to be a personal shopper in my opinion since things most things are no transfer.

Ohhhhhhhhh, you mean, like shopping WITH the actual person? I have dont some now that you mention.

That sounds like fun...

True, but there is always slexchange and slboutique for those. Often there are gift versions there. Havent tried slexchanges system on this but I know slboutique offers a system to send what you buy to someone else. That could workaround the problem with no transfers.

As everyone said.. give it a shot and have patience. It will be a niche business for sure so it just may take off. Give it time to though..


Good luck!

i've thought on that, i could probably speak with the vendors that we would probably frequent for various types of looks and see if they can do transfers... it will increase their revenue evantually, it'll be advertised they are the vendors...

Well, I could certainly use a personal interior shopper at times. Someone that buys furniture and decorations according to vague instructions, puts them in place and sets them for sale to me at a fixed (agreed upon) markup.

I stink at interiors, and my GF is too lazy to shop it for me.

I hate shopping and yes Tatiana i would use your service giggles...even as a find n tp me thing.....

rain

I do this a lot Moon, IM me in world. I love decorating and usually do it for people in world. As long as you give me a budget. You tell me the colors you like and I do it for you for a small price. Takes time to shop around for furniture and then decorate in the home. Very different from the personal shopper idea since that is more clothing.

I own along with my sl hubby 10 furnished apartments and I always get good complements on the way I decorate.

If you want and is looking for someone.

Yay!! V....did you hear that?!? We may get USED!

Heyyyyy! Don't steal my sunshine!! Naaaa there's plenty of shopping for all us addicts! lol

yippie!!! this will be so much fun, we gotta find out what kind of style they like

oh man, no one suggest secret shoppers secret shopper is a way to make a person who works retail wish for a early grave! so much for secret when they come in armed with a clipboard and mark down the store for every little petty thing, ranging from a dog collar hanging in the wrong section because a customer before placed it there to a small amount of dog kibble on the floor or a associates shirt half untucked because they had to reach up high on a ladder to get a kitty condo down and that is "unacceptable" *giggles* I always loved the drill sergant ones at my old job that had nothing better to do then hassle people that are already hassled enough!

they must be part of the sl forums.. rofl

This is a very interesting thread. Never thought of it. Do any of the vendors ever hire sales help? I'd be into that. Help people pick out clothes and furniture. Fun!

As long as you dont leave out some of the newer designers on ur trip. Some of them do have great designs whether its for everyday wear or gothic designs.

I have been doing it, but quietly lol but now that you made this post, I said it *giggles*

But you are a personal shopper thou...! I am an personal interior decorator lol

Hmmm, well here's my two cents...
I write for a few SL fashion places, though I'm no Celebrity (small or big c as both cases applies XD) People have come to me to help them find stuff, referred friends, even run into me arbitrarily and ended up sim-sprinting for sylfies or what have you. You have to really know what you're doing, because you'll get a lot of tough questions ("Biker boots but feminine, and not Shiny Things' Flower Biker Boots". It's not a job for someone who is just starting to explore SL and SL shops, because there's a lot you just haven't been exposed to, and a lot of older material to catch up on. People roll their eyes at me sometimes, I mean I only recently found Chip Midnight's store for heaven's sake. XD
Also, while their would be a market, I think it would be a little unethical to charge for this service, since generally if you IM fashion bloggers and ask for help, provided that they aren't busy, they give advice for free. I've shown people around stores catering to their styles quite a lot, and it's one of my favourite things to do. Dragging Natria Linden around like a ragdoll looking for the rather abstract items fitting in the "purple and black goth but not too....." category was the most fun I've had in ages.
A personal shopping business where you are given an allowance and sent out to buy things for someone is, no waffling around here, a bad idea. You have to be very careful of permissions on items incase something is no transfer. You can IM the creators and discuss paying them and them sending the item to your client, but there's bound to be a delay, and juggling that with multiple outfits could get really complicated really fast. Further more, quality and styles vary so greatly from shop to shop that the chances you would get in deep trouble if you pick out things a customer dislikes are 90%. Especially with things like skins that look different on everybody.
You may also have to help some clients adjust things, point out bald spots etc, one-on-one, to help them achieve the desired look.
I appreciate your idea and your goal, I really do, and you could probably still do it, but it's the kind of job where, unless you watch the SL fashion world like a hawk and really work hard at it, you won't really be doing your customers, the stores, or yourself justice. It's not just a matter of buying stuff then giving it to someone. You both need to make the time to go out and seriously look around, and you have a responsibility to know more than just the popular places, but also the designers and their styles of design, areas where smaller designers group together like Unlimited, areas where bigger designers cluster, like Chartreuse and Tableau, and you also need to be familiar and fast with tool like SLB, SLX, blogs, and the forum search. Having a few helpful people on friends-list speed dial helps too. I often randomly harass Willow when I hit a brick wall looking for something. XD
But again, honestly, I don't think this should be charged for. Tipping? Sure. XD I know a lot of people hate shopping but the fact is that people need to be at least THERE, so they know what they're getting before they pay, or you will inevitably get a few thumbs-down reviews, and may get stuck paying for a bad outfit out of your fees, if you did charge.

would like to point out we actually do a thread aobut the new and undiscovered designers each week.. we need to post our findings tomorrow, we're not done yet..