The Art Of Shopping

 

 

Do you love to shop? Do you love to shop and spend other people’s money doing it? A Personal Shopper may just be the job for you.

 

A personal shopper helps people select and buy clothing and other merchandise. The job can consist of buying a gift for their client to give to someone to giving advice for an image change they want to project. Other titles for this profession are fashion consultant and image consultant. A personal shopper might begin with an interview with the client. They ask about personal preferences, colors, likes and dislikes and styles and make of clothing. Other personal shoppers may do grocery shopping for the elderly. This can also involve running errands and even taking them to appointments. As you can see, this job has many faces to it.

 

What type of qualifications and skills do you need to become a personal shopper? Without saying, you have to have a professional appearance. You need to have an inviting and friendly attitude. A successful personal shopper is also self motivated, goal oriented and resourceful. Also having patience, tact, and dependability is extremely helpful to deal with the various clients and their needs. The difficult part of the job is dealing with fussy customers and making sure they feel as if they got their money’s worth of your time and attention. It’s important that you follow up, follow through and keep your commitments to each client.

 

 

You have to have written and verbal communication skills that excel. Sales skills, time management and organizational skills are very useful. You need to make each client feel as if they are your only client and you have all the time in the world for them. You will need to be proficient in basic computer skills and be able to complete paperwork in a timely manner.

 

What about the hours? Well, personal shoppers have very irregular hours. They work a lot of evenings and weekends because most clients have weekday jobs. Personal shoppers spend a lot of time in stores. By giving personalized attention, personal shoppers become trusted consultants for shoppers who want an enhanced buying experience. This takes time and knowledge on the part of the personal shopper who has to keep up with the trends.

 

What kind of education do you need? There really isn’t any particular training or education requirements needed for this field. However, the Association of Image Consultants International does offer certification through a continuing education program. If you have experience in the marketing, fashion design and communication fields it would be helpful. Experience is retailing, buying and having a strong sense of interpersonal skills and a good sense of style will help you get the job.

 

This is actually a very small field compared to other careers. The outlook for personal shopper looks good through the year 2014. More and more men are looking for the assistance of a personal shopper and this trend will only increase. A pay scale for a personal shopper can range anywhere from $30,000 a year to $57,500. If this is your type of job, the fun and the money are yours for the getting.

 

By Linda Lee Ruzicka

 

Linda Lee Ruzicka lives in the mountains of Western PA , happily married and with her 8 cats and three dogs. She has been published in Twilight Times, Dark Krypt, Fables, Writing Village, June Cotner anthology, The Grit, Reminisce , the book, Haunted Encounters: Friends and Family. She also does freelances work for Beyond and Hospitalityjobsite. You can read more of her blogs on Hospitalityjobsite blog.