Online Personal shopping Service

[David Norman]

Hello everyone! After a lot of thought this weekend I am considering switching from the "subscription box model" to a different type of service. I am thinking about offering a men's personal shopping service similar to trunk club. But the difference is instead of me sending them items every month and they keep the ones they like. They would just pay a "flat styling fee" upfront and I would email them an online catalog of items that fit their style along with links and prices of those items and they can choose to purchase the items or not purchase them on their own. What do you guys think of this kind of service? More importantly what would you pay for this kind of service either for yourself or as a gift for the man in your life? I would run a model very similar to this one below.
www.therefinery.ca

[LesserBlackDog]

Why would I pay anyone to send me spam mail?

Also, if you are some kind of merchant or would-be merchant, please post only in the dealers and manufacturers section.

[armedferret]

I can already get that service for free by simply signing up for the mailing lists on companies that sell the things I'm interested in. I don't know that you'll find many people willing to pay you to do what they can do for free but hey, if you CAN, more power to you I suppose.

[hockeysc23]

Basically you're asking us to pay for the reason most of us come here, the deals and ways to see how those items work together. The service would have to be very very cheap for me to even remotely consider but I doubt there's any value in it for me.

[Rawfull]

Paying for what essentially boils down to a shopping list seems like a non starter. I'm also not a fan of the whole box service as a whole.

[LesserBlackDog]

The whole benefit of the box subscription service is that you are basically delegating any decision-making responsibility to someone else (while maintaining veto authority through the ability to return items).

People subscribe to these services because they don't have much faith in their own taste or they don't care enough to bother exercising their own judgment about things like clothing. They want someone else to do it for them... someone they presume to be better equipped to do so, or at the very least, someone who will put stuff in their hands that they might not ordinarily try on their own.

Removing the immediacy of the "I am holding a shirt in my hands that some stylish person decided would look good on me, I guess I'll keep it since it's ok and returning it is more trouble than it's worth" dynamic seems to undermine the whole business model.

[David Norman]

Thanks for replies guys I definitely appreciate the feedback! And I apologize I didn't know there was a sales section. I will say we have to keep in mind that we are not most men when it comes to shopping and this is not a service for "us" but more for that "buddy, friend, or co-worker" that hasn't bought a new suit or shirt in 10 years.

[armedferret]

Well if they know us, wouldn't they just come to us?

[LesserBlackDog]

I will say we have to keep in mind that we are not most men when it comes to shopping and this is not a service for "us" but more for that "buddy, friend, or co-worker" that hasn't bought a new suit or shirt in 10 years.

We have kept that in mind. It appears you have not.

Men who don't like to shop in the first place aren't going to want to sort through a catalog that you send them to decide what to buy.

As I already explained above, the whole appeal of "curated" box subscription services is that it allows the style-apathetic to delegate style decision-making to someone perceived to have superior taste. The choice boils down to "Here's a shirt chosen specially for you by a stylist, it's yours unless you actively take steps to return it" versus "Here's a catalog with ten different shirts, you have to choose which one(s) you think are stylish, and actively take steps to buy it if you do ultimately decide you want one." The latter experience is basically the same thing as the person walking into any retail clothing store or browsing any retail clothing website - activities that most men do not enjoy. Except you're asking them to pay you for the "privilege."

You are asking people who don't like style or shopping to pay you to spam their email accounts with "curated" style catalogs and make them do their own shopping.... What service do you think you are actually providing, exactly?

Honestly this strikes me as your plan to make money with as little work and investment as possible.

[David Norman]

You know Lessor Black Dog. I'm not sure if anyone has ever said this to you before but "YOU'RE A COLOSSAL DICK!" I came to this site for a little advice and some constructive criticism. If you didn't like the idea or wasn't a fan of it you could've politely said so, but instead you insult it, myself, and everyone in the industry that does offers a "specialized service". Just because it's not for "YOU" doesn't make it bad idea nor does it make the people that run it "lazy" people looking for a quick cash grab which is what you are insinuating. You know it is people like you that give internet forums a bad name!

[ddglazer1]

You know Lessor Black Dog. I'm not sure if anyone has ever said this to you before but "YOU'RE A COLOSSAL DICK!" I came to this site for a little advice and some constructive criticism. If you didn't like the idea or wasn't a fan of it you could've politely said so, but instead you insult it, myself, and everyone in the industry that does offers a "specialized service". Just because it's not for "YOU" doesn't make it bad idea nor does it make the people that run it "lazy" people looking for a quick cash grab which is what you are insinuating. You know it is people like you that give internet forums a bad name!

It is a bad idea and he was kind enough to take the time to say so and explain why. Sometimes brutal honesty is the kindest thing one can do for another and it's the kind of thing you can only get from strangers sometimes. Calling someone a colossal dick for offering free advice as opposed to the kind you're selling is the pot calling the kettle a colossal dick.


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[ddglazer1]

By the way, this is also something the kind folks at Dappered.com do exceedingly well for free with the added value of buying the stuff, trying it on, taking photos, and reviewing it plus all the other wonderful things Joe and company post about. (You're also trying to compete with him on his own site, which is not so cool.) Put This On also does this for eBay, which is a lot more work. Neither one of them clog my inbox with emails unless I want them to.

[Alex.C]

It is a bad idea and he was kind enough to take the time to say so and explain why. Sometimes brutal honesty is the kindest thing one can do for another and it's the kind of thing you can only get from strangers sometime. Calling someone a colossal dick for offering free advice as opposed to the kind your selling is the pot calling the kettle a colossal dick.


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This ^^^ ROFL

[LesserBlackDog]

You know Lessor Black Dog. I'm not sure if anyone has ever said this to you before but "YOU'RE A COLOSSAL DICK!" I came to this site for a little advice and some constructive criticism. If you didn't like the idea or wasn't a fan of it you could've politely said so, but instead you insult it, myself, and everyone in the industry that does offers a "specialized service". Just because it's not for "YOU" doesn't make it bad idea nor does it make the people that run it "lazy" people looking for a quick cash grab which is what you are insinuating. You know it is people like you that give internet forums a bad name!

Lol.

You asked for feedback. We gave it. You pooh-poohed our feedback by saying that your target audience is not us. The fact you jumped to deflect the honest feedback of strangers, rather than simply absorbing it, was probably the first major indicator that you don't have the stomach to objectively assess your own business plan. In response to your deflection, I reaffirmed my feedback based on the fact that your proposed product offers seemingly little or no value to your target audience.

If your post reflects the extent of your capacity to deal with constructive criticism, then the service industry is not for you, my friend.

[CJMichaelRay]

You know Lessor Black Dog. I'm not sure if anyone has ever said this to you before but "YOU'RE A COLOSSAL DICK!"

And with an attitude like that, your business ventures will never succeed, even outside of this miserable failure of an idea. You need to be more open to criticism.