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Personal Shopper | From the Desk of Jeff Mitchell

Do you have a personal shopper for your clothing? Online? Somebody does.

Online retailer Stitch Fix [1] employs almost 3,400 personal shoppers last year generating almost $1B in revenue.

No surprise, Stitch Fix filed its IPO [2] last week. (By the way, the “good stuff” is always in the Risk Factors [3].)

What is Stitch Fix?  It’s one of the try-before-you-buy e-commerce sites that lets you shop for it, wear it, then make a purchase – except they give you the experience of a personal shopper with some AI thrown in, I think.

The IPO news is remarkable because it proves that a start-up founded by a woman in her Massachusetts apartment in 2011 can take on Amazon, and win.

Perhaps it is the personal touch people like.

Stitch Fix has users complete a profile that contains all the usual stuff plus questions like “how do you commute to work?”

The company then hand picks 5 items for you, ships them to you – and you’re off on your adventure in shopping.

CNBC did a great profile piece [4] noting, “As Amazon [5] takes over a bigger chunk of online retail, e-commerce start-ups are searching for niche areas where they can provide a better, more targeted experience.”

How did Stitch Fix Founder, Katrina Lake, go from start-up to a valuation of $300m in three years to an IPO?  According to Tech Crunch [6], she did it with only $45.1m in venture investment.

Today, Ms. Lake owns 16.6% of her company. Soon we’ll find out what that stake is really worth.

In the meantime, what does “How you commute to work?” help your personal shopper pick out your clothes!


Think about this today…

“You can’t wait for customers to come to you. You have to figure out where they are, go there and drag them back to your store.”

– Paul Graham, Co-Founder of Y Combinator