Source: Saks Fifth Avenue
Will Saks Personal Stylists Be Welcomed at Luxury Resorts?
Saks Fifth Avenue is extending its Fifth Avenue Club personal shopping and styling service to luxury resorts across the U.S.
Saks’ lead partner in the program is Marriott International and its brands, including The Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis Hotels & Resorts, but other partners are involved as well. The initiative targets both travelers and local shoppers.
“Building on the success of our iconic in-store Fifth Avenue Club experience, this innovative new format allows us to expand Saks Fifth Avenue’s highly personalized service into new markets and deliver a one-of-a-kind shopping experience tailored to our clients’ unique lifestyles,” Larry Bruce, Saks’s president, said in a press release.
Saks’ Fifth Avenue Club service, typically reserved for VIP customers inside stores, will be brought to life in private suites at partner hotels. Before the appointment, which typically lasts one to two hours, clients consult with a stylist to explore styling preferences, wardrobe needs and sizing. Stylists then fill the suite with a variety of options for clients to select from.
Hotels will promote the offering on social media and guests will be sent emails highlighting the service pre-arrival.
Special events including trunk shows, brand partnerships, charity events, birthday parties and corporate events are planned.
Saks’ styling suites have opened at Alohilani Resort in Waikiki, Honolulu; the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel in Laguna Beach, CA, and Auberge Resorts in Napa Valley, CA, with ten overall planned this year.
Saks earlier this year formed a partnership that enables Saks’ associates to sell Inspirato luxury travel subscriptions to their clients.
John Antonini, Saks’ SVP and director of stores, told WWD that the hotel partnerships could lead to Saks shops opening at resorts and other collaborations.
“Travel and retail are so symbiotic,” he said. “Customers shop when they travel and they shop for travel. So, I would say the sky is the limit in terms of what the future of our partnerships with hotel brands looks like and what travel means for the future of Saks. Saks wants to be at the heart of our customers’ traveling.”
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Do you see more benefits or drawbacks to Saks’ Fifth Avenue Club personal shopping service in luxury hotels and resorts? Should sales from such appointments be the most important factor in measuring the program’s success?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
Liza Amlani
Principal and Founder, Retail Strategy Group
Ken Morris
Managing Partner Cambridge Retail Advisors
Definitely a benefit. It is an extension of the service and brand they offer for their customers. It is a great idea.
This is a brilliant move, and I totally agree with the symbiotic relationship between travel and shopping. These curated selections must match the local flavor as well as the client’s preferences. Saks has used brand advocates for in-store shopping, so I believe they know how to make this successful. Also, these sales are not necessarily the driver, but the lifetime value of the customers they serve is. As far as tech goes, they can probably set these rooms up like pop-up stores and have everything running in the cloud. Great concept all around.
I predict limited success, but success nonetheless.
This kind of offering could make the haul videos of ten years ago look tepid in comparison. Imagine the social media!
The connection between Saks’ and luxury travel planning that we discussed some time ago makes ultimate sense. This a great idea for the Saks’ profile.
This idea is fun. I don’t think it should be based on sales generated, but similar to planning luxury travel, it sends a message of what type of retailer Saks’ wants to project.
Maybe it is time for Saks’ to similarly have a high, high, high end spa offering.
Wonderful loyalty/customer acquisition play. Those that know Saks will be delighted to have a familiar option to address those inevitable “if I only had” needs that crop up on vacation while those who have not had exposure to Saks in a meaningful way can experience the adventure. The challenge will be a roadmap of impactful methods to continue client engagement post hotel/resort stay.
Hospitality and luxury retail go hand in hand and this is a great move by Saks.
The luxury customer expects exceptional experiences and customer service. The Saks strategy is smart and it meets the customer where and how they want to shop.
Personal shopping and styling is no longer only for the ultra-rich. Extending this personalized service will also encourage a new customer to shop with Saks. The retailer can learn what types of products resonate the best with the patrons of the resorts and leverage these insights to create and curate localized product assortments in physical stores. It’s a good strategy that will undoubtedly drive full
price sales.
There are clear advantages and benefits to having Sak’s Fifth Avenue Club personal shopping services in luxury hotels and resorts. This partnership will enable the Sak’s Fifth Avenue brand to reignite and connect with a whole new generation of luxury customers and essentially be the spark that may ignite their comeback story in a very competitive luxury market.
One of the main elements of the luxury travel and shopping experiences is the interactions with the brand ambassadors. These relationships are critical in helping to build long-term customer connections and a greater bond to the luxury brands. One of the most significant parts of luxury travel is the shopping experience and bringing home some new memories from your trip.
This is a clear win-win for Saks Fifth Avenue and its luxury travel partners.
Personalization & expertise embedded in a retailers channel strategy is smart, in particular in the luxury business aligned with a luxury resort chain. Ideally the outcome of the personal stylist program should be a relationship over time rather than a single transaction, even if large. In a perfect world a customer should be able to be routed to the same personal stylist for similar product expertise & recommendations independent of location over time.
When you are relaxing and enjoying yourself at a resort, I have found that the occasional shopping experience, can in fact, be fun. Resorts sometimes have tables set up after dinner, outside of course, that promote a more casual shopping experience. As long as there is no pressure, this can be a good idea, but a room full of items to choose from can be a little stressful. They have to strike the right balance for this to be effective.
This makes a ton of sense. Having this type of concierge styling service available for clienteling that are likely in “buying mode” (on vacation when wallets seem to be more open) should yield success. It will be interesting to track what that success looks like, but conceptually there is a natural fit.
This seems like a winning idea – yet we shouldn’t exaggerate how much value it returns to Saks. After all, it sounds like an incredibly expensive service to provide. My question: What evidence suggests it will make enough money for Saks given the effort required?
Maybe it is just like the money losing the objective to have a Flagship store on Fifth Avenue?
That’s certainly possible. But a flagship store communication value is well known. Not certain here. There IS a promotional value. My instinct is it’s not of the same magnitude. But it might be.
Perhaps, just to get us to talk about it.
I do note that the initial deployments are not in store-adjacent markets (Napa a bit of a hike to get to downtown SF), so I suppose they are arguing that cannibalization is minimized. If I were a local luxe boutique in these locations, however, I’d be fuming mad and having urgent meetings with my tourism board and chamber of commerce. The whole point of luxury destination travel is to experience unique settings and one-of-a-kind assortments from regional and Native designers. Those niche retail ecosystems need steady high-end traffic, and this has the potential to starve them.
It may or may not succeed, depending on the quality of the services offered; what’s really of interest, I believe, is whether/not the Saks brand gives it any particular advantage.
Saks’ decision to expand its personal shopping service to luxury resorts is an extremely smart business move. Today’s customers value convenience above all else, and what is more convenient than having destination-appropriate clothes and accessories brought directly to your hotel room?
While sales will be an important metric for the program, it would also be wise to measure customer loyalty and customer lifetime value, not only at the resorts, but across all other sales channels to see if this increased access helps retain customers or creates new ones.
I definitely see the benefit of this service in luxury hotels. Especially for international travelers. Pampering your guests and making them feel special is expected in these situations. Certainly the amount of appointments and purchases will be the best measure of success.