5 Benefits of Providing Personal Shopping Assistant Online

'If you're a shopper, your personal shopping assistant can help you make smarter choices.

These assistants track products and prices for you, helping you find the right products at the right price. They can also act as a reminder to make that purchase you've been thinking about.

What is a Personal Shopping Assistant Online?

Personal shopping assistants online are simply individuals who help clients make perfect purchases but from a remote location. Moreover, personal shopping assistants can also execute shopping orders, deliveries, and returns of goods the client has already purchased. 

In the USA alone, there are around 33,568 personal shopping assistants, and more exist around the world. 

How does a personal shopping assistant work?

Over 96% of USA residents now rely on online stores to shop. But how can they ensure they get the right items and resources each time?

Typically, an online personal shopping assistant's job revolves around providing customers with essential shopping advice. First, they define the needs and style of a customer, and then they recommend products that fit within their style. However, since all this happens remotely, personal shopping assistants have to utilize online resources to do the job. Some of the most common resources that they use include:

• Email – where communication between the client and the personal shopping assistant occurs via email. However, this method is not very effective compared to other options.
• Live Chats – Using live chat apps, clients can seek shopping advice from personal shopping assistants online. The live chat option tends to be pretty effective because clients get direct feedback from their shopping assistants.
• Calls – To offer more direct advice and to be more specific, some personal shopping assistants tend to go with calls. A personal assistant can provide immediate guidance to clients through phone calls, helping build trust between them and the customer. 
• Live Videos - This one is probably the most recent and effective way to give customers a more real-life shopping experience. Many companies are investing millions in this technology when it comes to live video shopping.

Day to day tasks of a personal shopping assistant include:

• Getting to learn about the client's budget, likes, and dislikes
• Meeting clients who have scheduled appointment
• Selecting goods online that fulfil the client's needs
• Following online security policies on the collection, packing, and payment
• Utilizing computerized systems to handle customer records

Salary and skills

The average salary of a personal shopping assistant is around 35,551 USD per year which is 17.09 USD per hour and 683 USD per week. Therefore, the job pays well, without a doubt.

However, for one to become a personal shopping assistant, they have to bear the following knowledge and skills:

• Exceptional verbal communication skills
• Ability to utilize their initiative
• They must be understanding and sensitive
• Must bear the ability to sell services and products effectively
• They must be thorough
• Must have an eye for detail
• They should be patient, and they should also have the ability to maintain their calm even in stressful situations.
• They must have excellent customer service skills.
  
  

Moreover, after a survey, specialists found that out of the total number of personal shopping assistants in the market today, 76.1% are women, and the remaining 23.9% are men. Therefore, women tend to have the upper hand in this market.

How is a Virtual Shopping assistant different from a personal shopping assistant online?

A virtual shopping assistant is an online tool that helps clients find the goods they are looking for. Moreover, they have been around ever since the 4^th of October 2011. These tools function by providing answers to questions posed by clients regarding online products and how to navigate online stores.

Some virtual shopping assistants even function in such a way that they can place orders on behalf of the client. In doing so, they reduce the hassle of clients navigating multiple pages to find a product and then other pages trying to pay for that product. 

Virtual shopping assistants exist in many forms. They include:

• Browser plugins
• Conversation AI
• Mobile Apps
• Popups
• Widget
• Chatbots
• Shoppable videos

Out of all these, people across the world utilise chatbots in most cases. 68% of people who utilise them like them because they respond quickly to questions. However, 60% of people worldwide prefer to talk to a human being over any virtual assistant.

The majority of virtual shopping assistants are usually text-based. However, some of them also utilise voice technology. Others, such as Shoppable videos, use high technology to boost customer business interactions via mere video.

On the other hand, a personal shopping assistant online is an actual human who provides shopping advice to clients. They utilise online communication tools to give customers suggestions and advice on what they should purchase. 

Why should you use a personal shopping assistant online?

A personal shopping assistant online is an incredible resource to utilise if you want to look great, get amazing discounts or be fashionable. Here are a couple of reasons why you should significantly consider getting a personal shopping assistant:

1. Styling capabilities – personal shopping assistants have a great experience with styling. They can quickly generate multiple styles using clothes from various brands and select the one that fits your style perfectly.
2. Wardrobe services – If you like to organise your wardrobe, then a personal shopping assistant can help you out. They offer online closet organisations where that help you efficiently manage your wardrobe. They also provide style challenges and so much more.
3. Fashion trends – personal shopping assistants online are always up to date regarding what is trending in the fashion world. Therefore, they can help you pick the clothes that are in fashion at the time, which will ultimately help you look more stylish.
4. Saving time – On average, individuals spend around 5 minutes on a single retail website, which does not guarantee that you will find your ideal product. Therefore, if you do not like scrolling multiple sites trying to search for a product, you should probably look for a personal shopping assistant online. They can scout the sites for you and even locate the perfect item that you are looking for; thus saving you a lot of time. Moreover, they scout shoppable videos and live shopping to help you gain the best products in the shortest time possible. 
5. Discounts – Lastly, most personal shopping assistants have been in this business for a while now. Therefore, they can quickly help you source impressive deals on accessories and clothes. 

How can personal shopping services online drive e-commerce businesses?

Personal shopping services online are, without a doubt, beneficial to customers. But are they beneficial to the e-commerce industry? And can they drive e-commerce businesses to success in the long run?

Personalization to help boost the connection between clients and a business 

With the growth of multiple e-commerce brands, competition became an issue.

Hence various companies have begun to look for ways to gain the upper hand in the industry. Some of the tricks they use are online virtual assistants.

However, these are not as effective as personal shopping assistants online. That is because personal shopping assistant services provide a way for experts to connect with clients, understand their needs, and offer their advice helping businesses create a unique online shopping experience.

Boosting basket size

By utilizing a professional online personal shopping assistant, businesses can manipulate clients into buying more stuff that fits perfectly with the first item.

For example, if they purchase a pair of shoes, a personal shopping assistant online can show them some pants or a jacket that goes with them. As a result, the client might buy more stuff hence more profit for the company.

Deeper client data

Personal shopping assistants, online interact a lot with clients. Therefore they get to know what they like and dislike. Moreover, they get to know the shopping habits of the client.

Using this and other details gained by the personal shopping assistant online, businesses can make alterations to their operations to attract more customers and retain existing ones.

Moreover, stats show that businesses can increase their profits by 25 to 95% by retaining customers. Therefore this is a trick that most businesses tend to use.

Better utilization of employees' time

In e-commerce, businesses mostly struggle with finding the right way to utilize employee time efficiently. However, by using virtual assistants online, companies can learn when clients want to do their shopping and then schedule employees to be in at that time. Doing so will help them save a lot of money since employees will not just be sitting around all day without a task to execute. Moreover, businesses can use this data to learn when to schedule sales events such as live selling or live shopping.

5 Benefits of Personal Shopping Assistant Online

Shopping Assistants are, without a doubt, a force to reckon with in the e-commerce industry. Some benefits of Personal Shopping Assistants online include:

Personalized recommendations

Most clients who shop online get stranded when it comes to general recommendations because most of them do not fit their taste.

However, using a Personal Shopping Assistant online lets you get personalized recommendations that suit your style and taste.

You, therefore, do not have to scroll through multiple apps to try and find that jacket that fits your new pants. Instead, your Shopping Assistant online can do that for you. 

Moreover, on the business side, personalization tends to deliver around a 1% to 2% increase in product sales.

Price predictions

If you are a great fan of saving money, this is a benefit you want to take advantage of. 

Most Personal Shopping assistants online have been in the industry for a while now. Moreover, they utilize AI equipment to get their job done.

However, they can also use this equipment and AI technology to predict price fluctuations. They can then tell you the appropriate shopping time to get the right prices

By doing so, they can help you snatch the best prices, which ultimately saves you a lot of money. It is necessary to remember that price predictions help large companies save around 1.5 million USD per 1% of forecast accuracy. Therefore, using a personal shopping assistant, you can also reap these benefits.

Safety Alerts

As much as people sometimes hate to admit it, not all products are safe. Specialists found that out of 248 varying toys, 92% tend to contain harmful content.

However, unlike other people, Personal Shopping Assistants online have this factor in mind. Therefore, your Personal Shopping Assistant online will alert you whenever you try to buy a harmful product.

Moreover, whether you are shopping online or making your purchases in a live shopping event, your Personal Shopping Assistant Online will never refer you to buy harmful products.

Time-Saving

Going through multiple stores and browser pages to find the right product can be tedious and take a lot of time. However, using a Personal Shopping Assistant online can save you time. That is because these individuals have great shopping experiences, and hence they can track down your preferred product pretty fast, saving you the struggle of digging deep into multiple sites. 

Order Status and Returns

Your Personal Shopping Assistant online can track your order from when you purchase and when the order is delivered. Doing so will help you focus on other important stuff and only think about the product when it reaches your doorstep. Moreover, if the product is damaged or not the one you requested, you can always use your Personal Shopping Assistant online to return the product for a refund.

5 Examples of Companies using Personal Shopping Assistants Online

Most companies are utilising Personal Shopping Assistant online to boost their sales and build better client-businesses relationships. Some of these companies include:

• Amazon
• Kmart 
• Etsy
• eBay
• Walmart

These businesses utilise experienced Personal Shopping Assistants online, and the outcome has been a phenomenon. 

Key Takeaways

Personal Shopping Assistants are good resources to have in your corner if you want to make excellent purchases. Using them, you can make the perfect purchases and also save money while doing so. 

Moreover, most companies utilise them, so if you have an e-commerce business, you should hire personal shopping assistants online. Their benefits will, without a doubt, out-weight their salary.

Conclusion 

After the pandemic, most people turned to online resources to do their shopping.

Statistics show that 63% of all shopping occasions occur online. However, in the same way, more shopping sites popped out, and even retailers began selling their products in live selling and live shopping.

All these have brought confusion to so many clients looking for products online. However, by using a personal shopping assistant online, customers can breathe fresh air as experts choose the best sites to shop at for them to gain the best product.

Moreover, they can also help clients achieve the best prices and quality products; every purchase a client makes via a personal shopping assistant is always a win. 

If you're shopping online, you can download apps that serve as your virtual shopping assistant and let them remind you when it's time to go shopping. If you found this article, make sure to read our Live shopping blog to get more insights on how personal shopping assistants can be used in Live shopping.