*montreal shopping strip. photo: departures*

By Mario Toneguzzi

TrendSavvy, one of North America's fastest growing online fashion marketplaces, has opened a flagship store in central Montreal with potential plans in the future to expand into other markets.

The unique concept, in a 1,200-square-foot space, is designed to offer customers an enhanced, personalized shopping experience, said Jenn Feiden, the company’s CEO, adding that the physical store is by appointment only.

"Unlike most online retailers, TrendSavvy seeks to connect with our customers on a deeper, more personal level, curating assortment not only based on the latest trends, but also on the specific tastes and desires of our extremely loyal and growing client base. We set ourselves apart by offering an elevated and customized shopping experience," said Feiden.

TrendSavvy began in late October 2017. The reason for its inception began with Feiden’s background working alongside her husband for many years in the retail industry in such places as Beyond the Rack and Sears.

She said TrendSavvy was launched in an effort to fill a major void in the premium online marketplace. With over 15 years of E-tail experience Feiden and her husband noticed a major need for strong customer service and sought out to create a marketplace that bridged that gap.

She said TrendSavvy caters to women, men, and children featuring over 500 fashion brands. Products are anywhere from mid-tier to high-end designer brands. She describes TrendSavvy as being between a Winners and a Revolve. The focus currently is on women but as the retailer grows it will be bring in other product lines to service more demographics.

“We have grown this into quite a big platform. We have almost 30,000 customers in our database right now. We’ve become known not just as a destination for shopping but really a place where customers feel like a really personal experience. That’s really what we were striving to do because that really doesn’t exist online. There’s a lot of really amazing boutiques where they cater to customers in that way like Holt Renfrew but we didn’t feel that existed online,” said Feiden.

“So we wanted to recreate that personal experience in the online concept. So our customers have become like part of our family. They’re extremely loyal. We have an insane customer return rate of 70 per cent which the online norm is about 40. That’s kind of become our DNA, taking care of customers. We curate our collection based on our returning customers - what their needs are, not what our buyers are seeing as trends. It’s really what our customers are looking for. Our business model is really devoted to the customer.”

The decision to open a physical store was because of the retailer’s loyal client base and there was a demand for clients to be able to touch and feel the products TrendSavvy was selling. That store opened at the beginning of March.

The online business currently services all of North America and has plans on expanding worldwide in the next year to Europe and Australia perhaps.

“If the store is successful we have plans to expand in every major city where we have a large client base which would be Toronto, New York, Los Angeles. The sky’s the limit for that. What makes it really easy in terms of operations is having the by appointment only. It allows you to really curate based on what the needs are so you’re not sitting with a store that has dead stock basically,” said Feiden.

“The storefront is curated with our best sellers but basically what happens for clients who want to come shop here they have to directly message us and they’ll be put in contact with what we call a concierge. That person kind of acts as a stylist. The person will give them a wish list that they’d like to try on based on what they see on the website. The stylist will then put together their wish list and give them availability in terms of when they can come shop and the stylist will also not only pick out what the customer’s wish list is but couple it with products they think would pair well with what the customer chose. The way our online business is it’s a very intimate experience. They’ll be greeted with coffee and little bites and really feel at home. We wanted the customer to feel very loved.”

Mario Toneguzzi, based in Calgary has 37 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist and editor. He worked for 35 years at the Calgary Herald covering sports, crime, politics, health, city and breaking news, and business. For 12 years as a business writer, his main beats were commercial and residential real estate, retail, small business and general economic news. He nows works on his own as a freelance writer and consultant in communications and media relations/training. Email: mdtoneguzzi@gmail.com

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