According to Wikipedia, personal shopping is an occupation where people help others shop by giving advice and making suggestions to customers. They are often employed by department stores and boutiques and (although some work freelance or work exclusively online). Their focus is usually on clothes, although the number of non-clothing stores such as furniture retailers that offer personal shopping services is on the rise, and many freelance personal shoppers will help customers shop for whatever item they happen to be after.

A personal shopper will give the customer focused and individual attention, and will advise the customer of what is in fashion, help the customer decide what looks good on them, or assist in picking out an outfit for a particular occasion or even an entire wardrobe for a particular season. They will often conduct other services such as a color analysis, enabling the customer to better understand which colors suit them best, or which colors should be worn for which seasons.

A personal shopper is typically employed by the store itself, which means that payment for the service is not required (only the items bought). Other stores will charge a small fee to use their personal shoppers. Only large department stores, such as Bloomingdale's, Debenhams, Neiman Marcus, and Macy's generally offer personal shopper services.

Personal shoppers are also known as fashion stylists (or shop assistants, or sales assistants). There are also quite a few who work independent of any affiliation with any stores and can be found in large cities such as New York City, London, and Boston. Outside of agencies, personal shoppers can be found on auction websites such as eBay where they auction their services to obtain customized items such as men and women's clothing collections. Some hotels offer personal shopper services to guests as well.

This fashion term was written for Apparel Search by Regina Cooper July 2010.  We have you have enjoyed learning the meaning of a personal shopper.  Hopefully, this article has helped you in some way.

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