Luxury fashion startup The Floorer gives personal stylists the tools to grow their businesses

The Floorer was launched earlier this year to transform the digital styling experience by empowering personal buyers and stylists to manage and scale their business in an increasingly competitive environment. Available on the web and iOS devices, The Floorer provides all the tools in one place to make sales, hold customized styling sessions, create mood boards, and text or voice chat with clients.

The company recently introduced a new styling tool called “Styling Session”, which allows stylists to create complete outfit looks using products from The Floor’s marketplace or by uploading photos or taking pictures of items in-store on their phones.

Additionally, The Floor on Thursday formally announced a $1.7 million pre-seed funding round, backed by Net-a-Porter co-founder and investor Carmen Busquets (who is also an advisor to The Floor) and Nigora Tokhtabayeva, a jewelry designer and founder of Tabayer.

Since beginning her career as a sales associate at Harrods in 2000 and later taking on a leadership role at Net-a-Porter’s personal shopping service, founder Lupe Puerta has witnessed a growing trend among luxury brands to embrace digital platforms to enhance the one-on-one styling experience.

Virtual consultations and online styling services are commonplace these days. For example, companies like Next Level Wardrobe, Thread and Wishy offer digital fashion services. Not to mention, the growing popularity of virtual try-on technology, AI-powered style assistants and subscription boxes (Stitch Fix, Wantable and Dailylook) have made it much easier to get a curated look.

However, digital solutions for individual stylists, especially freelancers, are relatively limited. “I wanted to create what my community needed in the form of an app [helping] “Personal buyers have the tools to be really agile and create beautiful content in one place and interact with customers instantly,” Puerta told TechCrunch. “Instead of creating PDFs, sending screenshots on WhatsApp, or sending emails, [The Floorr] Everything is centralised in one place and gives them access to their business and analytics, allowing them to be more entrepreneurial.”

Another tool available on the platform is the sales dashboard for stylists, which displays analytics such as total number of clicks, orders, items sold, and weekly/monthly earnings.

Stylists and their clients have access to a wide selection of luxury items thanks to partnerships with high-end retailers like Bergdorf Goodman, Browns, Chloé, Farfetch, Neiman Marcus, Net-a-Porter, Saks, and Essence. The company continues to expand its catalog, recently adding more affordable retailers like Aldo and Zara.

Notably, personal buyers earn an 80% commission from sales, while the floorer takes 20%. This is more than the amount personal buyers are estimated to earn in a typical retail setting, depending on who you ask (and what products are being sold). The average retail commission rate for apparel is around 15%. However, for luxury fashion, the rate is likely to be lower.

“In a traditional in-house brand/multi-brand retailer setting, personal buyers and client-facing staff earn a base salary that will vary depending on their seniority. They may also earn commission, which is likely to be between 0.5% and 2.5%, again depending on their seniority and the volume of sales they make each month,” Puerta said based on his experience.

The company has so far added 200 personal shoppers.

On the consumer-facing side, The Floorer helps clients with a passion for luxury fashion (and the financial resources to join) connect with a stylist to have their shopping needs met remotely, eliminating the need for in-person meetings. Clients must be personally invited by a stylist to use the client-focused app.

Flor’s customers include business professionals and Hollywood celebrities. According to the company, the average order value is $2,500. Puerta said the largest order this month was worth $130,000.

An Android version of the app is due to arrive by the end of 2024, and the company also plans to introduce video chat capabilities in the near future.