Styling services are a great way to streamline the online shopping process and make the most of your time. With services like Personal Shopper and Stitch Fix, you’re letting a professional stylist pick out clothes for you to try on at home. Both of them use a combination of algorithms and real people to put together a selection of clothes just for you. With Personal Shopper by Prime Wardrobe, you get to make the final selection of what’s sent to your house. Stitch Fix is more established as a styling service, and they pride themselves on choosing items for you.
These two services both have access to hundreds of clothing brands, but can they style you well? Personal Shopper was created in 2019, but even though the service is new, the styling is spot-on. Stitch Fix has been in the styling game since 2011, but it can take some time to get the most out of their stylists. For me, Personal Shopper’s pricing and personalized styling make it the better choice.
How Do They Work
Stitch Fix is one of the most popular styling services around,and they’re known for a large selection of clothing. Amazon’s Personal Shopper service is a new service that started in 2019, and stylists have access to the company’s famously large selection.
Personal Shopper by Prime Wardrobe
After you fill out the style survey, it’ll take about two days for your stylist to pick out 5 outfits for you. You’ll get a notification when your styling is ready, and you can view all the outfits and a note from the stylist. Out of the clothes in your selection, you can choose up to 8 items to try on at home.
Personal Shopper takes about a week to ship your items, and it might be a little slower than Amazon customers expect from the company. The company has to collect your items from various warehouses before sending them in one package, which explains the wait.
From here, you can expect the standard styling service experience. Each box comes with a return label for you to add to it, and it also has adhesive strips included. You have 7 days to try everything on. When you’re done, make sure to check out and pay for the things you keep before shipping the return.
An interesting feature of Personal Shopper lets you create multiple style profiles on a single account. If you share a Prime account with a partner, friend, or family member, you can take turns getting styled. The subscription is limited to one box per month, however, even with multiple profiles.
Stitch Fix
Stitch Fix bases its styling service around a survey quiz. It’s part of the signup process, but you can go back and edit it as your needs change.
After you fill out your quiz, it’ll take Stitch Fix about a week to finish styling you and send out your box. With Stitch Fix, you don’t get to preview your box until after it ships. Once it does ship, you can take a look at the order contents and what to expect when your Fix arrives.
You get 5 days to try the clothes and accessories on. Stitch Fix expects you to check out on or before the 5th day, to pay for whatever you plan to keep and leave comments on their selection.
Pros/Cons
Here are the best and worst features of both Personal Shopper and Stitch Fix.
Personal Shopper by Prime Wardrobe
Pros:
- Personal touch to styling
- Huge selection
- Mak the final selection of what goes in your box
When you get your stylist’s recommendations, they include style notes, and those notes are their chance to let you know that they’re real people. I felt like my stylist really took my preferences into account, for the most part.
Personal Shopper is an Amazon service, so you can expect them to have most well-known brands, and plenty of brands you haven’t heard of. Amazon has recently started their own clothing lines, so you can also try their new brands like Daily Ritual and Find.
Your stylist will pick out 5 outfits for you, but you ultimately decide what goes in your box. You can choose up to 8 items out of the clothes and accessories in your selection. While you choose, you can check out alternate colors and sizes, too.
Cons:
- Only available on mobile
- Shipping slower than typical Prime shipping
- Prices often fluctuate on Amazon
Personal Shopper is a mobile-only service, and the format makes it harder to compare prices and look at product reviews before you choose your items. I prefer to shop on my laptop, because I can browse and compare items more easily that way.
Personal Shopper is a Prime-exclusive service, so customers may go in expecting the typical speedy Prime shipping. This service is around the same speed as most other subscription services, though. It takes about a week from the shipping date for you to receive your order.
The prices on your stylist’s selections will stay the same, even though it takes a week or so for your order to arrive. In that amount of time, the price on the actual Amazon site might get higher or lower. When I tried this service, the prices on all the items changed at least a dollar or two. The price on Personal Shopper for one item was $30 dollars cheaper than the Amazon price. The price change worked out in my favor that time, but it won’t always. Make sure to compare prices before you buy anything from Personal Shopper.
Stitch Fix
Pros:
- Lots of brands available
- Cohesive boxes
- 25% discount off entire box
Stitch Fix is known for having over 1,000 brands in their clothing selection. This huge selection means you can count on them to introduce you to new brands and styles, and you might love some of those new discoveries.
Stitch Fix boxes tend to go together well as outfits. They often include at least one accessory in boxes, and it often adds up to a complete outfit. It’s nice to try on clothes as a set, when they go well together.
SF offers a 25% off discount if you decide to keep everything in your Fix. That can add up to savings of $100 or more, depending on how much your items cost.
Cons:
- Hit-or-miss styling
- Clothing quality varies
Stitch Fix isn’t always successful at styling. Most users report that they need a few months to start getting items that they’re really excited about. Not everyone wants to stick with a service that doesn’t impress them, and other services manage to get the styling right with the first box.
SF sometimes includes clothes of unimpressive quality, including cheap fabric or messy construction. Their clothes aren’t low-cost enough for most shoppers to accept low quality like that.
How Much Do They Cost
Neither of these are bargain options, but with Personal Shopper you might get more bang for your buck.
Personal Shopper by Prime Wardrobe
Personal Shopper costs $4.99 a month with Prime. If you don’t already have one, a Prime subscription costs $12.99 a month. For fans of Amazon who already have Prime accounts, the styling fee is a great deal.
The clothes available are pretty varied in price, depending on the brand and other factors. During your styling quiz, Personal Shopper will ask for your overall budget.
The prices on Amazon items tend to fluctuate a lot. The pricing on items in the Personal Shopper program doesn’t change, though. Before you buy anything from them, be sure to compare the price to prices elsewhere online.
Stitch Fix
Stitch Fix charges a styling fee of $20 per box, regardless of whether you buy anything. If you do buy something, that $20 is credited toward your purchase. Stitch Fix averages $55 per item, but accessories are often much lower. You can give SF a price range that fits within your budget, but prices start at around $25. They don’t seem to feature sales on their items, either.
What Style Of Clothes Do You Get?
Both of these are styling services, so the type of clothes you receive from them will depend on how you answer their style quizzes.
Personal Shopper by Prime Wardrobe
Personal Shopper has access to all of Amazon’s stock. That means there’s a huge selection available and even the quirkiest customer can find relevant clothes through this service. They have everything from feminine, flowy dresses to edgy workwear-inspired pieces. You can find brands that are popular with subscription boxes like Kut from the Kloth and Cupcakes and Cashmere.
They also have their own in-house brands, such as Daily Ritual. You’ll likely find pieces from one of Amazon’s clothing brands in your box, so keep an eye out.
However, Amazon carries a lot of brands that are cheap in both price and quality. You might want to watch out for prices that seem too good to be true.
They do carry plus sizes up to 24W, and they have women’s shoes from size 5 to size 12.
Stitch Fix
Stitch Fix carries plenty of well-known brands, including Lily Pulitzer and Liverpool Jeans Company. They have some of their own in-house brands, which tend to be trendy and casual.
They carry clothing for men, women, and children, and they have clothes from women up to size 24W, or 3XL.
However, they carry a lot of small brands that I’ve never heard of, too. If you’re curious about what’s out there among smaller brands, Stitch Fix is a good choice.
Final Thoughts
Stitch Fix seems to specialize in fun, trendy clothes that will really appeal to some shoppers. The service has been established for years, and their easy-to-navigate interface lets you really build a rapport with your stylist. Their prices are average, and are mostly what you’d expect to pay at a department store.
Personal Shopper is a fairly new service, and they might still be finding their feet as a service. However, I found their styling to be helpful and personalized. They also give customers some control over what they receive, and that’s a unique feature among styling services.
