Hanna Andersson, a Swedish children’s apparel brand known for its colorful cotton pajamas, is reaping the rewards of its personal shopping service for busy parents.
The brand, which launched in 1983, took a hard pivot in 2020 when it decided to close its more than 50 stores and become an online-only retailer. But Hanna Andersson didn’t want to compromise on customer service in the process, CEO Aimée Lapic told Modern Retail. For years, families had come into stores asking for recommendations for back-to-school outfits, matching holiday pjs and Picture Day looks — so Hanna Andersson started a personal shopping service to cater to those requests.
In four years, the service has “grown tremendously,” according to Lapic. The number of clients using Hanna Andersson’s dedicated personal shopping line — which is free and open to anyone but is especially common among rewards members — has quadrupled since 2020. Clients can chat with, call, text and email the personal shoppers, many of whom worked as store managers at Hanna Andersson’s locations. All personal shoppers are full-time employees with Hanna Andersson.
“Some of our unique personal shoppers actually have sold more on their own individually than some of our brick-and-mortar stores did when we had those,” Lapic said. “It’s a growing piece of our business, and it’s 100% because our customers want it. It’s in service to them as individuals and unique families, as opposed to just mass customers, if you will.”
Hanna Andersson’s personal shopping service is one of three ways the brand has looked to refine its offerings for customers. In March 2023, the brand launched a peer-to-peer resale site called “Hanna-Me-Downs,” and in September 2023, it created a loyalty program to appeal to its most avid shoppers. The loyalty program now has 500,000 members, who tend to spend more and shop more often with the brand.
Most of the people who use Hanna Andersson’s personal shopping service are busy parents with babies and young children, said Lapic. They often look for outfits for milestones like “first pool party” and “first Christmas” or hope to find pants or shirts that match other items in their kids’ closets. Others want new clothes if their child has outgrown something.
One of the most common requests is for the brand’s matching family pajamas, which come in five styles, including pet. Five years ago, Hanna Andersson offered five patterns of the pjs, but this year, it has 50. New for 2024, Hanna Andersson is rolling out what it’s calling “mix-and-match” pajama styles as opposed to just “match.” Personal stylists got early access to the new collections in September so they could reach out to customers and put aside sizes before they sold out.
Many kids’ clothing brands offer product recommendations — most typically, through sidebars on their websites or at the bottom of emails — but Hanna Andersson is unusual in offering a personal shopping service. Some parents might already consider themselves their kids’ personal shoppers or want to grab clothes at retailers like Amazon and Walmart when doing other shopping. Hanna Andersson’s service, though, seems to cater to affluent customers wanting a more tailored shopping experience. Its clothes are typically $40 to $70, excluding sales or promotions.
Andrea K. Leigh, founder and CEO of Allume Group, told Modern Retail that Hanna Andersson’s personal shopping service makes sense for time-saving reasons alone. Leigh, whose family wears matching holiday pjs, said it took her three hours at Target last year to find the right sizes and patterns for everyone. “If you’re building a basket and then a size is out of stock, you have to start over,” she said. “Having someone help you with that experience is probably an enormous value add.”
Getting recommendations from employees could also be helpful given that young parents today grew up with “a lot of choice,” Leigh said. “They lived through the era of online marketplaces and the growth of Amazon,” she said. “And so when you think about their shopping experience, especially for apparel, it’s completely overwhelming.” A personal shopper could better curate that assortment for them, Leigh said.
Melissa Minkow, director of retail strategy at CI&T, initially was skeptical about a personal shopping service for kids, she told Modern Retail. “You’re like, ‘Wait, a kid doesn’t need that,’ but then you realize, ‘Oh, the parents actually might,’” she explained. “They’ll really appreciate it if there’s a sense of urgency or that need for specificity, and no one knows the product catalog like [employees] do.”
Minkow also mentioned that her friend relies on Stitch Fix shipments to build out her son’s closet. (Stitch Fix launched a kids’ clothing service in 2018.) “Ironically, I think there’s more of a need and more of a market for styling and personal shopping for parents on behalf of their kids than there is for people on behalf of themselves,” Minkow said.