After 10 years in the fashion industry, Ashlyn Greer started her own styling company to help customers feel their best. A few months into the Covid-19 pandemic, a friend of Greer’s was ready for a wardrobe makeover and became Fashivly’s first customer.
“People want to know what they can wear and put on to make them feel confident,” said Greer, who is now CEO of the Charlotte-based startup (which recently received an investment from GrepBeat sister company Primordial).
Fashivly invites clients to generate personalized style guides by filling out questionnaires with 17 data points pertaining to their lifestyle, budget, size range and clothing preferences. A customer will then be strategically paired with one of Fashivly’s stylists, who are contracted from all over the country.
Next, the stylist will find products for the client from anywhere on the internet, compile these products into Fashivly’s catalog, and create digital looks within the platform. Greer said clients can see all of their looks in one place and “seamlessly shop from there.”
Greer said she scaled the company to almost half a million dollars in revenue before ever writing a single line of code. The first deliverables came in the form of a Google Doc, where Greer took orders via Instagram DMs and accepted payment on Venmo to create a document of individual links and photos of the digital looks. In 2021, Fashivly launched its website and distributed hyperlinked PDFs to customers.
In April 2024, Fashivly launched its software, and has since grown its customer retention by 67%, Greer said.
Fashivly’s model and membership
Clients can pay for 2, 5, or 10 looks, for $19, $99 and $149, respectively. In the next few months, clients will have a membership option as well. With this membership, clients will receive one new “look” and three product recommendations per month. (Fashivly is launching a beta membership this week.)
Greer said that this membership allows Fashivly to be better aligned with traditional consumer behavior. Most people are not purchasing thousands of dollars worth of clothing at one time, but instead buy new products as they need them over time—making the membership’s steady but not overwhelming stream of recommendations a good fit. The steady reveal of new recommendations naturally accounts for changing seasons as well.
Fashivly is also well suited to help customers adapt to lifestyle changes and trend shifts. The startup’s core customers are millennial women, and Greer said many are experiencing big changes—including transitioning from pandemic-era remote work, or having children for the first time. Greer added that on the internet, Gen-Z influencers often dictate trends, telling millennials what’s “cool.” As a result, Greer said Fashivly’s customers are re-evaluating how they want to dress and present themselves.
“Hearing things from customers – like we helped them love their body again, just by giving it the space and time and energy to put some effort into getting dressed—it’s a really, really special thing,” Greer said. “I think we really believe in the power of an outfit being able to change your confidence.
”People today are also inundated with shopping recommendations constantly, whether that be marketing emails, social media ads or any other area of internet consumption. However, these advertisements are not personalized to an individual.
“There is a sea of stuff to choose from, and it’s very overwhelming,” Greer said.
QUICK BITS
Startup: Fashivly
Co-Founders: Ashlyn Greer (CEO), Taylor Coil, Mollye Rivera
Founded: 2021
Team size: 8 (plus 25 contractors)
Location: Charlotte, NC
Website: www.fashivly.com
Funding: raising seed
With Fashivly, customers get head-to-toe accessorized outfit suggestions tailored exactly to their body and their lifestyle. Unlike its competitors, Fashivly pulls products from everywhere on the internet, rather than a handful of retailers that they partner with, which also allows them to serve customers of any geographic region. Of Fashivly’s 4,000 customers, 18% are international (coming from Canada, Europe and Australia).
Moving forward, the Fashivly team plans to incorporate AI into their software. However, the startup’s personal touch will not be lost. Greer said that in a creative field such as fashion, AI has to be based in human expertise—and will augment that expertise, rather than replace it.