Nordstrom’s Trunk Club Launches Service For Women

Trunk Club, a personal styling service owned by Nordstrom, is expanding its reach by offering fashion guidance to women.

The company started from the idea that many men don’t enjoy shopping for clothes. Through the Trunk Club service, men can work with a personal stylist to determine size, style and clothing preferences, then they receive a number of items that they can try on from home and return for free. Now, the company is launching Trunk Club for Women, which will offer the same features as the original service.

At the moment, Trunk Club for Women is going through a stage of early trials, which is preceding a larger launch that will take place during the fall. Women can sign up for the early trials through a form on the company’s website, though there is currently a waitlist to access the service. During this early stage, women can receive their trunk of clothes by mail or pick them up at clubhouses in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

The Trunk Club service can be accessed at any time, without having to wait for a monthly trunk to be delivered. There are no subscription fees or additional costs for the styling service — clients only pay for the items they don’t return within 10 days. All returns are free, and there is no minimum purchase required.

Another advantage of Trunk Club is that all clothes are handpicked according to the client’s tastes, which makes the online experience similar to a brick-and-mortar store, where they can ask a salesperson for advice. For this reason, customers are more likely to be satisfied with the clothing options they receive, and over time their stylists can gain a better understanding of their tastes and offer an even more personalized selection.

Clothing options at Trunk Club for Women will have similar price and quality to women’s items sold at Nordstrom, which acquired Trunk Club less than a year ago. Brands will include DVF, Equipment, Joie, rag & bone, Theory and Vince, among others.

“We’ve been lucky enough to lean on Nordstrom for inventory needs while we build our brand identity,” a Trunk Club spokesperson told TechCrunch. According to the source, Trunk Club has yet to finalize the inventory plans for the future, though “Nordstrom continues to be a vital partner in the process.”

Trunk Club has also been able to reduce expenses by accessing Nordstrom’s supply chains and infrastructure, as well as its contract with UPS. According to the article, Nordstrom could also encourage customers to use the Trunk Club service, to decrease new user acquisition costs. At the same time, because of customers who return items at the store, Trunk Club could help increase foot traffic at Nordstrom.

The company has yet to share its number of customers or sales revenue. However, when Nordstrom acquired it for a reported $350 million, Trunk Club was already profitable, though barely so, and it was expected to double its revenue to over $100 million in 2014.

Trunk Club was founded by Brian Spaly, who is also a cofounder of Bonobos.

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