Shopping online is difficult
We’ve all been there. The internet is at our fingertips and it’s never been easier to look online for something you want, be it clothing, furniture, or even that antique Moroccan trinket box you chanced on in the winding labyrinth of a Marrakech souk. But yet, it’s never been harder.
How often have you tried to look for that perfect linen suit jacket for your upcoming vacation, only to be frustrated and demoralized by the search process? Or maybe you’re eyeing some brown suede Belgian loafers because warmer weather is around the corner, but can’t seem to get the right pair before summer actually gets here? I, for one, have been an unwilling victim of the plethora of choices available online. It once took me months to decide on a jacket while browsing through various reputable online luxury retailers because I was repeatedly affronted by 10,000+ options in every material, color, and size. The realization that I was only on page 1 of 170 quickly deflated any enthusiasm I had and induced a deep feeling of dread instead of fueling my desire to shop.
And what if I actually found something interesting? My athletic days are behind me and I am now shopping as a middle-aged man who has the physique of a high school baseball coach with love handles that can wax eloquent about one too many late-night Michelin Star dinners. My pants waist size doesn’t always match my suit jacket size and the unevenness of my feet have made me consider buying two pairs of shoes in adjacent sizes just so I could walk in them without one heel threatening to slip out. Even if I found something interesting online, would it fit me? Is it the right style for me?
Sure, I could walk into a store instead and try something on. But the demise of Barneys New York and the financial woes of Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman have left the brick and mortar retail landscape in disarray. Pile on the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic that forced many independent boutiques to shutter and the brazen increase of retail-related crime across various big cities, and we now have an in-store experience that no longer feels the same. Even luxury retail doesn’t feel luxurious anymore. Also, many top salespeople I once knew have relocated to other industries, bringing with them decades of well-hewn sartorial knowledge that will no longer be used to touch those who need it the most.
We founded Alex Crown during the COVID-19 pandemic, out of a necessity to solve some of life’s greatest challenges. Okay fine, they aren’t exactly the most pressing global concerns but we know that at some point, everyone who shops online faces these problems. Specifically, we are passionate about three main obstacles facing the online shopper and we consciously chose to start with menswear first, because that’s what we know the best.
The paradox of choice
American psychologist Barry Schwartz said it best in his short article The Tyranny of Choice – “having options allows people to select precisely what makes them happiest. But as, studies show, abundant choice often makes for misery”. He expands on this concept in his paper Doing Better but Feeling Worse that the explosion of choice and the desire to maximize every option actually creates more suffering for the individual. One way, Barry argues, for us to maintain sanity is to “choose when to choose”. Barry is so passionate about the subject that he also wrote a book called The Paradox of Choice, whose eponymous title warns you that choice is not always a good thing. It is precisely this paralysis of analysis that grips you when you hem and haw over which of the 10,000+ jackets you should try out for the first time.
Inconsistent customer service
If you’re indecisive like me and realize you need help with your order, your best bet is to either reach out to online customer service via the black hole of a generic email address or spend hours in chatroom purgatory getting frustrated while speaking to a robot. No, not all chat agents are actual robots but I’ve gotten the runaround so frequently and received canned answers so often that it certainly feels like so. On the few occasions I’ve called in and actually won the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) lottery by hitting “0” multiple times, I speak with someone who clearly isn’t in my timezone and who is answering my questions about an item by simply reading the exact same webpage I can read on my own. I’m willing to pay premium pricing for a luxury good, but not if I’m not getting premium service. Yes, it’s not all doom and gloom – I have at times received great customer service but it is rapidly becoming the exception, not the norm.
Hard to discover new brands
When was the last time you found a new brand you liked? We hear this all the time from customers – that they end up going back to the same brands again and again, season after season, and it’s boring. They aren’t able to break the cycle because the opportunity costs of switching are too high, and it takes too much energy, effort, and research to find a new brand that checks all the right boxes. Deep down, we all know that there are better brands out there waiting to be discovered – ones that are luxurious and well-made but are still sensibly priced…whatever that means to you.
A better way to shop that saves you time
What if we could somehow make the experience of buying something, delightful? What if we could transform the way you look, or feel about your personal style? What if we could inspire and uplift you? What if we could save you time?
We put our heads down at Alex Crown and devised a different experience where we invite you to take an easy 5 minute quiz first so we can learn about your style, your preferences, and your size. We’ve received really positive feedback from many customers who’ve taken the quiz and said that it was easy to navigate and fill out. This quiz feeds data into an algorithm – really a fancy word for a mathematical program with a set of rules that helps you through our shopping experience, by predicting what you’d like to see.
Think of our proprietary algorithm like your own personal butler and style consultant who then discreetly serves up your top 6 recommendations in any category. If you prefer to just see everything we have, you can do that too by just flipping a simple switch on the screen. These recommendations aren’t “flavor of the week” promotions that we’re trying to push to you – they are actually real suggestions for you based on your preferences! No two people actually get the same recommendations, unless you fill out the quiz in the exact same way.
If you find an item you like, we even take the guesswork out of sizing for you by suggesting the size we believe will fit you best. Bear in mind that sizing and pattern grading differs from brand to brand, which is the reason why a Large in one brand could be a Medium in another. We’ve put in a lot of effort behind the scenes to figure out the exact measurements of each brand we carry and learn how each item actually fits on various kinds of bodies, just so we can best predict your size. We aren’t perfect in all our predictions just yet but we’re confident that over time, we’ll ultimately solve this issue for most people.
White glove service fit for royalty
We are maniacal about customer satisfaction at Alex Crown. Heck, it’s actually our very first core value – “Focus on the Customer”. It doesn’t mean that the customer is always right, but it means that we always take the customer’s perspective when it comes to developing the ultimate experience and we prioritize that experience above all else. We realize we can’t always be perfect and we are still a young company, but we own up to our mistakes and we learn quickly from them.
As founders, we resonate heavily with Brian Chesky, co-founder of Airbnb, who was interviewed by Reid Hoffman (co-founder of LinkedIn) in a podcast of Reid’s Masters of Scale, where Brian shared his philosophy of designing an 11-star customer experience. The basic premise was that we need to understand what a 5-star experience is, then try to 1-up that continually by dreaming up a 6-star experience, 7-star experience, and so on. An 11-star experience might not be economically or logistically feasible for every single customer interaction, but we could find the sweet spot to create the right level of service that echoes our company values and brand promise.
In our early days, while it was not always financially profitable, we went to some crazy lengths to provide the ultimate experience. We had an American client who was attending Wimbledon and needed some fresh summer clothing urgently. We quickly concocted a series of detailed style collages with various outfits (click here for an example on our IG @alexcrownlive) for different scenarios of his trip – tournament viewing from the Royal Box on Center Court, elegant dinners at London’s most exclusive restaurants, and a casual trot down Bond street. We cranked to get all the clothing delivered in time and when he wanted to do some minor alterations while in the U.K., we recruited a local team to handle, pick up, and drop off his tailoring at his hotel. We even helped him source items that we don’t carry on Alex Crown, to round out his look. Beyond this specific example, we’ve perfectly predicted clothing fit for countless customers who were leery of online retailers, designed the epitome of bespoke watch straps for watch collectors who only want the very best for their luxury timepieces, and dialed in fit to within just millimeters for our most exacting and persnickety strap clients.
Our most favorite trait of our customer service? The simple fact that we are still small enough to be able to call, speak to, or meet every single one of our customers so we can get to know them on a personal level. For us, it’s always about the relationship, not the transaction.
A reason to be loyal
We like to say that we carry brands that you probably don’t know, but ought to know. We wish we could tell you who our brands manufacture for, because if we did, you’d be making a beeline for Alex Crown. Here’s a hint – our brands manufacture for some of the top luxury houses in the world, the kind that regularly dominate the top spots on the lists of most world’s popular luxury fashion brands. The kind that rhyme with kermes, chantel, and bucci, to name a few. So yes, we know luxury.
Our brands however, do not have the reputation or brand dominance of the larger maisons just yet. They are typically smaller, family-owned and operated houses that have been around for multiple generations (our oldest brand is 6 generations old), and specialize in a particular discipline such as suits, pocket squares, shoes, scarves, or watch straps. Because they sometimes do not have the reach of a top-tier luxury brand, their pricing is correspondingly more sensible, without sacrificing any degree of quality. We advocate quality, not quantity, because fast fashion is on its way out to make way for more sustainable, long-lasting, and high-quality clothing and accessories.
We have a penchant for craft, savoir faire, and benchmade craftsmanship that eludes many modern brands today. We pursue luxury in its truest form so that our customers can get a curated selection of the very best of what is out there. So trust us, try us out, and let us transform your wardrobe and elevate your personal style, while giving you the very best customer service you’ve been searching for.
We are the future of retail.
