How Gab Waller is Winning Gold in the Fashion Sourcing Olympics

How this white-glove global fashion-sourcing service that found Sofia Richie Grainge her Chanel dad sandals and Hailey Bieber her shearling Prada bag keeps customers coming back for more.

Industry: Apparel & Fashion

CX Themes: Simplicity, Transparency, Attention to Detail, Feedback

TL;DR: If you’re willing to pay a premium to buy a luxury item that’s sold out everywhere, just ask Gab; your personal fairy godmother and go-to fashion detective. It’s easy, it’s quick, it’s exciting, and Gab’s team is phenomenal.

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If global fashion sourcing was in the Olympics, Gab Waller would take the gold. From “Old Celine” to “New Bottega” and every luxury item in between, Gab has an international reputation as the most stylish version of Nancy Drew ready to track down fashion’s most coveted items. Just slide in her DM’s with an image of what you’re looking for and what size you want, and she and her team will do the rest.

Of course, the service she’s offering is unique and challenging, but if we dig a layer deeper and observe the consistent client experience, there’s no wonder why the most fashionable women in Hollywood (and around the globe) keep coming back for more.

Gab’s Love Language: “Quick & Easy”

If you’re coming to Gab for something, it’s likely because you already looked and couldn’t find it. These clients have spent time digging and likely kept seeing “sold out”. At this point, they’re looking for the easy button, a.k.a. Gab Waller.

Gab Waller’s billboard in West Hollywood.

Gab is winning in this arena because her service is convenient. These customers have a CX journey map resembling that of a rollercoaster, from being on a high, excited about the item they want to buy, down to a low, disappointed that they can’t find it. Gab injects hope, a sigh of relief, and excitement back into the journey as soon as you slide in her Instagram DM’s. She’ll find it, and then you’ll get it pretty quickly.

Yuki, a fashion-lover based between Anguilla and Panamá, wrote about her experience with Gab Waller sourcing a Prada tux for her husband’s birthday and a separate sourcing interaction regarding a brass loupe. Not only was it easy for her, but there was a quick turnaround, especially considering the item was shipped from Dubai to Panamá. From the initial DM to Gab on December 17th to receiving the package on December 30th, the turnaround was quick, especially considering the time of year, and considering Gab doesn’t leverage Jeff Bezos & co.

Always-Improving Unboxing Experience

Embossed & handwritten love notes, customized stickers, branded tissue paper, and reused packaging? Talk about a noteworthy (ahem, Instagram-worthy) unboxing experience.

A Chanel or Celine delivery is already thrilling, but Gab knows how to raise the bar even higher. In addition to the luxury brand’s label display, Gab wraps it together with her branding.

From left to right: Embossed GW love notes and stickers in October 2022, @jordanrisa Instagram unboxing, 2024 stickers with GW brand slogans + emojis, illustrated by @see.aiche

The “Gab Waller” delivery wants to be shown off and screams, “Post me on social media”, which delivers a strong ROI for costs associated with the branded package. The delivery experience does the marketing for her and churns up new clients via viewers of the lucky client’s Instagram stories, TikTok videos, and unboxing content (2024’s digital word-of-mouth).

Prioritizing Feedback + Transparency

A large differentiator I see with Gab versus other personal shoppers is her and her team’s desire to learn from their clients out in the open. They genuinely want to hear feedback and learn how to do better, regularly leveraging Instagram’s question box feature.

And not only are they asking for feedback, but they’re actioning on it quickly. On February 12th, 2024, @gabwallerdotcom posted some question boxes asking about preferences surrounding currencies and payment methods for quoting and invoicing clients. In addition to payment-related feedback, there was also a question box that said “Our goal will always be to make your shopping experience as seamless as possible. Please provide any other feedback/suggestions on what you would like us to introduce, or change…”, allowing customers to submit generalized feedback as well. The team then shared how excited they were to review the replies, sending a clear message to those who provided insight into how appreciated and valued their thoughts were.

A quick seven days later, on February 19th, 2024, they posted again saying “You asked, we listened… by popular demand, we’ve now introduced Venmo as a payment option for all U.S.-based clients + we’ve added it to our terms that we accept Apple Pay on all orders.” Seven days, people! With an Instagram following of 138k, they reviewed the feedback, actioned on it, and updated their followers.

In addition to the quick improvements, her team never strays away from sharing the work-in-progress efforts. Gab’s team seamlessly balances transparency with excitement for what’s coming next by peeling back the curtain to get behind-the-scenes info on her work but always leaves clients wanting more and wondering what’s next up her Loewe sleeve.

How To Copy + Paste Into Your Own Business

• Map out your customer’s journey in detail to identify pain points and moments of joy. Get to know the emotions of your customers at every point before, during, and after they interact with your brand.

  • Where is there an opportunity for you to take a good moment to a great moment? Maybe you don’t have the resources to do something huge, but what is something small you could do to go above and beyond? After all, it’s the little things!

  • Where are there existing pain points throughout the customer’s interaction with your brand? Where are there pain points before and after interacting? How can you make these experiences a little less painful?

• Establish feedback loops for your customers, listen to them, and act on their feedback. It doesn’t have to be perfect; get scrappy with it.

  • UX researchers might cringe at the thought of getting feedback from an Instagram question box and determining business direction in that way (I understand why!), but not everyone has access to fantastic, yet pricey, research platforms and sometimes you gotta do what you can with what you’ve got. Leverage what you can; scrappy feedback is better than no feedback at all.

  • After you’ve gotten feedback, acknowledge your customers! Thank them! Tell them you appreciate them! They don’t want to feel like they put effort into sharing their thoughts with you and that it went into a virtual black hole.

  • Lastly, do something about what they said, even if it’s small; one bite of the elephant at a time. You’ve now got data in front of you to synthesize, uncover insights, and form a game plan with. If you can’t action on it relatively quickly, be transparent with your customers. While this can be challenging at larger companies, do your best to pull back the curtain for customers to make them feel valued and a part of something.