Dive Brief:

• Nordstrom’s personal-stylist service for men, Trunk Club, is now opening its services to women.

• “Trunk Club for Women” is taking signups now and will launch widely in the fall, the company said.

• The service carries no fees or added markups, and employs live stylists to help customers choose clothing that fits their style as well as their size.

Dive Insight:

Bonobos co-founder Brian Spaly first conceived of Trunk Club as a way to help men shop. But Spaly may have over-estimated men’s hesitation to shop — Bonobos is finding that they do indeed want to shop in physical stores and has since expanded its physical presence.

Still, the service is handy for anyone that hates to shop in stores, or in general. But Nordstrom is moving beyond that negative — a hesitancy to shop — and operating more on a positive. That is, that it's helpful (maybe even fun) to have the advice of a personal stylist even if you do like to shop. The partnership is helpful to Nordstrom, as it could help increase foot traffic to its stores when customers go there to exchange or return purchases. 

Shoppers signed up for the Trunk service can order boxes of clothing and only pay for what they want to keep; shipping is free both ways, so shoppers can try things on at home. All of this helps smooth over the disadvantage that e-commerce has, from sometimes-complicated returns to the inability to try items on instantaneously, when it comes to apparel and footwear shopping.