Hey Hungries!
The Facts
What Is Clientele?
A bi-annual invitation-only sale Aritzia has on regularly priced (new season) merchandise
How To Get Invited:
Invitations are sent out to qualifying Aritzia shoppers.
To Qualify, you will need to provide a phone number and/or email address to Aritzia with your purchases either through an Online Account or an in-store account.
There is no publicized minimum spend to get invited but usually a good rule of thumb is to aim for $1000-$1500 across a qualifying period (we all sort of assume it’s the previous 8-12 months).
It also seems to me that history with the company plays a role to some degree. Even in years, I feel like I’ve barely spent anything or only really bought a few pieces, I’ve still been invited.
Discounts:
Last year the discounts were as follows:
20% Off Babaton, Wilfred, TNA and 3rd Party Brands
10% Off Superpuff
Up to 50% Off Sale
Dates:
For November 2023, My Assumption is that Clientele will start on the 17th or the 18th in Canada.
I would think the US would start either the 15th or the 16th given they are usually granted access a few days before Canada.
**The US and Canada are effectively separate stores – we don’t share inventory, can’t source inventory or shop the US store in Canada and vice versa so it doesn’t matter if the US (even though I think it is incredibly stupid they get first access when WE the NORTH made Aritzia what it is today through our YEARS of supporting, shopping and talking about Aritzia to our American counterparts but I digress) gets first access to the sale as their consumerism will not impact our inventory.
Shop My Picks:
Tiers:
There is ALOT of speculation about tiers – I really am so unsure that 7(?) tiers exist, but I think there is more likely a list of VIPs and VVIPs. Where they just call the VVIPs first and then the VIPs are second.
Return Policy:
This changes every year however, here are some tips and tricks –
- If you live somewhere where trying on in person is not available and typically order 2 or more sizes of something and send back the other items – make sure to chat with or call the concierge and explain this is what you do because many many many items are either final sale or exchange only. In talking to concierge, they can flag your order/items and make them exempt from this final sale or exchange-only policy in some cases.
- Aritzia has been dealing with quality control issues in the last 2-3 years as they have been rapidly expanding their American and International Presence. My thoughts are that they were hit with a massive increase in demand during the Pandemic and rapidly scaled up their manufacturing to keep up with demand and sacrificed quality to do so. With this quality issue in mind, VERY quickly inspect your items and reach out immediately if there is damage ASAP. Document everything and do your best to file a damage claim with concierge.
- On the Returns, Damage, and other shipping issues. APPARENTLY, according to people on the interwebs (unverified anecdotes) Aritzia has been tacking on some charges for returns when people thought it would be free etc. PLEASE READ everything they are sending you, take screenshots of any chat messages AND POLITELY PUSH BACK if they have come back to you with charges that didn’t previously exist.
Staffing, In-Store Shopping and Customer Service
The first point here is to remember that MOST of the staff you are going to deal with from mid-November until after Boxing Day are SEASONAL HIRES. These are going to be new hires, who may receive some training but will not have the grace period to learn on the job that being hired during the rest of the year will give. If it is their first week, or first day working and they are thrown into sale season you can imagine how overwhelming that is.
Please be kind and remember that you are likely being “harassed” in-store because of the power dynamics at play with the Style Advisors. Aritzia historically has not run on commission sales – when I was working there we were given a wage and a sales target called “SPH” Sales Per Hour”. The higher the SPH the better the shifts you were assigned in the next week. The Highest SPH at my store was given PRIME Saturday and Sunday Shifts. So there is motivation to sell and upsell you, it’s not personal, many of these kids (we are talking 16 – 20-year-olds) are being thrown into a high-pressure sales environment, treated like commission sales reps, and given minimal to no training.
Finally, having worked in-store during the end-of-summer sale (not even a clientele) the inventory gets CRAZY. I can only imagine how bad it is during Clientele. So if the whites have foundation on them, or it takes a Style Advisor a while to find something for you please be kind to the Style Advisors! The store is packed full of clothes in the best of times and with so many people coming in to try on clothes and touch/feel things, they are almost always playing catch up trying to put everything back into its rightful place.
Just like with in-store staff, Aritzia JUST put out a massive initiative to hire Customer Service Reps for the holiday season. If you are dealing with someone who may not appear to know the ins and outs of Aritzia as well as you do, they might just be new and you can always politely ask to escalate up to a manager (who will know whats up), you can see if someone else can step in and assist, or you can politely leave the conversation and try to get ahold of a different CS Rep.
Glossary
Clientele – Aritzias Bi-Annual Sale
Style Advisor – “SA” for short The Sales Associate on the floor in-persons
Concierge – The Online/Over-the-Phone Customer Service Team
SPH – Sales Per Hour, the metric Aritzia uses to determine how well a SA is doing and what shifts they will be awarded.
xoxo S
Follow Me on Socials!Â
www.hungryandwelldressed.com @steph_mumford @hungryandwelldressed WeHeartIt Twitter Facebook TikTok YouTube
