Paul Stuart Adopts Omnichannel Retail Strategy with Teamwork Commerce

Paul Stuart is an 84-year-old American brand that offers exclusive and custom-tailored clothing, sportswear, footwear and accessories for men and women. Founded in 1938 in New York City by Ralph Ostrove, who named the company after his son, Paul Stuart Ostrove, the company was created with the goal of dressing the American consumer in the very finest of men’s clothing.

In addition to the original Flagship store in New York City, Paul Stuart has stores in Chicago, Washington, DC, and Southampton.

Paulette Garafalo, the CEO of Paul Stuart, has been at Paul Stuart since 2016. At Paul Stuart, she’s advancing digital technology, new footwear and sportswear collections for men and women, as the company looks ahead to the future.

Paul Stuart is fully omnichannel since switching to Teamwork Commerce. In 2016 they began the journey by integrating their ecommerce business with the physical stores. Today, you can buy online and pick up in stores, as well as buy in stores and have it shift.

Before Teamwork, Paul Stuart faced challenges with inventory management, customer data information, and inventory optimization among the stores. There were many areas of the business that could not service the customer in the best way, since the company did not have the support from a proper system.

When Paul Stuart first implemented Teamwork, they faced challenges in their own infrastructure. “Training and development were a challenge, but Teamwork was right there for us and helped us understand the system and train our employees, which was critical to our success. We couldn’t have done it without their hands and attention,” mentioned Paulette Garafalo, Paul Stuart CEO.

Paul Stuart needed a customized system and Teamwork provided just that. Sales executives needed to be able to measure the customers, since each garment is a unique piece. Paul Stuart’s customers can pick their fabric, their sizing, and their measurements. Prior to that, Paul Stuart didn’t have a system that could support customized clients’ orders, send it to the factories and ensure that it comes in a timely manner.

According to Paulette Garafalo, one of the best attributes of Teamwork is that it is really easy to use. “Teamwork is the less complicated platform that we could provide to our employees to service the customer.” She also mentioned that with Teamwork Commerce, Paul Stuart empowers their sales associates to know more about the customer and personalize the experience. “Our sales executives now can look up the customer information, customer preferences, find the customer sizes, find merchandise for the customer, ring up the sale, and ship the goods.”

When COVID came, Paul Stuart faced the challenge of having employees returning to work. “Many of the employees were not comfortable yet being in a public space, and thanks to Teamwork we were able to work with a much more limited number of people. We could reduce our staff because our sales personnel could do all the functions”, mentioned Paulette Garafalo, CEO. Paul Stuart stores were able to shift, return, service, look up the inventory, and operate their business, still to this day with a much linear crew that they needed prior to the introduction of Teamwork.

Many other cases have come up where they needed Teamwork’s support, and the help has been personalized. “They responded to us, both with staffing as well as financially. When we hit COVID they were good partners to us, we were together to get through it. People and employees of Teamwork have a very more personal relationship with their clients and their partners than any other software company I’ve worked with.”, remarked Paulette Garafalo.

Paul Stuart CEO, Paulette Garafalo, mentioned that thanks to Teamwork Paul Stuart has changed the customer experience in all stores, both brick and mortar and ecommerce since they are fully connected.

“I would recommend Teamwork to anyone who is looking for a retail management solution. A wonderful partner and a success story.” Paulette Garafalo.