How SuitShop Uses Gorgias to Stitch Together The In-Store and Online Customer Experience

Challenge: SuitShop began as an exclusively online DTC brand but quickly expanded to eight retail locations, alongside its virtual store. As customers blended in-store visits with online follow-ups—often coordinating with entire bridal parties—SuitShop needed a CX platform that could unify conversations and help its team of 30+ deliver a seamless, personalized experience across channels.

Solution: SuitShop uses Gorgias to connect conversations across showrooms and online channels, giving every team member full visibility into each customer’s journey. Macros simplify personalized appointment follow-ups, while the AI Agent handles FAQs such as returns and tailoring based on location and order details, making event-ready assistance easy at every step.

About SuitShop

SuitShop specializes in high-quality, affordable suits and tuxedos for all genders,sizes, and occasions. Founded in 2015, the formal wear brand helps customers find the perfect attire for weddings, job interviews, proms, and everything in between. The perfect fit makes everyone feel confident and look their best, which is why SuitShop prides itself on a best-in-class inclusive fit range with multiple cuts, sizes, and lengths for every shopper.

Originally an online DTC-exclusive retailer, SuitShop saw an opportunity to open brick-and-mortar locations after customers began showing up to their first warehouse to try on suits before buying. After investing in a fulfillment centre in 2018, SuitShop converted its Chicago warehouse into its very first showroom. Fast forward to today, and they have eight retail locations across the U.S.

Every SuitShop employee—whether remote or in-store—is involved in the digital customer experience in some capacity. Both in-store representatives and the five-person remote customer care team engage with customers through personalized follow-up emails, incoming phone calls, and live chat messages. SuitShop needed a platform that gave the entire team visibility into customer data, conversation histories, and the ability to respond to incoming tickets.  

The challenge: Meeting the big day expectations online and in-store 

SuitShop has to balance the priorities and unique challenges of maintaining a great customer experience across both online and in-store touchpoints, since almost all customers interact with both. With a majority of shoppers coming to SuitShop for wedding attire, the stakes are higher than ever to get it right for the milestone day–and the pictures that last a lifetime.

“In some retail stores, customers will come in and ask questions about online product availability or return policies. If the sales associate wasn’t given the training or tools to answer those questions, they feel helpless, and the customer gets frustrated. This is what I wanted to avoid at SuitShop.”

—Katy Eriks, Director of Customer Experience at SuitShop

Each showroom holds a limited inventory in-store and ships orders directly to customers from their fulfillment centers, regardless of where the orders were purchased. Even shoppers who buy in-store interact with the online experience through checking delivery updates, submitting returns, or setting up a wedding group in SuitShop’s portal.  

When shoppers walk into a SuitShop showroom, they receive personalized fitting coordination, and when they leave, they receive tailored follow-up emails from the associate who helped them. SuitShop’s challenge was translating this one-to-one experience online in an intuitive, consistent, and scalable way. 

“Some customers who call assume they need to speak with the exact store they visited, and they come into the conversation frustrated, saying things like, ‘You’re not the person I talked to in-store.’ But when we can answer their questions instantly, they realize we’re just as capable of helping, no matter where they shopped.”

—Katy Eriks, Director of Customer Experience at SuitShop

The solution: Tailoring CX across every channel and stage of the customer journey

SuitShop uses Gorgias to bring its in-store expertise online, ensuring consistent, personalized support as customers move between showroom visits, follow-ups, and digital touchpoints.

Macros and tags make it easy to send appointment follow-ups 

Suit shopping is a personal process that deserves follow-up emails that have that same personal feel. But how do you do this at scale?

“Every time someone comes into our store, we email them a follow-up through Gorgias, especially if they didn't purchase in store. I consider that an abandoned cart—they came in and they didn't buy anything.”

—Katy Eriks, Director of Customer Experience at SuitShop

SuitShop leverages Gorgias features, such as Macros, tags, and ticket snoozing, to make this process more efficient. “We use Macros to make appointment follow-ups seamless,” Katy tells us. “There are both in-store and virtual fitting versions, and then those are broken down into whether the appointment was for a single customer or an engaged couple coming in inquiring about their wedding. Our post-appointment communications follow that same structure to be as relevant and helpful as possible.”

Immediately after a shopper visits a showroom, the representative sends the first follow-up email using the In-Store Appointment Follow-Up Macro. Leveraging Gorgias’s integration with Shopify, the rep can then personalize the email with all of the products and sizes the shopper tried on in-store: 

The agent can snooze the ticket for a set period, timed to the customer’s event date. “Because most customers shop with a specific event in mind, we know exactly when they’ll need the suit,” Katy explains. “That makes it easy to personalize follow-ups and schedule them in Gorgias to stay top of mind as the event approaches.”

For example, this ticket was snoozed for 10 days before the second follow-up was sent: 

Each subsequent follow-up is tagged with the appropriate “appointment” or “engaged consult” and location to easily track the conversation's topic. 

Building trust online with UGC and hundreds of 5-star Google reviews

Suit shopping can be stressful, especially when you aren’t trying things on before the big day. That’s why SuitShop leans on the power of reviews and real customer photos to build trust and help online shoppers feel confident in their purchase.

SuitShop uses Gorgias to capture more customer reviews. “We ask for Google reviews in all of our appointment follow-up Macros,” Katy explains. 

“After a customer’s wedding day, we reach out congratulating the couple and asking for a review and their wedding photos. We know how powerful those photos are in building brand legitimacy.”

—Katy Eriks, Director of Customer Experience at SuitShop

SuitShop prominently displays this user-generated content throughout the website, on social media, and at wedding expos:  

Wherever shoppers land, they’re greeted with photos of happy customers showing off their SuitShop attire on their big day. The smiles speak for themselves. 

Automating omnichannel shopping FAQs with AI Agent

Both customers who visit a showroom in-person and those who shop online often have questions throughout their post-purchase experience. In fact, 20% of all tickets are from showroom customers. 

Instead of having employees answer these repetitive tickets, SuitShop automated these FAQs with Gorgias’s AI Agent. 

If a customer buys a suit online and then needs to return or exchange it, for example, they’ll often reach out to ask if they can return it in-store. SuitShop created an AI-compatible Macro and Guidance instructing AI Agent exactly how to help the customer in situations like these. 

The Macro guides the user to book a fitting and sends a link to the Loop return and exchange portal: 

Within the return and exchange AI Guidance, SuitShop instructs AI Agent to pull the order’s shipping address from Shopify to see if there is a showroom near them where they can bring their order. 

“It’s so helpful to have AI Agent suggest in-store returns in eligible cities, because then we know we can help the customer get their perfect fit.”

—Katy Eriks, Director of Customer Experience at SuitShop

SuitShop’s pants come unhemmed, so once customers receive their order, some reach out to inquire about local tailoring options. AI Agent detects which city the customer is based in and recommends a short list of SuitShop-curated local tailors:  

AI Agent allows SuitShop to personalize every step of the customer journey at scale. Even after a purchase is made, customers can get instant responses that are on brand, helpful, and foster a sense of loyalty. 

Interested in using Gorgias to level up your DTC and retail operations? Let’s chat!