// Harrods will offer personal shopping for some customers

// The luxury department store is working towards a lockdown exit strategy

Harrods is reportedly set to offer personal shopping for some of its “prized” customers as it draws up plans to begin reopening once lockdown measures are eased.

Employees at the luxury department store will take orders over the phone and by smartphone messaging, Mail on Sunday reported.

The service is described as “remote clienteling”, and is due to begin on May 18.

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Harrods said the service would be built upon the “one-on-one relationships that our retail colleagues have with customers”.

Meanwhile, a “very small number” of Harrods’ 5000 staff would be needed to undertake the personal shopping service to ensure social distancing measures are in place.

Harrods said the timings for the initiative would be “naturally dictated” by government guidance.

The business said it is taking the opportunity “to explore, to test and to learn how we as a business adapt to changing circumstances”.

It added that the next phase would likely see customers allowed to return to departments of the store where it was easier to practise social distancing.

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