If you have been thinking of hiring some help to purchase your favorite items, or you need someone who can tend to your errands and schedule, you surely need to know the differences between personal shoppers and personal assistants.

Although these two jobs can seem like something similar, there are certain differences that you need to understand before hiring a personal shopper or a personal assistant. Next, we will take a look at the differences between these two professionals.

1. Responsibilities
2. Schedule
3. Expertise and reach

Responsibilities

First of all, we need to discuss the responsibilities of each of these professionals, although they share a couple of responsibilities, most of them are very different and some also depend on the things you hire them to do.

When it comes to personal assistants, they are people trained to tend to many things at the same time; they are responsible for tracking and scheduling their clients' appointments, either personal or professional, and also taking care of some errands for them. Commonly, the personal assistants can take documents somewhere, look for certain things, schedule meetings, contact plumbers, electricians, or any other service that their client requires.

Personal assistants can also take some domestic roles and make purchases for their clients, from grocery shopping to gift buying. They can also organize a trip and plan children’s parties or any type of event. The personal assistants cover a great range of responsibilities, and they depend on the agreement that they make with their employer.

On the other hand, personal shoppers are people dedicated to visiting stores to purchase goods for their clients and shipping them to their location. The items that they purchase can vary depending on the client's needs, and also on the expertise of each personal shopper. However, the most requested personal shoppers are the ones who specialize in luxury buying, purchasing exclusive and limited edition items.

Schedule

The schedule is also different when comparing the personal assistant and personal shopper jobs, especially because one of them is hired for a long period, whilst the other is requested for some specific services that can or cannot be for the long run.

The personal assistants are usually hired for longer periods since they need to tend to many more responsibilities and they have to organize and schedule their clients' personal and working life. Personal assistants work more hours a week and they have constant communication with their employer to fulfill any need that they may have.

On the other hand, personal shoppers work only when requested for a service, and it depends if they work on their own or if they belong to an agency or concierge. However, the personal shoppers work for just a few hours to locate the product, purchase it, and ship it to its destination. They may be in contact with their former clients to perform any other service for them whenever they need it.

Expertise and reach

The amount of responsibilities that personal assistants have makes them very skillful people who can take up different tasks and finish them in a specific time frame, but they may not have as much reach as a personal shopper, who is someone with a specialization in certain types of shopping and that can locate and buy the items faster than a personal assistant.

The personal shoppers, especially those who dedicate themselves to luxury shopping, can have a lot of expertise looking for exclusive and limited edition items that would normally be difficult to obtain for a common client or anyone who approaches the front desk of a luxury store. That’s why the reach of these professionals can be broader than the one the personal assistants have, as they can buy items for their clients, but they may not be as effective in the luxury market.

So, now do you know the differences between personal shoppers and personal assistants?

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