Mac & Mia – Personal Shopping For Kids

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about Mac & Mia, a company providing a personal shopper for children’s clothes. First, let’s picture the scenario: You’re working, professional parents who adore your little ones. At the same time, your time is stretched to the point where every moment of your day is spent taking care of the things in your life that truly are most important each day.

Other companies that sell lovely and high quality children’s clothes online include:

PopReal: Register HERE and Get 30% OFF for Your First Order at Popreal!

Primary.com – Started by the moms who created Diapers.com! Get 20% off your first order at Primary.com with code AFF20PCT! CLICK HERE NOW to Shop!

Kidorable.com – Famous for their wonderful children’s rainwear and more! Shop Kidorable.com HERE.

Back to the Mac & Mia Interview from 2016: One of the things that you don’t have as much time for is shopping to dress your children the way you always said you would. You barely have time to get the groceries; how can you justify spending precious time shopping for the adorable and high quality clothes that you picture your babies wearing? And even if you decide you’re just going to scour the web to choose and buy children’s clothes online, even that takes a lot of time!

And let’s face it, what is really more important: heading to the mall to shop after work, or playing, cuddling, and being there to kiss that boo-boo when baby has taken a tumble?

Exactly.

Of course, you still want to give your children the best that you can in every area of life. You still want to dress them in high quality clothes that you feel good about (and that don’t drip from sweat shop labor). But how? Where? And more importantly, when can you fit this in?

Enter Mac & Mia

The happy solution to your situation is Mac & Mia, an online, yet highly personalized service that caters especially to people just like you. Once you enter your name and email into their system at the website, you are invited to complete a profile which includes answering questions about your preferences about styles.

You are connected with a personal stylist who takes on the shopping duties for you. Then, you are sent a box of carefully selected clothes and accessories, hand chosen for your child. Keep (and pay for) only what you like, and send back those items you don’t wish to keep. The company provides the shipping each way, so this is completely win-win!

Marie Tillman of Mac and Mia

Marie Tillman, founder of Mac and Mia

We were quite intrigued by this model, which we had never seen before when it comes to buying children’s clothing online, so we reached out to Marie Tillman, Founder and CEO of Mac & Mia to see if she would answer some questions about this unique company* NOTE: See disclaimer updated in July 2018 above & below this article. Please note that we consider this a general overview of our original impressions from a couple of years ago.

And to our delight, she responded! Here is our exclusive Question & Answer session with Marie, who explains everything you need to know about Mac & Mia!

My Favorite Deals (MFD): A warm welcome to Marie Tillman! Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to speak with us. First of all, I know I’m not the only person who much be wondering. Who are “Mac and Mia?”
Marie: Thanks for having me! After the birth of my son Mac I was inspired to create a personalized clothing service for busy parents. So I decided to name the company after him and the name we had chosen if was a girl “Mia”

MFD: What is the primary thing you want to accomplish with Mac & Mia? For what “problem” is MacAndMia.com the “solution?”
Marie: Mac & Mia delivers quality unique clothing personalized to a customer’s wants and needs. We take the chore out of shopping for children’s clothes and give busy parents a little more time back in their day.

MFD: I like your choice of the term “chore,” because that’s what shopping is to me, and one of the huge reasons I work on line. What prepared you for this type of business, Marie?
Marie: It was my personal experience as a working mom of five kids that drove me to create Mac & Mia.

MFD: I can imagine that having 5 children to tend to would certainly get the wheels turning. Tell me about the “ah ha!” moment you had when you just KNEW you had to create Mac & Mia. What was the driving force behind this?
Marie: When I returned to work after our 4th child was born I started to look for ways to simplify my life. I tried a couple of the subscription services and found the quality and experience to be not quite what I needed. I knew there were other parents just like me looking for a better way to shop for their kids.

MFD: Wow! And obviously you were right! And, by the way, you have a lovely family (Readers, Marie shared a picture of her family that we’re sharing in this article). Now, you mention you’re not really a “subscription” service. What makes you different?
Marie: Our service is on-demand, meaning no monthly cost if a customer doesn’t use our service every month. We want to provide value and convenience when parents need new clothes for their kids.

MFD: Since launching the service, who do you think has benefited the most from what you offer? Tell me a little more about your customers.
Marie: We know that expecting moms and busy parents of kids up to size 6T enjoy our service on a repeat basis. Also, most of our customers order on a seasonal basis. Mac & Mia is a great way to add those everyday special pieces we all crave to your child’s wardrobe.

MFD: So, walk me through this, Marie. How easy is it, really, to get started?
Marie: Extremely easy. Users can register their child for styling services within a few minutes. We ask about favorite colors and sizes (if a child runs larger or smaller than their age). Once a user enters their billing and shipping information their first shipped box is just a few days from being delivered.

MFD: Let’s say I’ve registered with the service. When should I expect to hear from someone?
Marie: Our stylists get in touch with new customers immediately following their registration. Our goal is to ship them a box of clothing for their child quickly.

MFD: I know that you’re based in Chicago – is this strictly an on-line service, or do you have a storefront?
Marie: Sign-up occurs online only, and we service all US states. We do not ship internationally at this time. You can also gift a Mac & Mia box online for an expecting mom or a loved one with kids!

MFD: I’m liking this more and more! Do people order for special occasions such as baby showers or birthdays?
Marie: We style for special occasions like, holidays, birthdays and family pictures as well as everyday needs.

MFD: That’s a great idea – I know, speaking only for myself of course, that I’m not really into shopping, and yet I really like to give high quality gifts. So, the idea of being able to make a gift of a Mac & Mia box is especially appealing! Did you think that the children would be reacting so favorably to this since you were initially thinking about helping the parents?
Marie: Kids love getting a box of goodies just for them! Our goal is to surprise and delight both the parent and child.

MFD: Evidently it works and growing fast! Did you expect this type of response from people for this service? How have you kept up with the demand?
Marie: The response has been amazing! We currently have a little bit of a wait for boxes – about 3-4 weeks – due to demand but we’re working hard to minimize this and still deliver a great experience for all our customers.

MFD: That sounds reasonable. Now, you mention that you source as much organic and Fair Trade goods as possible. How important has this been to your clients?
Marie: Some clients really feel strongly about the material and manufacturing of their items and we work hard to find brands to fit their needs. For others it’s not as much of a consideration so we carry a variety of brands to suite our customers needs.

MFD: Readers may be wondering about privacy. How private is the process? Obviously, we need to include some information about us and our children…
Marie: All personal information entered into our site is confidential.

MFD: One final question, Marie…If you had to distill all we’ve talked about here today, what would you say is the most common thing you hear from clients and customers about Mac & Mia’s service?
Marie: Without a doubt, customers love the convenience and the unique items we select.

MFD: And obviously that keeps them coming back! Marie Tillman, thank you so much for agreeing to share all this information about Mac & Mia with our readers today. We truly appreciate you taking the time. I learned so much more about what you are offering, and I’m certain that this has also helped inform our readers.
Marie: Oh, the pleasure was all mine! Thank you!

Okay, that pretty much wraps up our interview with Marie Tillman, the entrepreneurial founder of the popular and growing children’s online clothing service, Mac & Mia. Having a personal shopper for children’s clothes is definitely an idea whose time has come!

NOTE: Update as of July 2018 – When I first published this interview, I think that the company was in its growing stages, and was very communicative with me. Since then, however, they have not responded to emails. I’m not sure what is going on over there. I hope there is just a glitch of some sort in communications, but I have tried repeatedly over the last several months.

Because of that, I am a little leery about recommending them with the same level of confidence that I did earlier, so please feel free to use this interview as a general guideline introducing you to the idea of a personal shopper for children’s clothes, but not an endorsement.

Other companies that sell lovely and high quality children’s clothes online include:

PopReal: Register HERE and Get 30% OFF for Your First Order at Popreal!

Primary.com – Started by the moms who created Diapers.com! Get 20% off your first order at Primary.com with code AFF20PCT! CLICK HERE NOW to Shop!

Kidorable.com – Famous for their wonderful children’s rainwear and more! Shop Kidorable.com HERE.

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