How AG Jeans Doubled Clienteling Impact to 30% of Retail Sales with Endear

AG Jeans has built its name on denim that fits beautifully and lasts. The Los Angeles brand helped pioneer stretch and four-way stretch fabrics, and its 15 stores are designed to feel like a luxury experience from the moment a customer walks in to the moment they leave with their jeans.

The foundation of that store experience is the amazing people on the sales floor, and the relationships they build with clients.

We talked with James Bishop, AG’s Director of Retail, about how AG moved from paper client books to running around 30% of its retail business through Endear.

The Challenge: AG’s Client Relationships Were Disconnected

Like many retail veterans, James knows the “big black book” well from his own start on the sales floor. “I started clienteling with pieces of paper that I shoved in my locker,” James said. “Then I got myself a book, like everybody else.”

For years, stylists at AG Jeans managed their client relationships the same way, keeping client details in notebooks and texting clients from their own phones. They delivered outstanding service, but their manual process held them back.

Paper client books were disconnected from the store’s data and took constant effort to keep up to date. Managers had no way to see who was being contacted, what was being said, or which follow-ups actually brought customers back. That meant missed opportunities and no way to measure or improve. When a stylist left the brand, their entire client book left with them.

By 2023, AG had moved its stylists off paper and onto a clienteling platform from another vendor. Then, as part of modernizing its entire tech stack, the brand moved ecommerce and stores onto Shopify. AG needed a clienteling solution built for that new foundation.

James also wanted something his stylists would genuinely enjoy using. Endear “blew me away,” James said, and AG made the switch.

The Solution: A Modern CRM that Makes Clienteling Easy

AG’s success on Endear came from a few deliberate choices. James picked a tool stylists would actually want to use, gave them room to get comfortable, and kept every message personal.

AG went live on Endear in March 2024, shortly after moving its ecommerce and point of sale onto Shopify. Because Endear connects directly to Shopify POS, every stylist sees a customer’s full history, in store and online, in one profile. Every sale tied to a message is attributed back to the stylist who sent it, and managers can see the conversations themselves.

AG also gave each store dedicated iPhones for Endear rather than having stylists text from their own phones. Client conversations stay with the store, and stylists can carry the phones on the floor, sometimes using Endear in the middle of a sale.

For James, what made the difference was how easy Endear was for stylists to pick up.

A Soft Rollout, Then a Weekly Rhythm

James has rolled out clienteling programs many times in his career, and he’s learned that piling on requirements from day one turns people off. So AG’s first year on Endear was intentionally light.

“I decided for the first year to be very, very organic and to not set any limits, not require fifteen, twenty texts a day or anything like that,” James said. “Just put it into the hands of our stylists and watch them play with it.”

Store and regional managers went through a month of training, and James set a single goal. Each store should aim for about 15% of its sales through Endear by the end of the year. The stores beat it, finishing the year at around 18 to 19%.

By year two, the habits were already in place, so adding structure felt like a natural next step rather than a new rule. Store managers now hold a weekly Endear touch base with every stylist, and regional managers do the same with their store managers. Managers also sit down with stylists once or twice a week to read through recent conversations together, celebrating strong relationships and coaching where a message could feel more personal.

“That’s when our business really jumped up with Endear,” James said.

AG’s top performers do a lot of the teaching. When someone stands out in a store, James asks them to show the rest of the floor how they use Endear.

Contests keep the energy up. AG runs month-long challenges built on Endear metrics, from clienteling bingo cards to an East Coast versus West Coast face-off, with free jeans for the winners.

How AG stylists follow up

AG uses a 2-2-2 follow-up cadence (a thank-you within 2 days, a check-in at 2 weeks, an invite back at 2 months), with one extra step at the front. Stylists send a thank-you within about 20 minutes of a customer leaving the store, while the visit is still fresh.

Free alterations give the next touchpoint a built-in reason that has nothing to do with selling. Most jeans stay in the store to be tailored, so a couple of days later the stylist reaches out to say they’re ready. About two weeks after that comes a check-in on fit, often tied to something from the client’s notes. From there, with new collections dropping nearly every month, stylists have plenty of natural reasons to invite clients back.

“We encourage our staff to reach out a couple weeks later and just simply ask how the jeans are working out,” James said. “Do they still fit right? How was your daughter’s ice skating competition that you told me you bought the jeans for? Genuine human interaction.”

What stylists don’t use much is templates. When AG launched, James chose to have stylists write every message themselves. Client notes make personalized messages easy to craft, and AG’s stylists tell James notes are the Endear feature they love most.

The Results: Clienteling Doubled to 30% of AG’s Retail Sales

1. Around 30% of the retail sales now runs through clienteling

Since going live on Endear in March 2024, James estimates that clienteling now drives around 30% of retail sales, roughly double the 15% they saw with their previous tool. He says the platform’s ease of use is the biggest reason for the increase.

Additionally, last year’s holiday season was a standout, with Endear sales for the full holiday quarter rising 10% over 2024.

2. Bigger orders, more replies

Endear data from the last 12 months (October 2025 to September 2026) shows what clienteling does for each customer relationship.

• Clienteled customers spend more. Customers reached through Endear spend 24% more per order than other customers.
• Customers write back. AG’s text messages earn a whopping 21% reply rate and a 5.8% conversion rate.

3. A top performer shows what’s possible

Fiona Hoopes, formerly a Client Advisor at AG’s SoHo store, shows what the approach looks like at its best. When we interviewed her, her customers were spending 50% more per order than the AG average. Each text she sent generated twice the sales of the average associate’s, and she was driving 32% of her store’s clienteling revenue on her own.

She follows up within an hour of a sale and checks in on the details that matter to people, like their kids, their dogs, and their special occasions. Her secret, she says, is consistency. “I make it less about the money and more about who they are and our connection.”

Her advice to other stylists is simple. “Talk like you’re talking to one of your friends, because that’s what they really expect,” Fiona said. “They wanna know that you’re a human, not a bot.”

What’s next for AG Jeans

AG heads into holiday 2026 with the habits that made last December its best month on Endear already in place.

James’s goal for the season is simple. “Make a lot of new clients happy and our existing clients even happier.”