Santa won’t be coming down the chimney this year. Instead, Santa will bring the gifts right through your door. Serving the Frisco and Plano communities, Santa, a new shopping app, marries the convenience of e-commerce with the novelty of brick-and-mortar shopping for a brand new experience.
The experience entails “Santa” driving through various neighborhoods, alerting residents by way of “sleigh bells” or smartphone notifications. Within minutes, a personal shopper can arrive at your door with fashion to beauty, tech, home decor and other categories of products, from local brands like FERRAH, LAUDE the Label and Spirit of Salt.
Santa traded the north pole for north Texas when tech veteran founders Roee Adler, Menachem Katz and Shai Wininger set up their headquarters in Frisco this past September. The Santa app team researched over 1,400 cities before choosing Frisco, citing household income, population and real estate prospects as factors.
“Frisco is constantly on all of those ‘best of the best’ lists for cities,” says Stacey Britt Fitzgerald, head of brand management for the Santa app. “So it was really exciting for us to set up our first headquarters in the area.”
The Santa app was created to represent the next generation of the brick-and-mortar store. In addition to providing convenience for customers, Santa also helps elevate local brands and business owners by showcasing their products throughout the city.
“[Customers] shop on an app from a curated assortment that changes every time they are on the app,” says Christine Morris Bullock, head of merchandising at Santa. “They make their selection and it's brought by a personal shopper. At that point, the personal shopper engages with the customer as if they’re in a store, tells them about the products and lets the shopper see something else, or talk about what they'd like to see next time. It's the store experience without having to leave your house.”
The products aren’t just for humans. The Santa app also offers toys and treats for dogs, and will also bring treat samples over for them to try.
Over the course of the past few months, the Santa app has proven to be a hit within North Texas. Bullock and Britt Fitzgerald cite word-of-mouth communications and the close-knit nature of Collin County’s communities as catalysts for Santa’s success.
Santa has plans to expand in the future, however, in the meantime, the Santa team is enjoying Frisco and looks forward to making even more deliveries this holiday season.
“We're excited to meet more customers,” Bullock says. “It's been an amazing experience so far. We can't wait to meet everybody out there.”
Here are some local toy stores for the kids to check out!
Also, here are the best places to see Christmas lights in Collin County
