You Can Now Shop Bicester Village’s Best Deals Straight From Your Phone (And With Free Personal Shopping)

Did you ever go to Disneyland as a child? I did. I was seven years old and, just like in those sun-drenched adverts, my parents told me the night before that we were going. I had to get up at 5am, shovel down some toast and emerge into the faint morning light in order to reach the closest thing to earthly paradise my tiny, unformed mind could imagine. That is, until as a 31-year old woman, I visited Bicester Village.

If anything, this proves that I'm truly a child of capitalism. For anyone who spent their teenage years glued to the pages of fashion magazines, however, Bicester really is a revelation. Possibly not in a grand seismic sort of way but certainly in an 'I've always wanted those Prada shoes but could never afford them!' sort of way.

In many ways, Bicester has revolutionised the very concept of shopping – outlet shopping, in particular. While there are significant discounts across brands such as Gucci, Celine, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Prada, Bottega Veneta, Dior, Fendi and Saint Laurent (I could go on), this is not your average designer sale. Instead, there are all the trappings of a luxury shopping 'experience', with an added dose of friendly shop assistants.

Various pop-ups have become increasingly regular features in the Village – the most recent one was with Do Good, which raised funds for Bicester's charity partners, including Smart Works, IntoUniversity, Brides do Good and World Connect. On May 11, The Creative Spot x The British Fashion Council will open in celebration of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, designed by Richard Quinn.

Since it opened in 1995, Bicester Village has expanded considerably, adding restaurants – Café Wolseley now has an outpost there – and developing new personal shopping services to entice as many visitors as possible and appeal to a broad range of guests. Stores like Gucci and Prada loom large, and are just as shiny as their Bond Street counterparts. In fact, the only explicit difference is the prices. No wonder, then that Bicester is the second most visited attraction in the UK, just after Buckingham Palace. Pre-pandemic, over seven million visitors flocked to it every year – a figure that looks set to return now that restrictions have lifted.

The last two years have been terrible for businesses of all kinds but particularly for those who didn't have a digital presence of somekind. That's the problem with Bicester – you actually have to go there in order to shop. For the team behind the outlet, then, how do you preserve the success of an IRL business during a time in which we're all forced into a digital existence?

The answer is virtual shopping, which Bicester introduced during the pandemic. It's the reason the business thrived at a time when most retailers were desperately trying to stay open. Launched at the beginning of 2021, the service quickly gathered pace, becoming responsible for 14% of total sales across the villages in Europe in the first few months.

How does it work? Well, you can contact any of the boutiques directly to make an appointment, which will either take the form of a video call, a WhatsApp message, an email or a good old fashioned phone call. Or, you could arrange a virtual personal shopping appointment, which is a complimentary service and will allow you to speak to an expert about what it is you're looking for. During my visit to Bicester, I saw many members of the team whirling around with iPads, clearly in conversation with potential customers all over the world.

If you're still not convinced, you could always actually go to Bicester Village IRL. The newly improved (in-person) personal shopping services are worth the trip alone, particularly since The Apartment has opened, which offers a beautiful space in which to shop. Free to book, you'll enjoy a consultation with your chosen personal shopper, who will curate an edit of pieces to suit your personal taste and style.

Take your favourite people, sip champagne and shop from the privacy of one of the newly-built suites. You might just find that, short of visiting Disneyland back in 1997, it's actually the happiest place on Earth.

And yes, before you ask, I did buy the Prada shoes.

Book your own complimentary personal shopping appointment at Bicester Village here****.