Meyer The Hatter

The company was established in 1894 by the grandfather of today’s retail legend, Sam Meyer II, who wrapped up his summer celebrating his 91st birthday. After nearly 70 years of working in his family’s business, Mr. Meyer stands unopposed when he says he knows a thing or two about customer engagement.

Three generations of Meyer men and wives work under the same roof, chatting with customers and providing the stellar, personalized brick-and-mortar retail experience, with the genial touch of Southern hospitality.

“To sell hats, you have to be verbal,” Mr. Meyer was quoted as saying in a Meyer The Hatter feature on nola.com. “I tell customers what I think, what looks good on them – and I ask a few questions without making it seem like an interrogation. Dealing with all kinds of people is part of the job.” And dealing with them well earns a retailer their customers’ loyalty.

Here, customer loyalty is real, and driven by quality. Some of Meyer The Hatter’s customers have been buying the company’s hats for over 40 years, and have passed on hat fever to their sons and grandsons through the bloodline.

Meyer The Hatter’s clientele base is composed of dedicated locals and intrigued tourists, including celebrities who contribute to the New Orleans music culture. Eric Clapton, Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, and Jimmy Buffett are among the famous heads who don hats purchased from the Hatter.

The Meyer family makes it a point to get to know their customers and genuinely engage them, tracking customer history in their Retail Pro. They draw on details like past purchases and preferred styles – stored in the customer management feature – to guide their shopper to the perfect hat for the look they’re trying to channel.

Though the retail store was established in the days of manual POS, Meyer The Hatter is up-to-date, selling their hats across the virtual world through the UniteU eCommerce integration to Retail Pro.

The Retail Pro and UniteU integration now includes an offer for a turnkey omnichannel solution that allows retailers to establish the back-end workflows for customer-facing conveniences like Buy Online, Pickup In- Store. With complete visibility into all of your data across channels, retailers can build the next generation store – and, like Meyer The Hatter, keep retailing strong for 5 generations.