Shoe brands reinforce online presence

In Russia, sales of clothes and shoes through online stores are growing, in connection with which many shoe brands plan to strengthen the development of the online direction.
So in the 2017 year, its own online store in Russia should appear among the HÖGL and GEOX brands, and Obuv Rossii, which has been selling shoes through its own online boutique since the 2014 of the year, has planned the creation of a mobile version of its resource on the Web next year.

HÖGL announced the launch of its own online store in Russia with delivery to all cities of the country, the development of omni-channel, including the Pick-up in Store service and the expansion of the brand on Facebook, VKontakte and Instagram next year, HÖGL.
Shoe brand Geox also called 2017 - the year of the launch of its own online resource.
This is due primarily to the increase in sales of clothing and footwear on the Web and the increased sales of brand shoes through online partners.

“More recently, two or three years ago, sales of Geox shoes through e-commerce through partners accounted for a small share in the total volume, being within 10-12% of total wholesale sales. And it should be noted that the number of web clients was insignificant. However, in connection with the development of Internet sales throughout Russia, the availability of purchases and an improving service, requests from web partners for concluding contracts for the sale of Geox products have become more frequent, and the number of customers has grown significantly. Moreover, it should be noted that in the e-commerce market leaders have been identified for the sale of clothing and shoes, which provide a significant volume of sales to various brands. We can proudly note that Geox products are very popular among these market leaders and our shoes are among the five best brands on many Internet channels, ”comments Country Manager Geox Russia Sergey Shuvalov.

He also notes that sales via the Internet show positive dynamics and a rather good increase in volumes, even despite the imposed economic sanctions, currency risks and turbulent time in the last two years. The share of sales of clothes and shoes has increased significantly in general in e-commerce. This trend is becoming so interesting that the players of the web space, historically engaged in electronics, appliances or household goods, began to add clothes and shoes to their assortment, realizing that this is a promising trend, and Geox is already working with such companies.


“We launched an online store in the spring of 2014, and for two years we have seen a steady increase in performance without much investment in online advertising. This suggests that even the most conservative consumer over time understands the convenience of Internet technology, ”notes Head of Marketing and Internet Sales Department of Obuv Rossii GC Irina Poddubnaya. - For a shoe store, a site primarily plays the role of a storefront, which is available to the buyer wherever convenient. The assortment of the store can be viewed without leaving your home or office, from a computer or phone. That is why every month we see a growing growth in mobile traffic. Mobile conversion is lower than PC conversion. But this may be due to two factors: on the one hand, we do not have a mobile version of the online store and browsing pages from mobile devices is not so convenient.
On the other hand, if we consider the behavior model, then, before going to the store, the buyer gets acquainted with the assortment from the phone, and if something interests him, he goes to the store and continues to buy it there, in the usual conditions for him. At the moment, we are working to strengthen our positions in the mobile direction, which shows high growth. In the 2017 year, we expect the share of mobile customers to exceed 50%. In this regard, we plan to launch a mobile version of the site soon. ”

Econika also plans to continue the development of online sales. Head of Econika Stas Korobochka online store notes that at the moment the revenue of the online store of the brand in the total turnover of Econika is about 4-5%, while the growth in shoe sales in the online store over the past three years is about 40% from year to year.

With the active development of online sales and cooperation with third-party online sites selling clothes and shoes on the Web, shoe brand owners point out one significant point - you should carefully monitor pricing.

Often, multi-brand online stores in the struggle for customers announce the availability of discounts on goods or marketing campaigns that are aimed at fixing a lower price. According to Sergey Shuvalov from Geox Russia this is one of the threats of demotivation ofline market players and customer price wars. So Geox pays special attention to the price level for its products, controlling and explaining to its web partners the image component of the brand and the consequences of such price wars. The company is trying to focus its partners not on discounts, but on providing additional services to end customers and improving the service for brand followers who prefer to shop online.