Five years is a short period for the market, but based on the changes that have occurred during this time, certain conclusions can be drawn. We carefully re-read the Shoes Report magazines for the 2008 year (53-63 issues inclusive) and evaluated how true the forecasts made on the shoe market at that time turned out to be.
In the 53 issue of Shoes Report, it was predicted: According to research company Nielsen, in 2008, residents of the five largest cities in Russia spent about 3100-4600 rubles a month on children's products. Analysts predict a boom in children's retail, including footwear, linking this with assumptions about rising household incomes and higher spending on consumer goods.
Now it turned out: Children's retail not only did not grow, but also significantly lost in income. In 2013, Esper Group conducted a study, according to the results of which it became known that residents of the ten largest cities in Russia are ready to spend 18 300 rubles a year on a child, of which a little more than 50% is spent on the purchase of shoes. Simple calculations show that the “children's” budget of the respondents is only 1525 rubles per month, which does not correspond to forecasts five years ago.
Verdict: the forecast for a boom in children's retail did not come true.
In the 55 issue of Shoes Report, it was predicted: In 2007, the Obuv Rossii GK company launched an installment sales program for shoes. The volume of shoes sold in this way for the year amounted to 130 million rubles. The company plans to increase this indicator at least 2 times in the coming years.
Now it turned out: According to the official data of Obuv Rossii, for the first 9 months of 2013, goods worth 1,05 billion rubles were sold in installments. Consequently, over 5 years, Obuv Rossii has increased sales on credit by almost 8 times. Today, installment on shoes is becoming an increasingly popular service, which is introduced into the work of both online and offline stores.
Verdict: Obuv Rossii's plan for installment sales of shoes was overfulfilled by 8 times. The forecast came true with interest.
We wrote in detail about the results and mechanics of the “Installment Shoes” service in the Shoes Report magazine No. 113
In the 56 issue of Shoes Report, it was predicted: Among the 10 trends in the development of global retail trade are the increase in the level of social responsibility among customers, the development of non-standard retail formats, the desire to improve the customer experience, turning the purchase into entertainment. The most important trends are multichannel sales, as well as the shift in the epicenter of consumer demand from the US to Asian countries.
Now it turned out: The 2008 crisis of the year, as expected, crippled the economy of the United States, reducing both the level of per capita income and the overall US influence in the global economy. At the same time, 2-4-th places in the ranking of countries with the highest GDP in the 2012 year are China, India and Japan. This means that there is high customer demand in the Asia-Pacific region, as evidenced by the increasing interest of the world's leading fashion retailers in Tokyo, Shanghai, Singapore and other major cities in Asia.
The development of multi-channel sales has become one of the most important areas of retail change. This is due to qualitative changes in the group of main consumers: they were the so-called millennials (people born in the 1980-2000 years), whose life is very much connected with multimedia technologies. For the young generation, it is not the fact of the purchase that matters, but the emotions received from it. Therefore, as predicted in 2008, many companies are now focused on improving their customer experience. This trend, by the way, is now called among the most important for the coming years. Social responsibility for millennials is also a significant factor.
Verdict: the forecast for a shift in the epicenter of demand for Asia and the development of multichannel sales came true.
In the 56 issue of Shoes Report, it was predicted: Prices for shoes from well-known brands of the premium segment in 2008 have risen markedly. For example, in the spring of 2008, the minimum cost of Christian Louboutin ballet shoes was $ 880. A further increase in prices for premium shoes is expected.
Now it turned out: In the official Christian Louboutin online store, the cheapest ballet shoes cost $ 595. But this rather demonstrates some changes in the pricing policy of a particular brand than the general market trend. Yes, the crisis has made adjustments, forcing retailers in 2008-2009 to lower margins on designer shoes and increase discount offers. But this did not last long, and in 2011-2012 both prices and consumption of designer accessories returned to the pre-crisis level, and today there is a slow but steady increase in these indicators.
Verdict: the forecast for an increase in prices for premium-segment shoes has partially come true.
In the 60 issue of Shoes Report, it was predicted: According to the results of 2007, the share of sales of domestic shoes in the Russian market amounted to only 10%. The growth of this indicator is not predicted. Sales of all shoes in Russia in value terms in 2007 reached 435 billion rubles, which is approximately 17,4 billion dollars (taking into account the average exchange rate for the year). A slowdown in market growth is expected.
Now it turned out: Import satisfies% of demand in the Russian footwear market 80, which implies that domestic products increased their market presence by almost 2 times compared to the 2008 indicator of the year. In 2012, the total footwear market in Russia was estimated at 30 billion US dollars, which, taking into account the exchange rate, is about 900 billion rubles. It turns out that over 5 years the market volume in value terms has increased almost 2 times. Such indicators can not but rejoice. But, most likely, this assessment is far from objective, since the shadow sector is about 40-45% of the total turnover of the Russian shoe market.
Verdict: the forecast for a slowdown in the shoe market in Russia and the stagnation of sales of domestic shoes did not materialize.
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Offline vs. Marketplaces: How to Survive and Win in 2026?
In Russia, e-commerce's share has grown from 5% in 2019 to nearly 23% in 2024 and continues to grow, with e-commerce market analysts predicting it will reach over 30% by 2029. Offline retail, meanwhile, can not only survive but also grow by 20-30% annually if it stops offering clothes on hangers and shoes on shelves and starts selling unique experiences. We discuss this topic with Shoes Report regular contributor Elena Vinogradova, an expert in fashion buying and sales and the author of the Fashion Business Blog, a blog for retailers and buyers.
The main colors of women's shoes for the fall-winter 2026/27 season
Fashion continues to embrace the language of emotion. The upcoming Fall/Winter 2026/27 season promises to be emotional and slightly reflective. Vibrancy gives way to depth, and ostentatious luxury is replaced by enveloping warmth. Five key shades of women's footwear reflect precisely these sentiments: trust in naturalness, attention to texture, and a desire to find beauty in nuances. Let's turn to the professional forecast of seasonal, cutting-edge colors from the international trend bureau Future Snoops. The selection of the Fall/Winter 2026/27 palette from Future Snoops presented in this article is an emotional map of the coming season, speaking of trust and fragile honesty, balance, inner strength, and warmth that requires no occasion. These five shades transform the seasonal footwear styles into a unique color language that can help the brand and its customers express themselves and their emotions.
Revisiting classic standards of retail lighting through the lens of modern technology
Just yesterday, the principle governing retail lighting was: the brighter the light, the brighter the store, the more customers and sales. Today, this principle has lost its relevance. It has been replaced by a trend toward a well-thought-out concept, intelligently applied lighting, and carefully selected lighting fixtures. Anastasia Efremova, SR's expert in retail lighting and lighting designer at Tochka Opory, discusses current lighting principles in fashion and footwear retail, and how light helps interact with merchandise, space, and customer emotions. She will help you understand the fundamental principles of lighting through the lens of new retail space requirements.
How a fashion brand can launch a successful licensed product with a celebrity
Why fashion brands should consider licensing as a strategic tool—this is what Natalia Timashova, editor-in-chief of Shoes Report magazine, discussed with Maria Kozeeva, CEO of the Yulia Vysotskaya media holding (part of the Andrey Sergeevich Konchalovsky Production Center) and brand director of the Edim Doma and Julia Vysotskaya businesses.
How to strengthen and make your brand more sustainable
2025 has become a year of survival for many fashion brands in the challenging and rapidly changing conditions of an overheated market: declining traffic, the closure of entire chains and companies, the consolidation of sellers on marketplaces, the shift of customer traffic from offline to online—all these and other factors have impacted everyone, especially the weaker ones, those experiencing various challenges. The market has shifted to savings consumption. Some consider this a crisis, but our expert, Dania Tkacheva, a business consultant specializing in sales management and strategic development for fashion brands, calls it the maturation of the market. She offers distressed companies her own tool for diagnosing their business and opportunities for recovery and recovery. She calls this tool the Brand Maturity Pyramid.
Sales of additional goods and services can add up to 20-30% to a store's turnover.
Many stores today have hit a sales ceiling: they have the product range, the team is working hard, the marketing is up and running, but revenue isn't growing. Where can they find growth opportunities? In reality, the potential for growth lies right in the customer's receipt. And it's not about raising prices, but about offering customers more value at the point of purchase. We discussed with Maria Gerasimenko, an expert at SR in fashion business management and development, how to increase sales with additional merchandise, why accessories and related products are becoming a strategic source of profit, and the role of the store team.
How to learn to effectively manage store customer traffic?
Customer traffic in shopping malls and street retail is declining; people are shopping less offline for a number of objective reasons, one of which is the convenience of online shopping with all its advantages. And yet, offline shopping continues to thrive. How can we control store traffic, learn to correctly calculate and influence the number of people visiting stores to ensure profitability?
From July 27 to 29, the Euro Shoes@CAF_Eliteline 2026 exhibition will be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Elite Line is an international specialized exhibition of footwear, fur, leather, and accessories. The exhibition will feature collections from international and domestic manufacturers from Russia, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, and other countries.
Just a month until the Euro Shoes exhibition in Moscow!
We are counting down the days for the main international exhibition of footwear and accessories Euro Shoes Premiere Collection in Moscow! The exhibition will be held from August 27 to 30 at a new premium venue – the capital's congress center WTC on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment.
The Battle for the Sports Shoe Market
Fashion market experts and economic analysts predict a decline in sales of Nike and Adidas. The leadership positions of the unsinkable sports giants may be seriously shaken in the coming years, as they are being pushed out by young, bold and active competitors – challenger brands.
Micam and Livetrend presented a selection of footwear trends for the spring-summer 2026 season
The Italian international footwear fair Micam presents the "Spring-Summer 2026 Trend Guide", developed in collaboration with Livetrend. The guide is based on the analysis of social networks, online marketplaces and fashion shows, as well as new technologies such as artificial intelligence and Big Data.
The share of marketplaces will grow
The footwear category on Ozon Fashion shows steady growth
Turn to Asia. Features of shoe production at a factory in China
Finding a partner factory for shoe production is not an easy process. Today, many Russian brands sew their collections in factories in China. The concept of the women's shoe brand N.early N.aked, founded in 2019, was based on the idea of producing shoes suitable for dancing, with a perfect fit. Initially, the shoes were sewn in Europe, but in 2022, shoe production was moved to China.
How to Compete with Marketplaces in 2025
The shoe business is a complex process due to the many related micro-strategies used to extract profit. It is necessary to determine how much goods to purchase, what trade margin to set, and approve the norm of balances at the end of the season. In addition, it is necessary to draw up a sales plan and decide on marketing campaigns that take into account seasonal demand and the competitive environment, set up a personnel motivation system and correctly set control points.
Rieker and Remonte will present their new collections at Euro Shoes!
The brands Rieker and Remonte, which are among the leading shoe companies in Germany, will present their Spring-Summer'26 collections in Moscow at the international exhibition of footwear and accessories Euro Shoes! The exhibition will be held from August 27 to 30, 2025 at a new premium venue in the WTC Congress Center on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment.
New Tamaris Spring-Summer 26 Collection: Comfort and Elegance in Every Model
German footwear and accessories brand Tamaris will present its new Spring-Summer '26 collection at the Euro Shoes exhibition in Moscow, from August 27 to 30.
KV+ sneakers for city and sports for the first time at Euro Shoes
The Swiss brand KV+ is not so well known to the general Russian audience, but it is well known in the world of skiing, because it was there that KV+ took its first steps and actively developed. The Swiss brand has earned the trust of the professional sports audience over the past 35 years. At the same time, the Russian sports market of ski equipment has always been a priority for the Swiss.
Creating an emotional connection through a showcase
Emotional response from customers is the key to successful retail sales. Shop windows are capable of not only attracting attention, but also evoking emotions: from joy and nostalgia to a sense of belonging and the desire to possess. Using psychological triggers in shop window design helps turn a passerby into a buyer. SR expert in visual merchandising and retail design Viktor Malygin talks about approaches to the concept of shop window design and current themes and plots for presenting goods in shop windows.
Shoe educational program: what shoe soles are made of
“What is the difference between TEP and EVA? What does tunit promise me? Is PVC glue? What is the sole of these shoes made of? ”- the modern buyer wants to know everything. In order not to smash his face in front of him and be able to explain whether such a sole suits him in soles, carefully read this article. In it, process engineer Igor Okorokov tells what materials the soles of shoes are made of and what makes each of them so good.
How to set prices that will earn
Some businessmen still confuse the concept of margin with the concept of trade margins and set prices for their goods, guided solely by the example of competitors. No wonder they go broke! Analyst at the Academy of Retail Technologies Maxim Gorshkov gives several tips and formulas with which you can set not only ruinous, but also profitable prices.
Sales of shoes and accessories: effective techniques for business rhetoric
Which speech modules are effective in communicating with potential and current customers of shoe stores, and which are not, Anna Bocharova, a business consultant, knows.
We form the salary of sellers: expert advice
“How do you charge your consultants for personal or general sales?” Is one of the most popular questions causing a lot of controversy and gossip on the online forums of retail business owners. Indeed, how to properly form the earnings of sellers? But what about bonuses, where to get a sales plan from, do employees allow them to buy goods at discounted stores? In search of truth, the Shoes Report turned to a dozen shoe retailers, but no company wanted to disclose its motivation system - the process of its development was too complicated and individual. Then we asked four business consultants, and finally became convinced that the topic of seller motivation is very complex, because even our experts could not come to a common opinion.
The whole truth about Bayer. Who is he and how to become one?
Bayer is no longer a new, but still a popular and sought-after profession. It’s fashionable to be a buyer. Buyers are at the origins of the emergence and development of trends. If the designer offers his vision of fashion in the season, then the buyer selects the most interesting commercial ideas. It is on buyers that the policy of sales of stores and what, in the end, the buyer will wear depends on. This profession is surrounded by a magical fleur, often associated with a lack of understanding of what exactly is the work of a buyer.
Technology Selling Issues
There is nothing worse than meeting the buyer with the words “Hello, can I help you with something?”, Because the seller works in the store just to help. Criticizing this well-established pattern of communication with the buyer, Andrei Chirkarev, business coach for effective sales and the founder of the New Economy project, shares the technology of truly selling issues with readers of Shoes Report.
Fur, and not only: types of lining
In the production of winter footwear, various materials are used that are designed to retain heat and meet the requirements of consumers: natural sheepleather, artificial fur, artificial fur from natural wool and others. All types of lining fur have their own advantages and disadvantages. Let's consider the properties of each of them.
Retail Arithmetic
Before you begin to solve specific problems, you need to find out how accurately all the leaders of your company understand the basic terminology of retail.
How to fire a worker without tears, scandal and trial
Sooner or later, any manager is faced with the need to part with an employee. Correctly and on time the dismissal procedure will save the company money, and the boss himself - nerves and time. But why sometimes, knowing that a break in relations is inevitable, we postpone the decision for months?