E-Commerce India - Shop for shoes and socks (footwear) online

Who buys shoes and socks online? That would theoretically be lot of people - students, professionals and senior citizens; does that not cover the entire population who knows about shoes and socks? :-)

Way back in 80's and 90's, wearing 'canvas' shoes for playing sports at school was a big deal. Students used to get real sports shoes only after going to college. After brands like Reebok, Adidas and Nike arrived in India, there was no stopping of students from buying these brands. Just like any other products, cities were the starting point for shoe sales, but they penetrated into smaller towns also very fast.

Now the same shoes are available online as well in India. There are dedicated online shops which sell shoes only, like BeStylish or Fashos. The latter offers 'personalized' shoe store, which you can customize once and visit every time to check-out the latest that matches your preferences.

There are shoes-only online stores which turned into full-fledge online shopping malls like Yebhi.

There are other lifestyle e-commerce stores like Jabong and Myntra which sell footwear along with apparel and other items.

Branded companies like Bata and PUMA sell their exclusive footwear in their own online stores.

I really wonder how long it takes to get a correct pair of shoes by purchasing them online? As there is a return-offer from literally all the shoe stores, I can order 5 pairs and keep the one that I like most, returning the rest. But given so many variations like color, size, design, look & feel, what is the probability of someone liking what they order in the first instance?

With success of zappos.com in USA, the model of online stores in niche spaces like shoes has increased across the globe. Zappos has soared from zero sales in 1999 to 1 billion USD gross sales in 2009 and got acquired by Amazon. If anyone is interested in building their startup into a large-scale enterprise, they should read 'Delivering Happiness' by Tony Hsieh, CEO of then Zappos. It is not about rags-to-riches story, but about encouraging proper culture in an organization, which ultimately leads to delivering happiness to customers.

Talking about the niche areas in footwear industry, it is interesting to watch Footsy Design, a company which sells socks online. They design the socks, get them manufactured and sell only online right now. A niche space and a unique model brings socks for all occasions - day or night, office or home, indoor or outdoor - and age-group.

Thanks to these e-commerce stores, I am improving on 'footwear vocabulary' - ankle boots, loafer shoes, hiking shoes and ballerina shoes. It might take 6 months for me to get a hang of this vocabulary.

While the feet are getting so much of attention and choice, what about our head? Someone should be thinking about designing well-branded hats for all those last-mile logistics guys, chasing time to meet e-commerce customer requirements. For all those faces in the crowd - Hats Off !