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.
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 !