5 tips every footwear store owner should know

Building a loyal customer base is crucial to thrive or even survive in the footwear business. While marketing and consumer management professionals seem to agree that there is no magic formula for customer retention, experts believe there are a few retail business tips that shoe brands and retailers may use to keep their customers loyal.

Here are five footwear retailing strategies you should start implementing right away

1. Understand your customer’s needs and educate them

Staff product knowledge is a primary contributing factor that drives instore purchases. Taking time to listen to what your customer is looking for will allow you to assist them best. By giving the customer as much information as possible and not forcing any specific shoe on them, they will be more inclined to trust your expertise.

2. Take time with the fitting process

You must be spending adequate time and have patience with each customer. You should bring them several options based on their needs and educate them on the pros and cons of each pair of shoes.

Shoe sizes are an area where merchants have a lot of room to innovate. Extend the size range of your products, offer pairings of different sizes, offer a variety of size combinations, and allow customers to purchase a single shoe for disabled persons or replace the damaged/stolen shoes.

Taking time with the fitting process shows you are willing to find the best shoe for them. In turn, they will be more likely to make the investment.

3. Create an inviting and comfortable in-store experience

There are a few essentials when it comes to having a footwear store:

• You need to make sure you have comfortable chairs for your customers to try on different shoes, and there is plenty of seating for both the customers and their companions.
• Full-length mirrors are also a must, so that the shopper can see the shoes with a full outfit.
• It should also be very clear what type of footwear you sell, so the customer knows exactly what kind of store they’re walking into.
• Premium packaging, fascinating and trendy décor in brick-and-mortar locations, and personalized follow-up emails are crucial aspects of client retention.

4. Utilize Omnichannel retailing

Multichannel sales entail reaching out to customers via every accessible channel. Customers nowadays shop across various channels; therefore, merchants must sell and communicate with customers across all of them.

Using mobile POS allows employees to provide a personalized clienteling approach. Using a mobile POS, an employee may ring up a client while they are putting on shoes, rather than having the consumer gather their belongings and rush to the desk.

Marketers may get a single view of each customer across different channels with consumer-management technologies. It creates a system for feedback such as surveys, customer feedback forms, and most importantly, social engagement allows brands to integrate customer feedback into their product decisions while also fostering engagement between the customer and the brand.

5. Invest in a Consumer-Loyalty Program

Store promotions, gift cards, and unique loyalty-based marketing may help customers buy more and stay longer. When it comes to client retention, loyalty, and reducing attrition, using customer data within the ChainDrive CRM to develop gift card and loyalty programs are vital tools.

Footwear retailers must implement the above retail business tips in their shoe stores to be competitive and profitable. These days, shoe stores have many options to improve their game, from implementing new technology to investing in a consumer loyalty program. Experimentation is required to adapt to the contemporary retail landscape.

ChainDrive’s footwear ERP software offers integrated reports and tools that provide you instant access to vital data. That gives you valuable insight into every aspect of your business and helps in improved decisions, lower operational expenses, and more revenues. To explore more, contact our retail management software experts to schedule a video conference or log on https://chaindrive.com/free-live-demo/ to book a live demo.