Footwear Retailers Must Compete Digitally
An interesting U.S. Footwear Retail Snapshot from the FDRA (Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America) cites these statistics:
- $75 billion in yearly U.S. retail sales
- 210,000 workers in shoe stores nationwide
- 2% growth YTD in shoe stores
- 10+% growth YTD online
What does this mean for footwear retailers? It means that they must compete digitally to stay alive in the current marketplace. Not only does digital competition happen online, it happens in management systems, too.
Digital Tools for Footwear Retailers
ChainDrive has developed an integrated retail management software suite that enables retailers to optimize every aspect of their enterprise, no matter how large or small or complicated. Supply problems like rising import taxes and lower synthetic & rubber costs affect the footwear industry but with ChainDrive, these factors can be monitored and analyzed so that actions are appropriate. Higher wages for those 210,000 workers in U.S. shoe stores can be compensated for by utilizing integrated accounting software that streamlines commissions and wages. Price management is simplified with ChainDrive so that fluctuations in the cost of goods can be adapted to without damage.
Specific Tools For Footwear
Providing the styles of shoes, boots, sandals, etc. in the sizes that shoppers are looking for is a complex challenge. ChainDrive provides the specific tools that footwear retailers have requested in a professional software management suite. Purchasing and distributing by pre-pack is one function that footwear retailers have asked for, because it keeps the styles, colors, and sizes accurately within any allocation. Problems with single shoes or size variance per pair can be resolved with ChainDrive’s mismatch management component. Intelligent size analysis works with the multi-formula replenishment method to provide size performance that is accurate for every channel and location of the enterprise. The extremes of inventory surplus and deficiency are avoided and margins are maintained.
Online orders from internet marketplaces or the store’s own website can be fulfilled from inventory in the brick-and-mortar location or a warehouse. With an integrated inventory update in real time at the point of sale, footwear retailers can utilize the stock they already have to its fullest potential. The reality of retail today is digital, so footwear retailers must compete digitally or be hindered in the race to succeed.
Ask for a free live or online demo and see how the digital retail competition can be won with ChainDrive.