Shoes.com, No. 192 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites, will grow web sales by about 80% in 2006, compared to the prior year. The company, a unit of Brown Shoe, has yet to report a final e-commerce figure for 2006. But 80% is consistent with Brown’s earlier reported e-commerce numbers for Shoes.com. An 80% increase would give Shoes.com web sales of $62.3 million for 2006.
Chief operating officer Dan Zuckerman attributes the increase to new and repeat customers warming to online shoe shopping and new web tools, such as alternative payment methods and customer reviews.
“A portion is attributable to continuing inroads of e-commerce among shoppers in general and particularly for shoes,” Zuckerman says. “The days of saying ‘you can’t buy shoes without trying them on’ are continuing to erode.”
Shoes.com, the online footwear sales leader for Brown Shoe, also added the Bill Me Later alternate payment option in 2006 and soon will add PayPal. Also on tap for 2007 is a customer review feature from Bazaarvoice.
Zuckerman wasn’t able to identify how much those features contributed to sales individually. He notes that customer feedback was positive so far on services added last year, and that customer requests drove their addition in the first place. “That was the primary impetus,” he says. “We listened to them.”
Shoes.com also is exploring how to segment its customers and communicate with them off the web site. “We’ll look at e-mail and other direct communications,” Zuckerman adds. Last fall, Brown Shoe launched BlueFireSports.com, an athletic shoe site.
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