At ICR Xchange, Shoe Carnival’s Cliff Sifford, president, CEO, and chief merchandising officer, said the family shoe chain has found success reaching moms and will be expanding those efforts in the years to come.
The push was started two years ago with an upgrade of its brand assortments to reach “not only to the working mom, but also the young professional, who is already in our stores to buy for her children or for herself in athletic,” said Sifford.
Children’s accounts for about 18 percent of Shoe Carnival’s sales but the stores often didn’t capture their mom while she was in the store. Continued product as well as store upgrades are planned to attract the “mother or young professional in a little higher income bracket.”
Part of the effort also included the launch of its first national advertising campaign last fall. The campaign addresses shoppers in many markets that haven’t heard of Shoe Carnival as it expands. It also attempts to convey Shoe Carnivals’ internal work slogan: ‘Injecting fun and surprise into everyday moments.’
“The idea was to capture the thought of the customer as they imagine themselves enjoying their new pair of shoes,” said Sifford. “We know that buying shoes is a fun, emotional experience for women and kids. And we think men enjoy it as well.”
He credited the campaign with the chain’s success in October, which showed a 2.6 percent comp gain on top of an increase of 5.4 percent in October 2013. He noted that October had been a challenging month for many retailers. Shoe Carnival did not provide an update to its fourth-quarter results.
On the omni-channel front, Shoe Carnival now ships from 250 of its 403 stores, said Sifford. At the store level, it plans to launch a service his coming back-to-school season that lets associates fulfill in-store out-of-stocks from its website. Vendor dropship and e-commerce-only styles will be tested this year.
E-commerce functionality will be added to the Shoe Carnival app in 2015 as well as well as the ability for customers in a store to scan barcodes see if an item’s in stock. Added Sifford, “We will also begin testing a technology that allows us to actually communicate sales offers or surprise deals to our customers that are already in our store.”
Regarding expansion, Sifford said the chain has a “tremendous opportunity over the next decade to almost double our store base in the continental United States.” Sophisticated software analyzing point-of-sales data is helping its store team better analyze real estate options.
Its stores are primarily in power centers in the Midwest, Southeast, and Southwest. New markets last year were: Buffalo, its first entrance into New York state; Detroit; Miami; and Madison, WI. A newer channel in recent years has been malls, with 16 currently open. Added Sifford that while it’s early, “the results show that we should continue this strategy.”
