At the B. Riley 3rd Annual Consumer Conference in New York, Cliff Sifford, president and CEO of Shoe Carnival, revealed the retailer is testing Puma in-store shops in several stores to solidify its dominance of athletic footwear in the family shoe channel.
The Puma tests comes after Shoe Carnival successfully rolled out Nike in-store shops in all new and remodeled stores in 2016. Sifford said of the Nike rollout, “We believe the shops sets us apart from our competition and allows us to take the world’s number one brand and become the destination store in the family channel for that particularly brand.”
The Nike in-store shop displays are based on local demographics. Inner-city stores often feature a basketball court in the power aisle with a heavy focus on court and lifestyle offerings. Suburban stores may feature more run product for exercise and casual needs.
Sifford said the company is “very pleased” with the performance of the Puma shops so far.
Overall, Sifford noted that the company carries the broadest selection of branded footwear in the family footwear channel. That’s in part due to its higher penetration of athletic product that has grown in recent years due to stronger trends in the category.
About 18 percent of Shoe Carnival’s mix is children’s shoes. Work footwear is also emphasized more at Shoe Carnival than its competitors. With the weakness in traditional department store chains, Shoe Carnival has continued to add brands recent years. He estimates that 85 percent of Shoe Carnival’s assortments can also be found in any department store or athletic store.
Shoe Carnival also over the last replaced unproductive space in stores 9,000 square feet and larger and added accessories product, a category carrying a margin over 50 percent. Accessories now account for between 4 to 4.5 percent of sales and the goal is to increase it to 7 percent.
From a marketing standpoint, a big focus is its Shoe Perks loyalty program. It has 16 million members as of August and they make up about two-third of sales. The focus has shifted from adding new members to leveraging existing ones. An outside consulting company has been hired to analyze its members data and Shoe Carnival has already found that the stores attract higher-income customers than previously believed.
The company rolled out ship-from-store several years ago and it’s helped the chain deliver online orders within two-days form when they are made.
Buy-online and pick-up in-store was rolled out last year and the company is “very pleased” with its roll out. It gives Shoe Carnival the ability to extend its inventory assortments.
Next up is vendor drop-ship, which will also amplify Shoe Carnival’s inventory offerings.
Beyond its broad selection of brands, Sifford said the chain running promotional call-outs throughout the day to add some surprise and “fun” to the shopping experience. Store managers have both a sales and margin goal every day that gets updated every hour. Depending on the performance against goals, the manager may promote a low-margin item to drive sales higher or a higher-margin if margin goals are falling short. Said Sifford, “That’s the way they drive promotions all day.”
Music, according to Sifford, is also part of the concept’s appeal.
“The music we play is fairly loud and it’s classic rock,” said Sifford. “And it’s not unusual to see customers lip syncing to a song as she shops for her shoes. So it’s not a boring shopping experience.”
Photo courtesy Shoe Carnival
