How are you finding the footwear market currently? Having done 3 years now we’ve seen steady growth in our business, although January and February are always scary months when you feel it’s not very busy! High Street retailers are offering more and more footwear choice and whilst they don’t measure and fit like we do at Stomp, some people will automatically pick up a pair of shoes whilst out shopping. It’s frustrating but convenient. Also, many children want the premium brand trainers now, from what seems like a really young age, and that’s hard because it feels like parents are not choosing their kids’ shoes for as long as we’d like. At Stomp, we offer style and substance. Their feet will thank us for this in years to come!
What’s selling well? Any particular trends? Which are your best selling footwear brands – and why? Bobux is generally our “go to” brand for early walkers and often parents will buy these repeatedly; we now have customers who have been buying this brand since we opened and their children’s feet are nearing the Bobux limit, so we are super pleased they have extended their range. We have a lot of Mums that love navy, and metallic colours often sell well too – our customers love neutrals. We can’t wait to receive this season’s Sunsan and Saltwater – they have been a big hit with our customers over the last two summers.
How important is shoe fitting to your business? Are you or any of your staff members of the Society of Shoe Fitters? Shoe fitting is super important to us, Debbie has fully completed the course and all three of us have done the training. When we recruit we take time to train how to fit and have a sheet for reference in our employee pack. Shoe fitting isn’t rocket science but having someone like Maureen from the SSF to train you is well worth it as she has lots of tips on how to do it well.
Does your shop sell other items besides footwear, bags, gloves, tights, socks, below the ankle products? We sell MadPax bags and Hatley raincoats.
Do you use an EPOS (retail technology) system in your shop? We have a fairly basic EPOS system which ideally we need to look at to incorporate managing the website inventory too. We wouldn’t be without it, as it comes into its own when buying, giving us information on stock levels and best sellers.
Any difficulties/problems? It’s only as good as the people using it!
If the scanner doesn’t work, we find
errors can occur on the inventory because incorrect sizes or different colours can be put through the till leaving the system a bit amiss.
Any tips on stock offers, novel ideas for clearing lines or advice for independent shoe retailers who might be feeling the pinch? We always do a Black Friday event in November – it generates a push of sales over that weekend. We find it’s well worth it. We do Sale throughout January to clear ‘bad buys’ and styles that haven’t
moved very well. We feel it important to move this type of stock to be able to re-invest in styles that do work for us and our customers. Canvas sales were lower last year than previous years, so we will probably do a canvas promotion to clear some stock in Spring.
What is your favourite men’s footwear brand/manufacturer – ditto ladies/children’s brand – and why? That’s a difficult one as there is something about all of our brands that we love: Bobux for the ever-popular jodhpur and outback boots; Petasil for their lovely bright shoes; Ricosta for Nippy and Winona; Camper for its uniqueness and Geox for the ever-popular Savage. We just love all of our brands.
How do you select your products – which criteria do you use / what are your customers looking for? We use a mood board and a spreadsheet to make sure we appeal to as many tastes as possible and to make sure we are not buying too much (or too little) of one style/colour/size. We also reference upcoming footwear trends in styles and colours. Many of our customers look for something different, but some seek us for a specific brand. We often talk about specific customers when we are discussing a shoe, as we can often pin point who that shoe would attract.
Which footwear/fashion shows do you attend, how do you rate them? We visit Moda in February, August is too manic for us to even contemplate throwing in a trade show. Moda is OK; it’s good to go and look at potential new brands and seeing a full collection rather than just selected samples is useful. For us it would be nice to see Mini Moda expand into accessories, as we’re always happy to look at new suppliers.
Do you have a favourite footwear agent you can tell us about? We like all our reps/agents, we like to think we have a good relationship with them all but Matt Clark who sells Bobux and Froddo is, and has always been, very supportive of Stomp.
Have you always had a passion for footwear? How many pairs of shoes do you own? Do you have a favourite pair? We’re not disclosing how many pairs we have – we could get into trouble!! Debbie loves Irregular Choice, Lucy likes Hudson and Rebecca would be Saltwater – as soon as the stock comes in she has a new pair!
Any famous customers? Ed Slater who plays for Leicester Tigers came in recently, he was lovely and posed with Rebecca for a photo. Our boys were all super impressed that he’d been to Stomp.
And, the next step? Any plans for the future, new lines, retail systems/new technology, etc.? So many customers say “you need a store here or there” but right now whilst our children are still at primary school, Stomp in Narborough works for us all personally. We would love to expand, but it must work for us with regards to our children. We have discussed a pop-up shop so maybe Stomp 2 will appear somewhere soon, if only for a short while. Watch this space.
Contact: Stomp, T: 0116 3190606, E:
shoes@stompfootwear.com W:
www.stompfootwear.com
MARCH/APRIL 2017 • FOOTWEAR TODAY
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