During the last eight months, there have been changes in most aspects of our day to day lives. One of those changes has resulted in an increase in shoe sales across the USA. More people are working from home and taking afternoon walks for exercise. Along with this are the major shift in consumer shopping behavior. Everyone knows that there has been a tremendous surge in online shopping, but did you know that consumers now make far fewer shopping trips as well as stops at different stores.

The trend now is that shoppers are making fewer stops during their reduced shopping outings and prefer to do all their shopping at one store. Think about that for a minute, the average shopper used to stop at multiple stores for different items and now more than 40% of shoppers say they now stop at fewer stores and that opens up opportunities for retailer to expand their lines to take advantage of this change. The fact is that some retailers have already started. DSW has entered an agreement with Hy-Vee grocery stores to offer a shop-in-shop to capitalize on the change in their customer behavior.

Pay attention to your customers

As a result of this change in shopper behavior a variety of retailers that traditionally have not sold shoes have started selling shoes that are tailor-made for their customers. Lawn and garden centers are now selling lines of waterproof work boots and shoes for gardeners and there are even shoes specifically made for dog walkers.

Creating displays

We suggest testing the waters with a limited selection of shoes and Specialty Store Services has a wide range to shoe display and shoe racks to fit any budget. If you have a limited area you can create a small section on your slatwall or gridwall with some inexpensive acrylic shoes display shelves. If you have more floor space, we recommend our new eight shelves double sided shoe rack. As you probably know from shopping the shoe department can get out of hand and that is why we have posted a blog article on how to maintain order in your shoe department.

If you are interested in started to sell shoes and in your retail store, shop our website, Specialty Store Services.  We have everything you need to be a profitable retailer.  If you have a question that you would like answered immediately, you can Live Chat, or phone us at 800-999-0771.