sportstyle

Here are some of his takes on different issues. In 2020, Chiappetta's retail strategy involved "three channels." "We have had a three-channel operation — brick-and-mortar, Amazon where we sell third party and our website. Right out of the gate when everything shutdown in March (due to COVID-19), we said, 'Aww, crap, we've got to change gears and move forward.' With Amazon specifically because with our website, there is only so much you can do on a short-term basis between ramping up ads and the like… We focused on Amazon and asked a number of shoe companies to allow us to sell on the platform. And gratefully, a lot of the sales reps and sales managers identified that we've got to help out our retailers as much as possible. A number of companies gave us a couple-month window to sell on Amazon that they normally would not. With Amazon, we tried to do 'Prime Fulfilled by Seller.' Our play with Amazon is we want to inventory and ship out everything ourselves. That is a winning model as it helps us stock more inventory for our sales floor. We have one more channel to sell into, all pulling from one inventory location. I think that's a winning solution…If you're lucky to get into a brand (with limited online distribution) that's where you can drive some serious sales. Find a vendor that has a limited Amazon presence. Then, there's only so many people selling the same thing…But I totally understand it (Amazon) from the vendors' perspective. If you have every retailer selling your product through the platform, there's going to be many people screwing up pricing and violating MAP. But it's a natural part of economics. I'm in favor of (shoe) companies being more proactive about limiting their operations. You can't just set up on Amazon Marketplace. You have to know what you're doing. You have to know how to sell, service the customer. It's a business by itself so you have to understand that." The Shoe Dogs Facebook group has fostered community in the independent channel. (Editor's note: Concerned about the need for shoe independents to stay connected to one another, Chiappetta created and launched the Shoe Dogs United group on Facebook in 2017 that now counts more than 4,000 members and has become a resource for shoe retailers to share ideas, ask questions and vent.) Right out of the gate when everything shutdown in March (due to COVID-19), we said, 'Aww, crap, we've got to change gears and move forward.' sportstylemag.com March 2021 ~ sportstyle 47

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