Footwear Insight

40 • Footwear Insight ~ September/October 2024 footwearinsight.com By Tom Ryan I n any conversation with independent footwear retailers about business issues and challenges, the topic of Direct- to-Consumer (DTC) sales by their vendor partners is always at or near the top of the list of challenges. But, retailers say, when footwear brands make commitments to avoiding online discounts, opening access to online inventories, and steering shoppers to local stores, the negative impact that brand DTC (direct-to-consumer) expansion has on their independent footwear retail partners can be minimized. Jeffrey Seidman, owner of Ahh Comfort Shoes, Arlington Heights, IL, said that on the positive side, DTC enables brands to present a full presentation of their colors and styles as well as to tell their story to both drive brand awareness and boost their image. He said, "ose are positive for us as well. When a good brand presents a great message — even on a DTC level — that's still a positive for us." His biggest problem with DTC is the online discounts brands offer, which may include coupons for first-time buyers or even regular weekly or monthly sales that oen violate the brand's own MAP (minimum acceptable price) policies set for stores. "at's inherently unfair," said Seidman. "ey're holding [retail partners] up to one standard and they're doing another. When you do that, you're creating an unfair marketplace." He offered SAS and Birkenstock as examples of two brands avoiding conflicts around online discount selling. A shortcoming he still sees with Birkenstock is not having access to all their product online as a retail partner. He said, "When you're only making a limited number of pairs available, that's different. But if it's on your website in numbers over a period of time, we should have access." Lauren Menendez, head buyer at Austin-based Karavel Shoes, noted that while a brand may be reducing inventory access, providing less favorable terms or offering online exclusives as they drive DTC growth, a store may still have to work with them because they drive traffic. She said, "is dynamic can lead to a challenging environment for small businesses that rely on carrying popular footwear brands to attract customers." Alicia Murray, VP and head buyer at Murrays Shoes, Littleton, CO, cited Dansko and Taos as "amazing partners" over the years. "eir customer service is great at communicating with us and answering any questions we may have to support our customers directly," said Murray. "Our representatives for both brands work with us to make sure we have a great assortment of product and help us manage backups, so we don't run out of product. We are in constant communication with these brands." Both brands, she added, hold MAP pricing on their website and always send out alerts when specific styles go off MAP. Both have a store locator at the top of their website to help direct customers to Murrays Shoes' location and ship orders within a reasonable time. Similar to Seidman, Murray's major pain points with brand DTC are online discounts, particularly on in-season product, as well as limited stock availability. She said, "As a small business we are limited in our stock room and sales floor. is can make it tricky when consumers can go directly to the website and see hundreds of styles, colors and sizes." Her store has also increasingly faced significant delays in getting fill-ins and special orders from some vendors. Murray said, "Brands five years ago were able to get orders to us in five to ten days. Now it can take two to three weeks for some orders to come in. It makes it too hard to compete when we must quote two to three weeks to get a pair of shoes in for a customer and they say they can get it in three to five days from the company." Still, Murray said the "overwhelming amounts" of RETAILERS WEIGH IN ON HOW BRANDS CAN REDUCE DTC FRICTION SHOP TALK "The footwear industry is one of the only industries I can think of where retail stores' main competitors are now their own brands. Can you imagine going to a car dealership and being able to pull up the manufacturers' website while there with the salesperson to compare color, price, availability?" TED MCGREER, TED'S SHOE & SPORT "If vendors hold prices well and don't gate keep fresh product, we have more opportunity and exposure with some of our DTC-using brands." ADAM GRIGGS, SOFT SHOE

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