Due to the major increase in the online sales of shoes, the footwear retailer must make clear choices in terms of range and target group, with professional knowledge and service playing an important role. This comes from research by Van Es Marketing Services. Their study involved 200 footwear retailers in the Netherlands.

The research results have been published in the Marketingrapport Schoenenzaken 2011 (2011 Footwear Shop Marketing Report).
The following trade developments are prominent in the study:
- An increase in online sales of both shoe shops and other providers
- Increasing specialisation and differentiation of shoe shops in terms of range and target groups
- Personal contact, professional knowledge, service and customer focus are more important for the retail trade as differentiators from Internet sales, etc.
- Greater attention to cost control, trading margins and purchasing
- Purchasing and sales prices are becoming more important, increase in competition on price
- Advent of social media activities for brands and shop visits

Niches
Partly as a result of the increasing competition from online providers and lack of clarity of purpose, prices and margins are under pressure. The shoe shops should profile themselves more strongly on professional knowledge, personal contact, service and customer focus. This means a footwear shop should to an increasing extent focus on certain target groups and/or product groups. There will be greater focus on specific niches in the market.

Price
The consumer is also focusing more strongly on price, so that the lower cost segment offers the best market opportunities. The shoe retailers questioned do not expect any great increase in competition from sports shops and clothes shops that also sell shoes.

Some 200 businesspeople from shoe shops (representing 357 footwear shops) participated in the survey. The survey was undertaken by means of a combination of telephone and online questions in April 2011. The research company Van Es Marketing specialises in industry research in the field of purchasing behaviour and market developments.