Website Closers® presents an opportunity to own an SBA Pre-Approved eCommerce business in the Vintage Footwear Vertical that’s been helping its customers feel vibrant, tantalizing, and sexy, with the rave reviews to prove it. With 10 years of experience under its belt, this brand keeps steps ahead of others in the shoe industry by replicating historic and vintage reproductions of styles from the 16th century to the 1950s. While the styles harken back to a bygone era, their vibrant social media strategy is anything but out-of-style, sporting over 165,000 brand-devoted followers. Winner of an Industry Leader Award for their region, this dynamo of a retailer is a brand to look out for.
Combining classic, sensual silhouettes with modern fit and comfort has made them a fan-favorite amongst consumers, who have rewarded the brand with a phenomenal 48% Repeat Customer Rate. With fully Trademarked and Proprietary Products manufactured for this brand, the company takes full advantage of its social media accounts to demonstrate how enticing, and even seductive, these boots look on their customers. Serving to accentuate the calves and thighs as well as encouraging a vixenish sway, these vintage designs deliver style in a way that most modern brands can’t compete with — and social media posts riding off of that hype have become a huge driver of the brand’s sales.
Operating in the lucrative field of female fashion footwear demonstrates just how popular the retro revival is for fashion trends that look to the past for inspiration. In a world that revolves around ever-changing trends, Vintage and Retro Footwear and Clothing enjoy timeless appeal driven by nostalgia, a desire to stand out in the crowd, and counter-fashion rebellion. While many companies in this vertical deliver vintage looks by reselling second-hand garments crafted in a previous era, this brand stands out by making sturdy, comfortable SKUs that replicate that vintage look, style, and vibe. Quite simply, customers are loving the mix of retro and modern, stylish-uniqueness and easy-fitting comfort. These are definitely not just “Old Used Boots,” and their sales prove that.
The question is, how did this company attract its customer base, and then cultivate such strong loyalty among its buyers? Reviewing that history gives us a great guidepost to how their brand managed to “pump” great success. Founded 11 years ago, the brand was built around the concept of marketing retro footwear and accessories made by a third-party manufacturer to allow for a great range of colors and sizes. Having developed a reliable factory for sourcing their boots, the company’s next step was social media – which made for a true heel-turn in terms of success.
The brand is extremely active on Instagram, where they now have a whopping 165,000+ followers, as well as on Facebook (60K followers), YouTube (44K), TikTok (20K), and Pinterest (11K). Photos speak volumes and that was definitely the case with this brand’s postings, which played an instrumental role in building up their customer base. While the company does run some PPC ads on these platforms, for the most part they have served as free advertising driving up high organic traffic. Young consumers adore throwback styles, and the classy-yet-quirky voice of this brand has made them wildly popular amongst influencers, costumers, cosplayers, and more.
Boasting an incredible influencer marketing strategy, this brand takes out competitors at the knees by reaching young consumers where they browse— through highly viewed channels on visual platforms such as YouTube and Instagram. Their YouTube channel is used for promotional videos of their products and some lifestyle videos, each of which has racked up a formidable view total. Aggressive email marketing tactics have also proven useful, tapping into a vast email database of more than 15,000+ subscribers. Their primary newsletter is sent during pre-order and sales events, and their emails have high open rates of 28%. Blogging is another key tool this brand uses. Their content marketing and SEO-enhancing blog has delivered 2,400 clicks to the brand’s Shopify website, and that site is fully optimized for SEO keywords to boost search engine rankings.
As these marketing tools have increased their customer base, the company has expanded its product line and now markets more than 1,800+ SKUs, which include reproduction 18th century shoe buckles, Victorian button hooks, and a line of silk over-the-knee stockings. They have also become a reseller of other products, such as foot petal inserts, shoe care supplies, and stockings. With a staggering Average Order Value of $211 and climbing, sales have been strong, and peaking in the final quarter of the year due to the high revenues generated during Black Friday and holiday sales.
Their demographics center on women between the age of 20-40 who are middle class to upper income, who have shared interests that include a passion for history, nostalgia, vintage items, literature, historical reenactments and dressing up. Many of their customers have been with the company since they first launched a decade ago, and several fanatical collectors have purchased one of every style they make. Their SKUs also appeal to a secondary group involved in productions for opera, films, and theater, who order anywhere between one and 50, or more, pairs and often return a portion after fittings. For this group, sometimes multiple pairs of shoes are needed per scene, with budgets that range from hundreds to several millions of dollars per production. Broadway and dance productions often re-order replacements when shoes begin to wear from heavy use.
On average, the company ships 40 orders per day, although at peak season that rises to 300 per day, and they typically stock up to $195,000 worth of inventory. A lot of that inventory, which is reordered every 6-8 weeks, is pre-sold. There are immense opportunities for this business to step it up, including expanding onto wildly popular eCommerce sites such as Amazon and Walmart, opening up their SKUs to an enormous new audience. Expanding styles or considering a new label to latch onto Alternative Fashion Genres such as Lolita, Goth, and Steampunk would also prove lucrative, as many customers following them experiment with diverse, off-the-wall looks. Expanding their already thriving online presence to include TikTok would boost Gen-Z branding.
One of the strongest options would be to tap into overseas markets such as Canada, Australia, and the European Union. The company has been marketing to the EU for years, but adjusting their manufacturing model to order directly from a factory in Europe that drop ships orders would significantly reduce shipping costs and eliminate the need for import duties or taxes to be applied to their goods. The company is now working on sourcing within the EU and expects that to double the size of their business next year.
This company has a major advantage in having very few competitors within their space, and they are now the largest maker of historical shoes in the world.
That’s a strength that gets transferred to a buyer, who would also enjoy this brand’s expanding recurring revenues and excellent scale options. These boots, and this brand, are made for walking into a bright new future.
