Website Closers® presents a thriving, enormously successful eCommerce business that has more than a decade of experience marketing shoes and boots, but with a twist. Their fully branded and proprietary SKUs attract not just those who want the right look and fit, but also those who love historic style. This brand has given its customers exactly what they’re looking for, with a wide array of shoes and boots that have a historically inspired replication. There’s no question this brand has tapped into a massive market: not only are sales rising at a phenomenal rate, but the company enjoys a whopping 48% Repeat Customer Rate.
This brand has carved out a unique niche position in a reliably evergreen and tremendously profitable industry. The global shoe and footwear industry is valued at $439 billion and of that, $91 billion comes from sales in the U.S. alone. This is a diverse market, providing consumers with athletic, luxury and sporting shoes, while sneakers remain a considerably large segment of the industry.
For those who assume every conceivable design for shoes has already been done, innovative shoe designs are emerging constantly. This brand developed a strong audience by going in the opposite direction by bringing back much older, historic fashions. As anyone in the apparel industry can point out, there’s a significant market for clothing designed to match historical styles, and as this brand so successfully discovered, there’s an equally strong market for shoes that reflect back to a bygone era and stand out in unique ways.
The company has expertly honed its craft over the past 11 years, giving them time to determine exactly what their customers are looking for. How this company first launched and got to where it is today is an interesting story. The company was founded in 2010 with the goal of designing and manufacturing historic and vintage reproduction shoes for men and women, harkening back to the 16th Century, and covering styles popular right up to the 1950s. Their high-quality leather shoes provide a broad range of sizes and colors, and are often direct reproductions, reengineered to meet modern expectations for comfort.
The company also designs and manufactures reproduction 18th century shoe buckles, Victorian button hooks, a line of silk over-the-knee stockings, and other accessories.
Their products are sourced at a factory in China, and occasionally from Portugal. All their footwear is manufactured exclusively for this company and sold under their own brand, meaning these products can’t be purchased anywhere else.
The company now offers 193 SKUs, which includes 125 pairs of shoes and 47 accessories, which collectively have a high order value of $211. When counting different shoe sizes and colors, the total number of SKUs jumps to 1,818.
The company tends to stock up to $200,000 in inventory, which is often pre-sold. Once the products land in the U.S., they gets shipped immediately from their 4,200 square foot warehouse – which they are outgrowing as demand increases.
The company averages 40 orders per day throughout the year. When pre-orders are delivered for shipping or around Black Friday when they launch seasonal sales, the company typically makes 300 shipments per day. Sales skyrocket by 30% around the holidays.
Sales are conducted exclusively on the company’s own branded website, and they have excellent customer demographics. Women between the ages of 20-40, middle to upper income, are their core customer base … and many reflect an interest in history and nostalgia. Their secondary customer group are designers and wardrobe professionals in opera, theater, Broadway, and film and television series. Their customers are typically not one-time buyers. Their secondary group will often buy up to 50 or more pairs, and many of these customers have been with the company since they first launched, a phenomenal display of brand loyalty. As noted above, their recurring customer rate is 48%.
How was the company able to cultivate such a loyal following? Social media played a key role, enabling the brand to post appealing photos of not only their footwear but how stylish their SKUs look on customers. The company has built up a massive presence on social media, with 165,000+ followers on Instagram, 60,700+ on Facebook and 44,500+ on YouTube – tremendous exposure that helped boost organic traffic and drive sales. The social media accounts are also used to post stories, respond to direct messages and share other accounts to their feed.
The company has an effective SEO program that uses keyword optimization in product descriptions and a blog on their website. These marketing efforts have worked spectacularly, giving their website an average of 92,700 sessions per month.
With an email database of 15,200+ subscribers, their email newsletter is sent out during pre-order and sales events, which has helped keep buyers fully engaged.
With a highly appreciative customer base and the ability to use their effective marketing practices to expand sales, this company is clearly positioned for terrific growth opportunities. The company has started working with influencers on Instagram and YouTube and could accelerate those efforts. The same is true with their video marketing. There are opportunities on YouTube and TikTok to boost their promotional videos to drive more traffic to their site.
While the company now sells primarily in the U.S., there are opportunities to expand into Canada, Australia, Europe, Japan, and China. Opening a shop on Amazon would enable this brand to not only tap into that eCommerce giant’s enormous customer base, but also use their overseas platforms for new sales.
Expanding SKUs also offers this brand a major scale opportunity, and there are alternative fashion genres the brand has identified, including popular styles such as Lolita, Goth, Steampunk, Wedding and Historybounding.
Even while keeping up with their high number of pre-orders and deliveries, this is a smooth and efficient operation boosted by an experienced team that includes an operations manager, global supply chain manager, social media manager, two customer service representatives and an employee who handles packing and shipping. The company typically responds to 38 customer service inquiries by email and 8 by phone per day.
It’s been said that fashion is in the eye of the beholder, but there’s no question that a large percentage of the American public is eager to make a personal statement about who they are through the clothing they wear. While designers are eagerly looking for innovation in all aspects of clothing, a historic look that captures an earlier time and place has a huge customer base as well. This company has clearly demonstrated that, and their percentage of repeat customers testifies to their strong designs and great customer service.
For a fortunate buyer, this is an opportunity to enjoy their high recurring revenues while having the luxury of methodically growing this business to stunning new heights.
