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Source: Our tips & tricks for how to clean shoes | ECCO® Shoes
Traditional retail, especially sneaker stores, have utilized strategies with cool names like ‘hook ups’ to motivate employees to upsell customers on a variety of products from tee shirts to hats. One of the most difficult items for retailers has always been products to lengthen the life of the kicks being bought, shoe cleaners. I’ve seen brands from Crep Protect, to in-house brands like FootLocker’s Mint fill the shelves next to the cash wrap. I’e also witnessed those cleaners go on deep discount after not selling as well as some buyer thought they would.
ECCO is a brand that focuses primarily on its own doors. In doing so the brand is capable of telling stories that empower and enable to brand to upsell fans of the brand on products that generate additional revenue. Because ECCO produces their own leathers, their employees understand how to discuss the care of the products. Unlike traditional sneaker retail, where sales leads earn minimum wage in many instances, ECCO employees make an average of 16.97/hour according to Payscale. While many consumers shop at traditional retailers, brands are beginning to capitalize on their ability to tell their stories and to deliver a customer experience. Shoe cleaners and shoe protectants seem meaningless. It’s logical that the focus should be on apparel and footwear since those are the high dollar items. For a brand like ECCO, however, the shoes are meant to last with the proper care. The footwear isn’t made to fit a fashion trend or built for the moment. The price you pay for a pair of ECCO shoes isn’t made so the consumer can ‘fit in”.
Which raises an interesting question, when a consumer buys a pair of Jordans for 200 dollars, it should be easier to upsell the customer on shoe cleaner, but it isn’t. A brand door selling shoes for 200 plus dollars, lends itself to training the customer on how to care for that product. When people are buying Jordans, they are shopping for cool. That product sells itself, but because there is another model arriving in less than a week, the customer doesn’t see the point in learning how to take care of the product, so the upsell in traditional retail is more difficult. One would argue that sneaker culture is where shoe cleaners were born since a fresh pair of kicks is synonymous with having style. This is true. There has been a rise of an abundance of shoe cleaners since sneaker culture has become more mainstream. The irony is that cleaners, from a company like Jason Markk, have also recognized the power of DTC and they have launched their own e-commerce and even stores:
For ECCO developing a long-term relationship with the consumer via a product that is basically a non-durable good can be a vital part of their business and operating brand doors is a better method of delivering those products, which is an interesting topic of discussion when you really think about it.
