Athlete’s Foot hopes to leave its footprint online

Blair Speedy
June 05, 2012
The Australian

The Athlete’s Foot website makes recommendations, although it also urges shoppers to come into a store for a personalised fitting SHOE franchise The Athlete’s Foot is venturing into online retailing, the arena most responsible for poaching its sales.

Ivan Hammerschlag, chairman of franchisor RCG Corporation, said the company had no choice but to try tackling its internet competitors head-on, despite a cost disadvantage that meant it would be unable to match them on price.

“The world’s changed. Customers want to shop on the net and if you don’t let them do it they’ll buy from someone else,” he said.

The company previously relied on high service levels to combat the threat of online sales. The TAF website makes shoe recommendations based on sex, weight, footprint and pattern of shoe wear, although it also urges shoppers to come into a store for a personalised fitting.

“We believe that this will strengthen and enhance our ability to connect with customers and will drive additional sales not only via the digital channel but also through our traditional bricks and mortar stores,” Mr Hammerschlag said.

Customers who had an in-store fitting and then ordered shoes online would have 100 days to return their purchase for a full refund, provided the shoes hadn’t been worn.

Mr Hammerschlag said the website had met with a strong initial response from shoppers since going live last week, while the company’s other retail chain, Shoe Superstore, now drew 15 per cent of sales from online.

“Because of the trust we’ve built up with customers, orders are flowing in already,” he said.

However, he conceded the TAF website wouldn’t be the lowest in the market.

“There is a price difference between us and the offshore sites, which has nothing to do with sourcing prices because we all buy out of the same factories at a similar price. The issue is that our costs are that much higher in this country,” he said.

The Australian Retailers Association has slammed last week’s decision by Fair Work Australia to increase the minimum wage by 2.9 per cent to $15.96 an hour, saying merchants can’t afford a hike in labour costs.

Mr Hammerschlag said the chain was banking on customers being willing to pay a price premium for the convenience of having a network of 140 local stores to which they could return unsuitable or defective items.

However, he said the price differential between local and offshore internet retailers was getting smaller as suppliers began to cut prices to local merchants.

Online sales of clothing and footwear grew by 20 per cent during the 12 months to the end of April, according to figures from National Australia Bank, when Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed overall clothing and footwear sales fell by 1.5 per cent.