Swiss shoe retailer wants to limit itself to 100 stores
The Swiss shoe chain Vogele Shoes wants to focus more on an omnichannel strategy in the future. During the lockdown in April, the company carried out a market analysis and developed the company's new strategic direction together with the management consulting firm KPMG. The result: Voegele Shoes wants to provide customers with a variety of digital touchpoints, at the same time reduce the total number of its stores and at the same time invest in new, modern and digital stores in regional metropolitan areas.
The implementation of the new strategy of the CCC subsidiary Karl Vogele AG has already begun. The completely redesigned website with the “Click & Reserve” function was launched in June 2020. Further innovations are also planned: The online shop partner e Schuhe.ch will be integrated into the Vogele Shoes website. In addition to the Vogele Shoes own brands such as Gosoft, Roberto Santi and Everest, the web shop offers another 500 shoe brands. In order to better understand the behavior of its customers, the company uses digital CRM solutions. “We are currently transforming ourselves into a data-driven company,” explains Wojciech Bańkowski, COO of Karl Vogele AG. “We are more active in both e-commerce and social media as this is one of the most effective ways to build trust in our well-established brand.”
The new stores will also be equipped with digital elements, for example scanners that scan the customer's shoes and the shape of their feet. Self-checkout cash registers are also planned. “We observe that our customers have a significantly higher shopping cart value in the online shop than in brick-and-mortar stores,” says Max Bertschinger, CEO of Karl Vogele AG. “Nevertheless, we still believe in sales in stores. We rely on new, modern and contemporary stores and continue to open new locations.” This is shown by the most recent example in Schattdorf in Uri, where a store was opened in July. “Nevertheless, stationary retail in general is currently under considerable pressure due to lower frequencies in connection with the Covid-19 crisis,” said Bertschinger. The company expects to have around 100 “first-class stores” across Switzerland in the future, which is significantly fewer than at the end of last year. However, the prerequisite for this is negotiations of new rental agreements. In discussions with landlords, Karl Vogele AG is striving for a system that is fairer and more sales-related.
