Metz, The Social Concept

What Can A Shoe Brand Do On The Social Web, Post-Zappos?

January 7, 2009

When you work with shoe brands on the social web, you kind of have to look at Zappos as somewhat of a benchmark, in that they were the first company in the space to go near the social web.

They’re a pretty big company now, and they sell a hell of a lot more than shoes; they’ve managed to get their hands into accessories, high-end handbags, and eyewear, among other things.

And they have a huge presence on the social web. Seriously, .01% of Twitter is Zappos employees (they have 435 employees using it). So, if you’re a shoe brand, and, say, 25% of your revenue is coming from channel-partner eCommerce, how are you supposed to bolster bad-ass partners like Zappos, when they’re already firing on all cylinders? How do you increase sales?

It’s simple: better, more focused behavioral targeting. Here’s how it’s supposed to work. Let’s say you’re Giuseppe Zanotti , and you’re selling women’s couture shoes. You’re going to have a number of channel partners, and they’ll have a variety of proficiency levels on the social web. Big dogs like Amazon will be relatively inexperienced. More niche sites like Zappos will do a bit better, and have a more behaviorally uniform stakeholder group.

There effectively has to be a pyramid of behavioral targeting, with the brand itself engaging with the most homogenous set (most likely repeat customers that they have deep data on), and shoe industry channel partners (i.e. Zappos) engaging with a slightly broader group, and last, big-box online outlets like Amazon, with the broad-stroke targeting. (Yes, Amazon does carry Giuseppe Zanotti, and the prices are pretty good, because they’re fulfilled by the manufacturer directly).

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Confidential to Giuseppe : your site’s photography rocks, but ditch the Flash – it’s impossible to navigate.

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