I came across this article today via
NorthJersey.com written by Evelyn Shih. I thought you'd find it interesting: Read on....
Shoe Sites Stock Everything From Pumps To BootsAs spring winds its way back to North Jersey, a woman's feet turn toward the shoe closet with a ponderous question: Where are those colorful spring open-toes?
Sometimes, the mysterious yearning for new shoes for the new season can be assuaged only by a trip to a favorite shoe store. But for many shoppers, that no longer entails slipping into some comfortable flats and driving to the mall.
Put those bedroom slippers back on, girlfriend. It's the age of online shoe shopping.
Online retailers from the well-established zappos.com to the newcomer piperlime.com take away the leg cramps and parking headaches of mall shopping.
Shoppers with small, large, wide or narrow feet are more likely to find their sizes in stock, and shoppers of all persuasions can find the perfect color and style at the click of the mouse.
Anne Zenn of Wyckoff buys size 5 shoes online for her 16-year-old daughter, who has difficulty finding them stocked in stores -- and she sometimes finds something for herself, in the bargain.
Where to get started:
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zappos.com•
shoemall.com•
onlineshoes.com•
6pm.com•
shoes.com• Shoebuy.com
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endless.com•
piperlime.com* * *By the numbers
40: percent of women likely to buy shoes on the Internet in the next six months.
57: percent of women who buy more shoes than anyone else in their household.
50: percent of women who have at least one pair of shoes they've never worn (24 percent have three or more).
40: dollars the average woman spends on a pair of shoes.
1: percent of women who have spent more than $500 on a pair of shoes.
Source: Greenfield Inc. U.S. Shoe Census, February 2007.Marcia Eisen of Park Ridge gets her comfortable size 11s for work and leisure without stepping into a store. Carol Ramer from Wayne accommodates her narrow feet with sizes not typically stocked in department stores but that have their own category on most shoe Web sites.
Online shoe shopping may be a godsend for those with feet that elude mainstream sole patterns, but its perks have drawn a much wider crowd. According to the NPD Group, a consumer research service, online shoe retail sales almost doubled between 2004 and 2006, compared with the 16 percent growth in all shoe sales during the same period.
"There are a lot of big players," said Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org at the Network for Retailers Online. He cited zappos.com and shoe mall.com among others as having an established presence.
"Just in the last year, there were two major launches -- piper lime.com from Gap Inc. and end less.com by Amazon. They were entering a market that's already very competitive."
The growth of these companies comes from the enthusiastic response of shoe buyers across the nation. Many incorporate the shopping into their daily routines.
Elke Dinan, a shoe enthusiast from Wayne, initially began searching online for her sons' sneakers. Now, she sneaks in her shoe shopping between work and chores.
"You can still cook dinner while you're shopping," she said. "You can leave things in your shopping cart, so three days later you can add things to your cart, or even [wait for an upcoming] sale.
"I probably have about a hundred pairs of shoes now," she added. "When I got married, I had more. But then I had babies, and my feet grew. Now that my kids are older, I started shoe shopping again."
The online shoe shopping sites have only fed her renewed addiction. Although sales tend to be less exciting than those at shoe outlet DSW, Dinan's favorite bargain-hunting ground, she is able to find small men's sizes for her teenage sons.
She began shopping online to find rare fits, and stayed with her favorite site, Zappos, for the wide variety in shoes for everyone in the family -- herself included.
To avoid dragging her husband to the mall after work, Dinan sometimes orders as many as six pairs for him to try on in the comfort of their home. With free return shipping within a year of purchase at Zappos, she can return his rejects at no extra cost.
Easy browsingThe same shipping policy allows her to order different styles or sizes to try at home with specific articles of clothing, keeping only the pair that is perfect. "You're not dragging along that skirt or dress everywhere," she said.
Carol Ramer also shops for specific outfits and occasions, and she points to the extraordinary variety and the precision of shopping online.
"You can shop by color, you can shop by size, you can shop by price," she said. "There are just so many ways you can sort your looking. It's not like you have to look through 50,000 pairs of shoes."
According to shoemall.com's Internet director, Adrienne Hartman, search features get an immediate response from shoppers. After a revamp last fall of the site's "Shoe Finder," shoemall.com's revenue rose 44 percent. The application now figures prominently on the home page and helps shoppers find shoes by process of categorical elimination.
Weekly e-mails help fuel the habit of browsing and can be another helpful aspect of shopping sites, although they can be annoying, said Anne Zenn. "Once you sign up or buy something, it just never stops! I tend to ignore most of it. Maybe I'll look once a week at something, or once every two weeks."
Hartman mentioned that Shoemall's e-mail newsletter has gained threefold in subscriptions over the past year, indicating a positive response.
"When customers don't like an e-mail they're getting, they unsubscribe," she said. "[Now] they're clicking on [the provided links] and buying, so we know it's good."
In the end, it's the promise of variety and the habit of casual online browsing that gets most shoppers to whip out the plastic.
"I think pretty much whatever I'm looking for I can find online," said Eisen. "Even what I'm not looking for I can find online." She paused. "Probably more of what I'm not looking for."
E-mail:
shih@northjersey.comhttp://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3JmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3MDk2OTEwVisit My Other Shoe-Related Sites:
www.shoeincentives.blogspot.comwww.picturemyshoes.blogspot.comwww.ladiesgolfshoes.blogspot.comwww.squidoo.com/uniquefeetAndrea M. Pace
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