Retail Guide: Consumer Footwear Displays
Consumer footwear companies have weathered much in recent years.
Like other industries, volatility in supply and demand sent sales and SKUs into uncharted territory. Now, with experts predicting a leveling off, footwear brands are in a race to earn customer attention and gain meaningful market share. Luckily, a solid retail display strategy can drive both.
In this article:
Footwear Industry Overview
The Role of the “New” Shoe Store
How to build recognition in retail
Direct vs. indirect storytelling in Branding
The Power of Personalization
Tech advancements affecting Retail Display Development
Market Conditions Affecting the Footwear Industry
Changing Products
The global footwear market is predicted to surpass $3.98 billion in 2023, with an annual growth rate of 3.47% (CAGR 2023-2028).
Within that growth, companies are focused on blurring the lines between fashion, leisure, and performance to meet consumer preferences and limitations due to macroeconomic pressures.
Brands that deliver “elevated essentials” - products that easily transition from work to play and prioritize both style and comfort - stand the best chance in gaining and retaining cost-conscious customers looking to maximize versatility.
Changing Channels
During the pandemic, online shopping provided the best access to choice, convenience, and control for most consumers. Traditionally a difficult product to purchase online, shoe shoppers adjusted their expectations and got used to new perks such as free shipping, easy returns, and wider product selection.
By 2022, 74% of footwear purchases occurred online, with casual and athletic footwear leading the group.
Many major shoe brands embraced this opportunity and focused their resources on DTC operations rather than wholesale retail, changing the role and necessity of the store.
However, growing acquisition costs, unsustainable and unreliable supply chains, difficulty raising brand awareness, and exorbitant costs related to product returns and exchanges reminded brands and retailers that providing a seamless online experience is just as difficult as executing a seamless in-store experience.
Once pandemic restrictions lifted and pent-up demand drove people back into stores, many companies adopted the belief that “it’s no longer a question of D2C vs. wholesale, but how to balance both channels to get the best of both worlds.” Read more on this topic via Ryder Ecommerce.
Discovering the Role of the “New” shoe Store
In the past three years, we’ve ultimately learned people don’t really care where their shoes come from as long as the brand (or retailer) meets their expectations.
These expectations range from price and shipping considerations to choice in design and how well a company adheres to an individual’s personal set of ethos, among other things.
If a brand, even a legacy brand, fails to deliver on any one front, today’s shoppers know they have options. Purchasing outside of regular habits and typical patterns is hugely common.
Nikki Baird, Forbes contributor, writes:
“Consumers are no longer blank slates when they walk into stores and store associates are no longer the most knowledgeable and influential people helping consumers along their purchase journey.”
Stacks of boxes placed in rows of shelves will no longer suffice as a “good” experience. E-commerce platforms make it too easy to filter, browse, compare, contrast, find coupons, and ultimately purchase with one click. Likewise, approaching customers as if they do not already know what they want to purchase will create deeper disconnects between the digital and physical experience.
If a shopper makes it into a shoe store - be it a small retailer or a national chain - it’s a big deal; we can’t treat it as happenstance.
These customers are choosing to give us their time, and it’s up to us to figure out why - why didn’t they just go online? Then, we must design retail solutions according to these answers.
Make the Space Matter
In this competitive landscape, in-store brand activations are a high- ROI strategy brands and retailers can consider as they intentionally design to the lifestyles of modern-day consumers.
Brand activations consist of more than expensive, flagship-worthy installations that rely only on advanced technologies or highly complex campaign strategies.
The goal of an in-store brand activation is to bring the brand’s potential to life in the minds of shoppers by creating “sticky” moments - moments that organically draw people in and quickly and clearly aid in their decision-making process.
These tactics can be:
Visual
Tactical
Experiential
Psychological
Simple brand activations are possible at the display and fixture level through the inclusion of a few key elements. Whether creating a retail solution for a large wholesale account, small network of local mom-n-pop shops, or a brand store, brand-activated footwear displays of any size can be utilized as powerful tools to earn customer attention and gain market share through:
The power of recognition
The power of transition (Storytelling)
The power of personalization
The Power of Recognition
Great footwear displays are the perfect balance between art and utility. Much like product design, visual design communicates the essence of the shoe - the quality, the story, the confidence, the promise - through the personification of key brand and product pillars.
Build a recognizable visual display story through color, construction, material selection, and messaging that feels like a natural extension of what people already see online and in real-life. Celebrate what makes the brand’s personality, position, and product unique, and infuse into every millimeter of the display or fixture design. No design decision should be made without intention.
For example, Axis Display Group worked on a brand activation for footwear company Wolverine and vehicle manufacturer RAM, two established brands proud to help serve and build America’s skilled trades.
We relied heavily on both companies’ existing brand guidelines to draw attention from shoppers familiar with either. Then, we built the display pieces to imitate elements of each companies’ key features (such as, tread, grille, stitching, leather textures, etc.).
Ultimately, we know shopper attention spans are short-lived. Give their right-brains the right amount of visual information to create familiarity and increase the opportunity to connect on an immediate and visceral level. Like attracts like.
The Power of Transition (Storytelling)
As discovered earlier in this piece, shoppers want transitional footwear products that provide the best bang for their buck.
Similarly, today’s brands and retailers need display pieces that serve more than one purpose - pieces that are built for inevitable transition, evolution, and adaptation depending on product and market needs.
Consider a new wall system for a sneaker release. Most brands are allotted a small space within a retailer or have a designated area within their own store to create hype. In either case, the ability to curate a great story is game-changing.
When displays do more than stack shoes next to specs alongside generic lifestyle imagery, displays become tangible touch points where what is seen, imagined, and felt online is available in real life.
These displays become areas where shoppers create conversation, promote consideration, and make it impressively simple to make a transaction. As new seasons, products, and styles arrive, people come back to these stores -this story, this brand - because it empowers them to live life on their own terms.
Telling effective stories involves both direct and indirect measures.
Traditionally, brands and retailers have mastered direct storytelling - storytelling that allows them to control the narrative. But growing, is the tendency to incorporate indirect, more passive methods of storytelling - storytelling that encourages customers to make inferences and associations based on their personal value points.
In action, direct storytelling looks like graphics, messaging, photography, and other aesthetic-based elements. The scripts employees, brand reps, and marketing managers receive to help guide a customer’s path-to-purchase is a part of direct storytelling as well.
On the other hand, indirect storytelling focuses on scenario and feeling-based situations that show rather than tell a customer what is possible within the product. In a retail merchandising setting this may look like:
Strategic product pairing and bundling assortments that turn ideas and dreams into more attainable realities
Accessible testimonials from the public or genuine endorsements from everyday influencers with real stake in the space/industry
Inclusion of non-product related content, such as industry-related guides, resources, events, opportunities, or other information
Presence of co-branded partnerships between like-minded and complementary companies, agencies, or non-profits
Options for demo and DIY/product customization
And more
Story roadmap
Whether using direct or indirect stories to drive display design, brands and retailers should have a good grasp on the following questions before developing any new display or fixture program strategy.
Do we know the various activities and lifestyles our customers engage in?
How do we know this?
do we recognize the feelings and motives driving those expressions?
How can we appeal to both the breadth and depth of our shoppers’ interests?
What features of our products will empower our customers Best, and why?
Do shoppers innately know these potentials exist?
Or, do they need to see it to believe and understand it?
By whom or what are our customers influenced?
How do our brand and product promises intersect with our shoppers’ value systems?
In what ways do we believe our in-store customers vs. online customers differ?
The answers to these questions provide a valuable part of the blueprint retail marketing and design teams need to create a cohesive storytelling roadmap.
Once in place, a storytelling roadmap can be updated right along with each new product roadmap, launch schedule, or seasonal flip.
The Power of Personalization
We live in a world of options.
When consumers arrive at a physical store, most have a strong sense of what they want to buy. They’ve done their research, seen the ads, and listened to the recommendations of people they trust.
When a shoe shopper goes to a store, it is because they want to try on the shoe; they need to validate their decision.
However, upon arriving, it is not uncommon to learn:
A: There is no one available to help them (labor)
B. The shoe they want isn’t available in their size or color (inventory)
C. It is unknown if or when it will become available (supply chain)
D. There isn’t a streamlined process to order what they want and get it delivered (logistics)
Scenarios like these interrupt and fragment the consumer’s purchase journey, making it highly likely they will complete their purchase at another store or with a competing brand, if nothing else other than out of frustration.
It is at this moment brand-activated displays designed with the “Power of Personalization” can offer consumers alternatives to abandoning their journey altogether.
Personalization in Retail
Personalization is a relative term.
To one, it may focus on having a part in the creation of a product (e.g., customization, special orders, build-a-shoe station, etc.), but to another, personalization may be focused on the anticipation of needs (e.g., concierge-style customer service, seamless ordering/delivery practices, intuitive product suggestions, etc.). Still to someone else, personalization may refer to a brand or retailer’s ability to connect past consumer interactions with present interactions – (e.g., shopper analytics, device tracking, membership and loyalty programs, and more).
At the display level, the focus of personalization should be on anticipating and answering questions shoppers have as they validate their decision, especially if a store associate is unavailable to assist.
Technology can help.
The Role of In-store Technology in Retail Personalization
In the last decade, advancements in augmented reality, virtual reality, AI, and other technologies have reduced the barrier of entry for brands and retailers looking to digitize their physical spaces.
Once a “nice to have,” or a topic reserved for flagship or high-end brand stores, these technologies are becoming viable solutions for many everyday retail settings.
As the gap closes between physical and digital, and omnichannel retail transitions to “channel-less” retail, stores will play the role as solution suggesters, inspiration curators, and lifestyle mobilizers.
Retail displays designed as “personal empowerment tools” use subtle tech integrations to help shoppers play a more active, and often natural, role in their shopping experience while mitigating other operational concerns related to labor, inventory, supply chain, and logistics.
Example:
When working with a toy retailer who struggled to keep certain products in-store due to extreme space limitations, Axis Display Group developed a display environment that invited shoppers to interact with featured products from each category, and then directed them to an area on the display to customize their product and choose a delivery time via a kiosk connected to the store’s e-commerce portal.
In this example, ordering online was not just an option; it was the intentional next step. Customers were aware the product they wanted wasn’t in-store that instant, but because a clear path to it was presented, loss of sale was reduced.
In the case of shoe displays, technology creates a personalized shopping experience for customers by offering solutions that assist customers with:
Assortment
Sizing
Intended use
Budget
Bundling
Ordering
And more
Screens, Monitors, and Digital Signage
Screens, whether connected to an existing e-commerce website or specific landing page, dedicated in-store portal, or intuitive product selection questionnaire, encourage shoppers to stay connected to the in-store experience.
Content can be as simple or as sophisticated as the display budget allows, ranging in options from a touchscreen “Call for Help” button that alerts in-store associates and places a person in a queue, to more intricate customization portals where shoppers can design their perfect shoe, place, and pay for their order then and there. Voice assist and other speech recognition tools may also be considered, especially as AI continues to evolve.
Digital signage can be used to create movement and entertainment within the display’s branding, aiding in creating a “setting” for seasonal flips and special product launches.
These solutions can be affixed or embedded into the physical display structure or developed as a freestanding unit. They may be battery-operated or require a power source. They can use Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or be hard-wired, and have options to remotely update content and troubleshoot issues off-site.
Kiosks
Kiosks serve similar functions as screens and monitors, but also have the ability to utilize advanced technologies, such as augmented or virtual reality to deepen the shopping experience.
When working with a bicycle manufacturer, Axis Display Group developed a kiosk that incorporated AR to scan and take hands-free measurements of shoppers that then directed them to the right product. If a shopper did not wish to use the sizing tool, an intuitive product selection questionnaire was also available to lead customers through a series of topics that helped them narrow down their perfect product. Read more on that interactive fixture here.
Many footwear brands and retailers have product selection and customization programs already established (e.g., Asics Shoe Finder, Roadrunner Virtual Fit Finder, Vans Customs, etc.). A kiosk running that program in-store creates a clear and controlled path for the customer who requires a personalized touch, even if an associate isn’t available to help them.
Lift-n-Learn Sensor Technology
Another adaptation of AR supports sensor-driven lift-n-learn technology that brings product stories to life on a shopper’s personal device or special area within the display.
These activations provide 360 degree views of the shoe’s construction, origin story, featured benefits, video endorsements, and other content, helping shoppers more easily connect, compare, and contrast.
If stock of an entire product line is unavailable at the store, featuring a few best-selling products with this type of technology and then providing a simple way to explore additional stock online to order is an option. For inspiration, we love what the Peak Beyond has accomplished within the Cannabis Industry.
Future Retail Tech Considerations
As mentioned, developments in advanced technologies are making it easier for brands and retailers to reach their shoppers in inventive ways, especially younger generations like Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
An area of potential opportunity in this space is virtual reality. The use of virtual reality, already common in the gaming and entertainment industries, enables shoppers to blend their physical and virtual worlds into a single reality.
As this technology increases, it is predicted more brand partnerships will take to the virtual space through platforms like the Metaverse and NVIDIA’s Omniverse, which creates physically accurate, large-scale simulations through its “Digital Twin technology.”
Through VR aids, like headsets, shoppers are immersed into virtual realities where they learn about the product and the brand in more experiential and sensorial ways.
Visit the factory the shoe was created. Watch an animated short story. Go to a concert, event, or game hosted by the brand and its collaborators. The list goes on.
While this may seem like a stretch at present, it is a rapidly evolving area of retail to watch. Planning display and fixture programs that can adapt to future technological scenarios is an important strategic move.
Next Steps
The next era of consumer footwear displays will be anything but ordinary.
Shoes reflect many deeply personal aspects of a customer’s life - from their style to their work to their self-expression to how they support the causes they believe in.
Investing in brand-activated in-store displays invites consumers into a brand’s story by encouraging natural, organic interactions.
The power of Recognition, Transition, and Personalization creates selling environments that ebb and flow with shoppers’ expectations and preferences, and assist retailers in better allocating operational resources. Technology completes this experience by furthering omnichannel initiatives.
Those tasked with designing retail displays, fixtures, or store environments can use this information to develop display systems that challenge the typical shoe shopping experience. Proactive planning, a more holistic outlook on consumer motivations, and a preparedness for future tech disruptions (i.e., opportunities), will empower retail marketing teams to make investments in pieces that are built to last.
Minimally, future consumer footwear displays must:
Be modularly designed to adapt to rapidly changing retail environments, both in size and scale
Have easily updatable messaging and branding elements - whether print or digital
Provide multiple ways for people to take in information - this can be through a scaled offering of tech touch points, simple color-blocking in branding, or iconography to better distill information for visual learners
Accurately anticipate how much stock will be held on the display, in the store, and in the supply chain, and offer easy ways for customers to get what they want right now
Plan out and support the role of the in-store associate