Consumers Want to Buy Shoes in Stores, But Brands Still Need Amazon for This Key Reason
Amazon might not be the main channel people are using to buy their shoes. But the e-commerce giant is becoming increasingly important in the shoe shopping journey as a whole.
About one third of consumers said they start their shoe shopping journey on Amazon, according to the 2024 U.S. Consumer Footwear survey from global consulting firm AlixPartners and the Footwear Distributors & Retailers of America (FDRA).
The survey found that consumers treat Amazon as a search engine, filtering out the types of shoes they want based on images, reviews, colors and product availability. However, when it comes to actual purchases, most (63 percent) of consumers say they expect to buy all or most of their shoes in stores. Just 10 percent of respondents said they plan to make nearly all their shoe purchases online, while 27 percent plan to buy a majority of their shoes online.
After Amazon, 21 percent of consumers say they do their window shopping on brand websites and 16 percent use search engines.
“While consumers remain relatively committed to finalizing their purchase in store, the internet increasingly influences spending decisions,” said FDRA president and chief executive officer Matt Priest. “This means critical steps in the process of finding the most shoe for the buck — from assessing brands to researching models or comparing prices — are taking place online. Retailers and brands cannot afford to rely on a single-channel approach to winning the battle for attention and dollars in a crowded footwear marketplace.”
In the last year, some shoe brands — including those that were historically direct-to-consumer — have leaned into Amazon as part of a refreshed wholesale strategy. In November, Allbirds launched on Amazon with some select styles like the Wool Runner, Tree Runner and Tree Breezer. And in May, Rothy’s debuted its Amazon’s storefront that includes styles like The Point, The Flat and The Driving Loafer. Crocs is also seeing some early benefits from converting its Amazon presence to a third party business model in which Crocs sells its products directly to consumers via the Amazon marketplace.
On the flip side, brands that have abandoned Amazon have opened themselves up to negative consequences. For example, when Nike cut ties with Amazon in 2019, it lost control over its brand identity on the platform. According to Rutger Wismeyer, an e-commerce management consultant based in the Netherlands, this gave room for resellers to potentially gain total control over Nike’s price, look and customer journey.
“As a brand, you need to be where the consumer is,” Wismeyer told FN earlier this month. “And that’s including Amazon, specifically in the US, but also in Europe.”