I can
remember one of our market shoe sellers listing online newcomer Shoes Of Prey
as one of the reasons he was leaving our market but it turns out that Shoes Of
Prey didn’t have it right either.
A few years
ago Shoes of Prey were the exciting new kids on the block with a revolutionary
method of selling shoes to customer specifications from a website. Customers
could choose a whole range of options including style and colour from a
sophisticated interactive website.
Our market
trader trader knew his stuff because he had handmade shoes to customer
specifications for many years but he found that customers were no longer
prepared to pay his prices for handmade excellence and he couldn’t quite
understand how online sellers like Shoes of Prey were doing it.
Shoes of
Prey went into liquidation a couple of weeks back, apparently victims of a
change in consumer preferences. They claim their big mistake was assuming
customers wanted to design their own shoes when in fact they were more
impressed by copies of what other people, particularly famous people, were
wearing. Instagram and Facebook were determining what people bought, rather
than the opportunity to create your own design.
Just when
you think retailing has chosen a course, it twists again.