Founded In 2013, Purpletag. ie Is An Irish Online Shoe Store Selling Third-Party Women’s, Men’s, And Children’s Shoe Brands: Fundamentals Of Marketing Assignment, GCD, Ireland

Introduction

Founded in 2013, Purpletag. ie is an Irish online shoe store selling third-party women’s, men’s, and children’s shoe brands within the Republic of Ireland.

It is the online partner of Graham Shoes, an offline shoe retailer with stores in Dublin (men’s and women’s), Kilkenny (men’s, women’s and a specialized kids shop) and Carlow (men’s and women’s).

The website sells approximately 40 women’s brands, 10 children’s brands and 10 men’s brands.  The breakdown of sales is approximately 80% women’s / 10% men’s / 10% kids.

Market Trends

The Irish footwear market has been – like many other consumers markets – subject to a growing shift of business to online sales, accelerated since the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic and this is extremely likely to continue given the likely lasting changes in customer behavior regarding the reduced customer propensity to visit and shop in traditional retail stores.

As trends move more towards casual fashion apparel, so too does the footwear.  Pre Covid, there was already less demand for ‘going out’ dressy heeled shoes and formal office shoes in favor of casual, flat, and sports styles, and this trend has been accelerated by the lockdowns and the prevalence of ‘WFH’ (working from home).

Athleisure footwear can be defined as non-performance sports/casual footwear; however performance sportwear suppliers (Nike, Adidas etc) are moving into this mainstream footwear space and as such, represent competition within the footwear sector.  PurpleTag does not supply performance sports footwear.

Key Values / Features

The company’s mission statement is: We promise to personally take care of each transaction; to make sure our website is always easy and secure; and our customer service always friendly and personal.

Main Competitors

§  Online Department Stores: Littlewoods, Amazon, Asos, McElhinneys, Sport Direct

§  Retail Department Stores and Shopping Malls: Arnotts, Dundrum Shopping Mall

§  On & Offline shoe shops: Schuh, Office, Korkeys, ShoeRack, Greenes, McElhinneys

§  Brands’ online shops: Clarks.co.uk, Crocs.ie, FitFlop.eu, Birkenstock.com

 Our Customers

A top-level analysis of customers by age and gender indicates the majority are women, with a widespread of customers by age, ranging from 18 years to 65+ years, with the biggest proportion by a small margin between 35-44 years.  Aside from 18-25 years, all other categories represent significant market segments. This is consistent with the broad brand offering which ranges from high fashion low priced footwear right up to high-quality comfort footwear typically for older customers and this profile has been consistent over the last few years.

§  Our typical customers are not necessarily internet savvy but rely on technology to make their lives easier, save time, connect with friends and brands, and/or find the quality products that they don’t find sometimes in the local shops.  Convenience is a key element.

§  However, during the pandemic, new customer segments became evident: shoppers who previously shopped in-store but have been making the move to online shopping – either because they have to when local offline stores have been closed or because they feel safer doing so.  There are also consumers who were already prolific online shoppers before the pandemic but have begun to buy from more local / Irish online retailers in a deliberate move to ‘Buy Irish | Buy Local | Support Irish Jobs’.

§  Mobile is the key platform for both traffic and sales.