Women's shoes step up fashion

Discount Store News, May 17, 1993 by Jill Lettich

Discounters are making an imprint in the women's non-athletic shoe market according to a report from MRCA Research, Stamford, Conn. Discounters were the big winners both in increased dollar sales and increased unit sales in 1992: the only retail tier to perform so well in both categories.

The success of the discounters in the shoe area, or at least their ability to hold their own in a tough market, is due to an increased emphasis on fashion and continually sharp pricing.

Target and Venture, considered to be more "upscale" in their fashion choices, have each increased selections of leather shoes for women, priced from about $15 to just over $20.

Target's women's shoes include familiar private label brands for the store: Honors, Merona and Trend Basics. Targets offers different colored flats and multi colored sandals under these labels.

Although brand names are not as essential in the non-athletic shoe market--even for brand-conscious women--some stores do play up brands.

Venture offers Dr. Scholls licensed brand shoes in its stores. It recently featured open-toed woven leather shoes by Dr. Scholls for about $14.99.

Wal-Mart is on trend with its shoe offerings for women with fashion and pricing. A selection of vinyl two-toned spectator shoes at the chain are available for about $10.99 under its Premiere Collection label.

Despite the success of discounters, the women's shoe market overall has felt the pangs of the last recession. Discount shoe chains were the only other retail group to show some increases during 1992. The bad economic climate resulted in a market shift fueled by changing buying habits which also mirrors how retailing has evolved. Discounters, off-pricers and value-priced specialty stores are the growing retail categories in footwear.

"Discount no longer has a bad connotation," said Clint Klein, information services, MCRA. While it may be harder concept for consumers to embrace in apparel and footwear, it seems they have finally made the transition. Cross-shopping and value hunting have become the norm for virtually every consumer income group.

Unit sales are the most telling statistics for women's shoes at discounters. According to MRCA, 82.8 million pairs were sold at discount in '91. That went to 85.7 million pairs in '92, a 3.5% increase. These numbers exclude athletic shoes.

Discount shoe chains, such as Payless Shoe Source and Parade of Shoes, were the other tier to show a gain. Unit sales went from 118.6 million pairs in 1991 to 122.7 million pairs in 1992. All other tiers showed a unit sales decline.

Discounters had an even more impressive showing in dollars sales, with an increase of 3%. That number may not seem impressive at first, until one realizes that every other tier reported a decline in sales.

Dollar sales for discounters went from $656.7 million in 1991 to $675.7 million in 1992.

The biggest losers on the scorecard are department stores. Their own economic woes and shrinking numbers caused sales to decline about 9% last year. Department stores still account for the largest dollar volume in women's shoes ($1.8 billion), due mostly to more expensive offerings.

One new arena to consider is the membership warehouses. Klein noted that as a group, the units have not yet made a great impact in this area. He estimates that clubs accounted for about $60 million in sales for 1992, a small portion of the $9.7 billion women's shoe industry.