The managing director of one of Cheltenham’s oldest shoe shops has revealed how social media tools and training helped the business to take more than £50,000 during a six-hour period last year.
Like other non-essential retail stores, Keith Scarrott Shoes, on the Gloucestershire town’s Promenade high street, was forced to temporarily close during the second national lockdown in November 2020.
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement the shop had to hastily rearrange plans for an in-store celebration to mark its 45th anniversary.
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The business, which designs and sells ladies footwear and boots that are made in Italy and Spain, chose instead to hold an online flash sale offering discounts of up to 45% off.
Sophie Scarrott, who took over the running of the family business following father Keith’s retirement 15-years-ago, spent £200 on Facebook adverts for the sale which was held on the first day of the lockdown. The sale ended up generating about £52,500.
Ms Scarrott said skills and tools she and her team acquired from undergoing training with social media engagement platform Maybe Tech, had given them the skills required to pull in online customers, when they were prevented from coming to their bricks and mortar store.
Maybe’s platform allows businesses to better identify and connect with its customers through platforms such as Facebook and Instagram in order to drive traffic onto their websites, and in the case of high street retailers, into their physical premises too.
The technology is also designed to help companies analyse their presence on social media, compare the impact of their online activity to competitors and cross-promote other businesses.
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Bristol City Council and Maybe Tech are offering free training in the technology over the next year to businesses on the city’s 47 high streets to help them recover from the impact of the Covi-19 pandemic.
Ms Scarrott said: “Footwear is one of the hardest things to sell online. It has one of the highest return rates because there's not many people who can walk into a shoe shop and buy the right pair without trying them on first. We really focus on individual design and quality. To actually get that across online is quite a challenge.
“We had to have a go though. You hear of so many businesses closing and blaming the internet, but you can't stagnate while everyone else around you embraces it.
“We’ve got a strong brand image and we just wanted to make sure that we fully embraced every opportunity through Maybe and did everything really well.
“We threw ourselves into it and it’s paid off dividends. In the short time we’ve gone online with our website that Maybe have been involved in helping us with, we’re just about to hit a turnover of £1million, which is something we didn’t think was possible.
"And that’s got nothing to do with our retail store business, that’s just online. So to do that in quite a short time with a product like high end ladies footwear, is pretty impressive I think. A huge part of that is down to Maybe and using all of the tools that they provided us with.”
Ms Scarrott and her small team of staff shoot all of the photos and videos that are used on their social media platforms themselves. Even the models who appear in the promotional material work part-time at the shop during holidays from their university studies.
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While the business had social media accounts before collaborating with Maybe, Ms Scarrott said the training had really helped the business to find their target audience online and had “undoubtedly” helped the business throughout the pandemic.
“Our typical client is probably in the age range that is the last to come to social media," she said. "It was something that they probably didn't like at first and perhaps have had their perception of it changed after using it to connect with far away relatives, where before they might have thought it was just for people who wanted to show you what their lunch looks like.
“But things have changed now and that customer is on social media all the time. We were slightly apprehensive but Maybe taught us that our customers were there on social media and waiting to spend money.”
According to Maybe Tech research, 66% of shoppers look online for inspiration. Polly Barnfield, chief executive of Maybe Tech, believes high street businesses need to improve their "digital game".
“High streets need infrastructure that until now has only been available for online businesses. They need to communicate with shoppers in real-time and be able to showcase what’s available," she said. “In order to compete, high street businesses need to up their digital game, promote their physical stores and collaborate.”