Why is Liberty Shoes Focusing on Tier II & III Cities for Expansion

Why is Liberty Shoes Focusing on Tier II & III Cities for Expansion
The brand is planning to open about 100 stores in Tier-II and III cities in the year 2023.

By Vaishnavi gupta , Sr Correspondent

19 Aug 2022 | 8 min read

By mid-2020, businesses across the vast majority of industries were feeling the impact of Covid-19. From shutting down of retail stores to reduced revenue, all of the brands faced a major hit in their respective businesses. In times of crisis, Liberty Shoes as a brand focused more on marketing communications.

Liberty’s post-pandemic business strategy included factors like focusing on enhancing manufacturing capacity, as imports from developing countries like India increased post-pandemic, and the demand for casual-wear trends increased. Further, the brand penetrated into the e-commerce sector and expanded the brand to Tier-II and III cities.

“Our growth this year stood at 8.28 percent compared to last year. The rise in the income of the various sectors improved employment and living standards in the country has led to the expansion in the size of this market which calls for constant growth and innovation,” Anupam Bansal, Executive Director of Retail, Liberty Shoes said.

Distribution Play

Liberty’s market is dynamically increasing with the presence of 3 distribution channels – brand stores, institution sales, and e-commerce. Liberty Shoes has made its presence felt in over 25 countries including countries like France, Germany, and Italy to name a few

Currently, the brand has 500 outlets across India, primarily in the states of UP, Bihar, and Jharkhand. It is planning to open about 100 stores in Tier-II and III cities in the year 2023.

“These will be a mix of company-owned and operated stores (COCO) and franchise-run stores. In some key markets, where the rentals are very high, franchise options do not work out. There are only COCO stores, which work out in favor, but for the remote and developing markets where Capex is limited and ROI is better, we opt for the franchise route for our business,” Bansal stated

“We would like to reach a wider customer base, whether through partnership association or through company-owned stores. We are happy with both ways as our main target is to expand our footprint. We focused on both online and offline platforms for a better reach to the customers,” he added.

On the online front, apart from its own website, Liberty is available on Ajio, Myntra, Amazon, Flipkart, Tata Cliq, Snapdeal, Ajio B2C, Fynd, Udaan, Shoe konnect, Moglix, Solv, Simsim, Trell, and Snapmint.

“Currently, our e-commerce business accounts for about 5 percent of our total sales. We plan to take it up to 10-15 percent in the near future,” Bansal asserted.

Product Innovation

The brand is available in most footwear categories. At present, it has 10 sub-brands, and its best performing categories include Healers, a comfort-based brand category, Leap7x, Leap7x, an athleisure brand category, and a sports-wear collection. 

“We are also adding a new range in our two sub-brands, Healers and Leap 7X to cater to evolving needs of the consumers. While Healers is positioned in the comfort segment, Leap 7x is positioned in the athleisure segment. We will begin launching the new collections under these two sub-brands for the fall-winter season from August. We believe the two sub-brands could contribute 30-50 percent to topline in the next 2-3 years,” he noted.

The brand is also sharpening its premiumization strategy as it hopes to garner a bigger share of the comfort and athleisure segments. In the past three months, Liberty has observed a surge in consumption. After two years, it has seen strong growth in the school shoe segment with the reopening of schools.

“We are now looking forward to a strong festival season in the upcoming months. Overall, we are targeting a 25-30 percent growth over 2019 levels,” Bansal said.

Why the Focus on Sneaker Business?

The sneaker business in India is a million-dollar industry that was not even touched by the Pandemic. The same is on a rapid growth trajectory. The Indian sneakers market revenue is $2.60 billion in 2022, and the market is expected to grow annually by 11.58 percent.

“Each brand that comes into the market offers certain distinctive features. Being an undisputed platform of comfort, which our footwear is known for especially in the sneakers segment, we focus on creating that emotional connection with our audience which eventually leads to better connectivity with our customers through our different marketing campaigns. With some new products that we have recently introduced, we see the fashion quotient also increasing with our brand,” he stated.

Staying at the Forefront

Liberty Shoes covers 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, and Promotion). Being one of the leading shoe manufacturers, Liberty Shoes offers a variety of products for different occasions covering every age group and income category. The brand uses the traditional method of promoting its products through digital media, and print and TV advertisements and it also has an active in-house marketing team.

Liberty is focusing on leveraging various marketing channels, including ATL, BTL, digital space, e-commerce website, and marketplaces. Earlier, the marketing strategy involved only ATL channels and not digital activations. The brand is also leveraging social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, to drive social commerce for the brand.

“Omnichannel is a big buzzword in today’s business strategies. It simply means offering customers a seamless brand, message, and experience across every channel (including print, email, online, and in-store).  We are currently taking essential steps towards leveraging CRM, and building a uniform experience of online and offline platforms for the customers,” Bansal concluded.

By mid-2020, businesses across the vast majority of industries were feeling the impact of Covid-19. From shutting down of retail stores to reduced revenue, all of the brands faced a major hit in their respective businesses. In times of crisis, Liberty Shoes as a brand focused more on marketing communications.

Liberty’s post-pandemic business strategy included factors like focusing on enhancing manufacturing capacity, as imports from developing countries like India increased post-pandemic, and the demand for casual-wear trends increased. Further, the brand penetrated into the e-commerce sector and expanded the brand to Tier-II and III cities.

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