25A Whats next?

Existing market

What I think is next in the existing market is to constantly expand the selection of shoes available as well as expand the services available to do cleanings and restorations of shoes that customers already own.

From the three interviews I conducted, I received some very helpful feedback on my ideas to improve and grow in my existing market. One thing all three talked about was effective advertising. One major part of growing in my existing market is to expand my customer base and increase customer awareness of the products and services that are provided.

I presented the idea I had for growth starting with expanding the selection available to include as many brands as possible both from large and more niche companies. They all thought this was an obvious but necessary move. Not everyone has the same style so the more offerings that are made available the more customers will be attracted to the site.

Next, I talked about expanding the services to provide cleaning and restorations of shoes the customers already own. Two of the people I interviewed didn't seem very interested in this service as it isn't something they've done with their shoes in the past, but I believe at the right price and with the right marketing they could see how useful it would be. The third person who is very interested in shoes said that this would be a great thing to offer for people who really care about their shoes.

New Market

The new market I think I could provide value to is a B2B market with shoe stores and manufacturers of shoes. The value I would provide would be with the service of cleaning and refurbishing the shoes. These stores and resellers could outsource the cleaning to my venture for a cost for cheaper than it would cost them to do it themselves. This could be achieved because this will be a service my venture is already providing to customers and due to the economies of scale the more stores that outsource their cleaning to us the lower we will be able to drive down the cost.

The two people I interviewed were my friend that works at foot locker and one of his coworkers. They believed that the service provided here would definitely be helpful to their store and similar companies, but most of the cleaning they do is light dirt on returns and not deeper cleans or refurbishing.

What surprised me the most about this market is how little the employees thought about this process other than the fact that they don't like to be the one that has to do the cleaning. What this shows me is that the employees would be happy to rid themselves of this task and that there is probably a better method for this which is an entrepreneurial opportunity.

I think my assumptions about this market was correct. I didn't know for sure going in how much cleaning the stores has to do but I assumed some of the returns had to be cleaned to be presented and sold to new customers who are expecting shoes in new and mint condition. However, I don't think this market is as attractive as I initially believed because most of the cleaning the stores do is light and might not be worth the time and effort to send it elsewhere to be cleaned and then returned.