How Liberty Shoes Ltd., reinvented its online business to emerge as an omni-channel player that is relevant to its customers
By Anurima Das
The journey of Liberty Shoes Ltd. started in 1954 with the founders making just 4 pairs of shoes a day. Sixty eight years later, in 2022, Liberty makes 50,000 pairs of shoes a day which are retailed in 25 countries. In India, it has 450 stores, out of which 250 are franchise owned and 200 are company owned and operated.
Over the years, the brand evolved from a manufacturer to a retailer of global repute by focusing on 3Ts—thinking, technology and timing. However, for the company technology integration has largely been about focusing on solutions like SAP, ERP, POS, and the like.
But growing in today’s digital world needs a lot more. Realising this prompted the brand to associate with GreenHonchos to explore and understand the brand’s e-commerce potential.
The Business Need
The biggest challenge for the brand was to rediscover its e-commerce potential. The company went back to the drawing board, starting from scratch. This required knowing its customer better, which in turn required connecting the dots across touchpoints. The next biggest challenge was investment in the right technology and then aligning and integrating these technologies to create a seamless effect offline and online.
The Solution
Acting as an enabler GreenHonchos helped Liberty Ltd. build an omnichannel outlook. It worked closely with the SMP, ERP data, putting it through the right process to initially understand customers and then create content as per their needs and personality. Medium and customer persona empowered the content at hand, which the team optimized to make it reach the right consumer. The content was made more consumer-driven by understanding what it really means to the consumers. It was also tailored to what Google would pick up to increase the brand’s visibility online, which was almost a blank slate for the longest of time.
The Impact
Liberty started its journey of e-commerce with a blank slate and now with GreenHonchos in the last 2-3 years the brand is drawing 8-10% of its sale from online touchpoints. The brand has been able to create a differential product strategy, which was completely absent earlier. Now, almost 20% to 30% of the merchandise put forth by the company is now developed keeping in mind the e-commerce customer. The flowing back of SFP information has become more real-time, which too a null space a few years back. Now, Liberty is focusing on re-engaging with its customers and keeping them for life with the help of GreenHonchos instead of just targeting new customers. It also aims to add 100 stores in the coming year and become a relevant omni-channel player.
