Omnichannel helped Skoringen win back a category they thought they owned
A new content universe followed by a super successful ‘baby package’ made Skoringen the king of children’s footwear once again.
In Denmark, Skoringen has been synonymous with children’s footwear for decades. But a couple of years back, their perpetual momentum started to slip.
We started to lose visibility on Google in regards to children's footwear and felt we had to react. Sooner rather than later. Therefore, we swiftly launched ‘Skoringen Børneunivers’ ('Skoringen Children's Universe')- a brand new content universe with articles, videos, guides on children's feet, and footwear.
Skoringen is one of the few retailers in Denmark with a Customer Data Platform (CDP). It gives them a 360° single-view of customers so that they can create deeply personalised experiences across channels.
Instead of sending out “one-to-many” newsletters, they are able to send out 1:1 personalised communication to an audience who has already shown interest in a specific product/category.
Analysis secured instant impact
Before the launch of the new content universe, Skoringen worked their socks off identifying the specific search words where they lost most terrain.
Our thorough analysis helped us identify specific key words and phrases. Subsequently, we made sure these words and phrases were highlighted in our articles in ‘Skoringen Børneunivers'.
Skoringen’s analytic footwork paid off. Following the launch of the new content universe, they soon experienced a substantial rise in Google visibility.
Spurred on by the impactful content innovation, Skoringen now wanted to take things one step further.
‘Sold out’ baby package
Shortly after the launch of the new children’s footwear universe, Skoringen introduced their free ‘baby package’, which proved to be an instant hit with the customers with newborns or babies en route.
The baby package contained a string of handy items for toddlers, such as non-slip socks, miniature books, play toys, and gift cards offering future discounts.
“Our customers ordered the baby package online, but we secured traffic to our stores by making a condition that the package was picked up in one of our stores. Furthermore, parents signed up for our newsletter, providing their newborns date of birth,” Peter Eistrup explains. He continues,
Thereby, we could offer them useful information that was specially tailored to the development of their infants' feet, enable our employees to start up a dialogue about children’s footwear, and also offer the relevant shoes at the right time agewise.
The baby package proved to be a grand success, selling out not once, but twice, and Peter Eistrup considers the baby package to be Skoringen’s first full-blown omnichannel experience securing an elegant, seamless connection between online and in-store.
I'm proud that we managed to create a successful and unique content universe that resonates so well with the DNA of Skoringen by analysing the shortages of our old setup. We changed our strategy from focusing less on hardcore, tactical sales to focusing more on providing information and guidance.
The importance of positioning
Skoringen not only sells shoes to children, they also have a wide selection of sneakers and other footwear for adults.
So why is it so important for Skoringen to stand their ground in regards to keeping a strong position in the children's shoe category?
“In a market with a growing number of competitors - especially many pure players - we need to keep the position as ‘the family's favorite shoe store’. The children's universe enabled us to establish a tighter connection than ever with the parents - helping them in their search for the first pair of shoes for their little one while establishing an important connection,” Peter Eistrup states and continues,
For a chain like Skoringen, it is essential that we create loyal bonds to the families as early as possible. This ensures that we maximise the possible customer lifetime value, which is of utmost importance if we are to thrive in a market where the competition will always be fierce.
