Mr. Jeswani, please tell us how and for whom in 1990 in the Emirates, where most of the population wore open slippers, the first Shoe Mart store was opened?
I was then selling baby products at the Baby Shop in Bahrain. And there for the first time I came across the fact that it turns out that it is not so easy to buy children's shoes, to choose the right size, color, style. It was then that the idea came of opening a specialized shoe store for children and adults, where you could buy any shoes, for every taste and budget. And so, having arrived in Dubai and looking around, we realized that the Emirates market already has either expensive boutiques and company stores, or small shops selling cheap and low-quality goods, but there is nothing like a large department store that sells a good, beautiful and inexpensive footwear. So the first Shoe Mart was opened in Dubai. The basic concept of our stores, both then and now, is a shoe “supermarket with a self-service system”, in which any buyer can take whatever he wants from the shelves, try on and buy the shoes he likes, practically without any help.
But the selection of collections of shoes and accessories has changed qualitatively over the past 20 years, right?
Yes, if in 1990 our concept was, in fact, revolutionary, since many brands were poorly represented in Dubai, somewhere around 1995 we had to think about replenishing the assortment and many other things. So, we have increased the staff of our sales consultants, focusing on quality customer service. That is, the idea of full self-service has grown into buying shoes with the help of a competent seller. We have significantly expanded the list of shoe brands and its price range.
At the same time, the number of Shoe Mart stores was also constantly growing. Currently, only 27 Shoe Mart stores operate in the United Arab Emirates, another 90 are located in other countries of the Persian Gulf region, such as Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Oman and Kuwait, and beyond.
In recent years, we have significantly increased our range of bags and accessories at affordable prices. We sell over 9 million pairs of shoes per year in the region. This allows us to be proud of our successes.
What is ahead?
Over the 20 years of our work in this market, we realized that we can compete with many brands and shoe brands. The main thing for us is the support of our customers who value our quality, our prices and our approach to each client. Throughout its existence, the Shoe Mart network has created intercompany brands such as Missy, Paprika, Peppermint, Little Missy, Barefeet, Juniors and Duchini, and has become a regional franchise partner of international brands such as Kurt Geiger, Dumond, ECCO, Bata, Pablosky, Lee Cooper and Bianco. Of course, we are not going to dwell on the results achieved, and we will work on our further development by developing new markets in the region of the Middle East and North Africa using the franchising system for this.
Thanks for the conversation, Mr. Manu. Allow me to wish you continued success.
