From the NRF BIG Show: How Steve Madden Leveraged Mobile to Build its Brand

The mobile revolution presents a similar opportunity to the one the internet provided in the late 90s. Realizing the fast-growing phenomenon that is mobile shopping, cross-channel women's shoes retailer Steve Madden made plans to provide consumers the best mobile shopping experience. At the National Retail Federation's BIG Show in New York City this week, Andrew Koven, Steve Madden's president of e-commerce and customer experience, co-presented a session where he shared some secrets to his company's recent success in the mobile space.

From April 2010 to December 2010, Steve Madden's mobile site saw 1.4 million visitors, who spent an average of six minutes on the site. The brand sold 12,000 products, equating to direct revenues over $900,000. When you factor in the total revenues influenced by the mobile site, that figure falls somewhere between $4.5 million to $5.4 million. So how did Steve Madden do it?

Leveraging Point of Sale
Customers purchasing from you are already a fan of your brand. They're more likely to opt in to your mobile efforts. When customers check out at a Steve Madden store, they're asked to opt in to the company's mobile campaign, where they'll receive exclusive offers and a chance to win a $100 gift card. The process is easy. All the customer has to provide is basic information such as name, birthday, gender and, most importantly, "what information you'd like to receive from us?"

This information, including the customer's interests (chosen from future promotions, new products, online and in-store deals, and events) is used to build a profile, which is then put into a database.

Growing the Database
Steve Madden's database grows roughly 2 percent each week via point-of-sale calls to action. The brand also integrates special offers available on its Twitter and Facebook pages, as well as a digital signage and music campaign to help grow its mobile database. For example, shoppers in Steve Madden's brick-and-mortar stores can view large video screens that display music videos. The videos prompt shoppers to text a keyword to a specific number, where they can find out what brands the artist is wearing.

Using a variety of touchpoints, including social media, SMS text messaging, digital signage, email and its e-commerce website, Steve Madden launched its "Faves" campaign. The three-week promotion saw 3,492 total participants, with 2,051 of those joining via text. Because this campaign was leveraged through five different platforms, Steve Madden was able to grow its database 4 percent during the short-lived campaign.

"This just shows you that mobile is a viable option," said Koven.

A popular strategy for growing a database is by offering special offers, coupons or rebates to consumers. Koven cautioned against this approach, however. "You don't want to have to buy your customer's loyalty, or have to offer coupons at every touchpoint," he said. "It can erode your business."

By offering something its competitors don't — in-store style assistants — Steve Madden has built its brand. And if you're not in-store, all's not lost. The in-store style assistants can also be contacted via text message. Shoppers can get fashion advice, like what heels to wear with the latest skinny jeans, delivered right to their phone.

"It becomes a push vs. pull thing then," said Koven. "We push the information to our customers, it's then what do they pull from it? At the end of the day, mobile is about communication."

Steve Madden has certainly communicated with its customers. Through point-of-sale calls to action and strategies designed to grow its database and build its brand, the retailer found big numbers in the mobile space. It leveraged several different touchpoints to successfully increase its sales and build customer loyalty — all via mobile.