Was Kizik’s Digital-First Shoe Brand Made For Brick & Mortar Stores?

Kizik is a digital-first shoe startup that sells a new kind of sneaker, which lets wearers put the shoe on and take it off without unlacing it or breaking the heel’s upper part in the process. The brand’s value proposition has attracted a minority stake investment from Nike. Now Kizik is trying on a shoe store for size as it launches its first standalone physical retail presence.

Kizik Fashion Place opened in the brand’s hometown of Salt Lake City earlier this month, Forbes reported. The launch of the location comes two months after the brand partnered to put its products in a small number of Nordstrom stores, representing a quick move from being an online-only business to one with both wholesale relationships and a permanent physical one. The brand is already reporting increased conversions in-store due to customers having the opportunity to try out the shoes’ unique design in person. Kizik is also anticipating fewer returns, increased average order value and more visibility leading to more website conversions.

Kizik’s expectations of more online customers because of a physical presence tracks with the results of a 2018 ICSC study, which found that retailers with physical stores experience more web traffic. According to the study, opening a new physical store leads to an average 37 percent increase in web traffic, with the digital presence experiencing a “halo effect” from the physical store.

Data likewise shows that e-commerce apparel operations lose far more on returns than non-online retailers, with average return rates reaching 30 percent or 40 percent (depending on the study) and 50 percent around the holidays. Shoes were the most returned apparel product within a 12-month period, coming in slightly ahead of bags and accessories, according to a 2022 Statista forecast.

Kizik is not the first direct-to-consumer shoe brand to appear on Nordstrom’s shelves. Allbirds, in June 2022, announced that it would be partnering to sell products through Nordstrom and a few other select retailers. Allbirds products, before that, had only been available online and through the company’s branded retail outlets.