ShoeMe: The Canadian Zappos

E-commerce is becoming quite the trend these days; another competitor has entered the Canadian market recently: ShoeMe. ShoeMe is a online retailer of shoes in partnership with ClearlyContacts to deliver convenience and fashion, similar to Zappos in the United States. It actually started due to Zappos shutting down shipping to the Canadian market due to difficulties of keeping its standards for fast and free return shipping, one of its major differentiating factors. ShoeMe’s founder, Sean Clark, questioned why there was no online shoe player in Canada, an entrepreneurial idea, which led Clark to utilize his networks and enter the relatively empty online shoe retail market.

Compared to Zappos, they do not have a unique corporate culture, perhaps due to it being new and the owner is not as wealthy as Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. However, they do follow a 100-day free return policy, which is not as competitive as Zappo’s 365-day free return policy, but is enough to draw in domestic customers. As the first solely online shoe retailer in the less competitive domestic market, where “Canadians ordered $18.9-billion worth of goods and services online” in 2012, there is a bright future ahead of them.

More about Zappos’ interesting corporate culture: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/14/090914fa_fact_jacobs