Today, we meet Simon, co-founder of KissMyShoe, who shares with us his vision of retail, e-commerce, and entrepreneurship.
What’s the concept of Kiss my shoe?
Kiss my shoe proposes a brand new shopping experience, halfway from numeric and real life. You’re looking for a red pair of Nike? Find it on our website kissmyshoe.com or in our mobile app. “Tinder for shoes”, we reference every available model around you. If you fall in love with one pair of shoes, you can verify if it’s available and find them in the nearest store. With this new system, KissMyShoe strengthens awareness of brands and online shoe stores and highlight them meanwhile. Finally, we have a simple mission: bring clients to a physical store.
Tell us about your career path?
I set up KissMyShoe back in June 2015 with my brother Jean. Our CTO Corentin and community manager Yann joined us in 2017. Jean is an engineer and worked many years in South America for a development project, I also traveled a lot and then I set up a web agency in Toulouse for 2 years. After these years of personals adventures, we wanted to share one together.
How did you come up with the idea?
The idea came after an experience that I lived, that we surely all lived. I spent an afternoon shopping in Paris where I was looking for a beige pair of derby to wear in a marriage. After several hours of walking and 6 stores, I was unable to find what I was looking for. Why stores, that are suffering that much of e-commerce, don’t supply/provide to their clients access to the products they sell? 98% of consumers like to buy their items in the physical store.
Where do we undertake better ? Paris, Toulouse?
I think we undertake properly in a connected town, that supplies good tools and good supports structures. We have the chance to live in Toulouse that has a real numeric politic. We have been selected by the regional incubator where we can benefit from financial advantage for our early stages. We have access to offices and on a professional network which provides advice for our development. The quality of life between Paris and Toulouse is totally different. If you want my opinion, the down is much better, and the life quality is joined by the benefit of its ‘human’ size, the rents are lower as well. ( I live in a big house, near to the downtown area), and do we need to talk about the weather? However, Paris is the center of business where it’s easier to meet leaders, marketing executives of big brands, investors and potentials business angels. For now, the better strategy for us is to work in Toulouse and come several times a month in Paris at Look Forward; when we have to. Paris is one hour away from Toulouse by plane.
What’s the biggest challenge you had to handle?
We have thousands of challenges to face as entrepreneurs. The toughest for me was to accept to change our position while we already have developed an affiliate footwear network.
Recording to you, how will be the footwear retail in 10 years?
Historics retails stores are lag behind. Independents multi-brands have more and more difficulties to keep up with this digital revolution and its new challenges. They have small stocks, not a good digital presence for some, big brands favor solids retailers with strong digital strategy. Multi-brands retailers such as Foot Lockers or Courir wipe out their competitors with strong omnichannel strategies and best locations. There is a big change to come, in 10 years the boundaries between digital and real life will no longer exist. We would be able to directly scan a shoe in a billboard with our smartphone, and buy it in a closed store or have its deliver in our home the same day. Or a customized shopping experience by means of data: a customized welcome when you come to the store, the shoes you like with the right size with the big help of KissMyShoe to improve the shopping experience. You can already notice this change with omnichannel strategies of big groups that are improving the experience between digital and real life, like Zalando which is starting to open physicals stores, Spartoo buying André and its 165 stores to create a connected store, click & collect.
What does this year of incubation at Look Forward mean to you?
KissMyShoe is really pleased to be a part of this adventure. It’s rewarding to be selected by a benchmark of this sector. We are impressed by the quality of the support we have, the implication of our mentor and each expert that advice us from the business until analytics. It’s an essential support for us! Furthermore, it’s a special year for KissMyShoe: our team is getting bigger and bigger, and more and more clients are subscribing on our website… So many good things are to come!