Australian footwear brand Alias Mae has replatformed its website following a boost in online trading through the pandemic.
Alias Mae’s visual communications manager and design assistant Emily Crockford said while wholesale is a massive portion of the business, this has changed post-COVID. The footwear brand has over 90 whole accounts.
“Naturally when COVID hit our online business showed growth and much to our fulfilment this has continued even after the pandemic,” Crockford said.
“As a result, it is hard to specify which is a bigger driver of the business as they both garner significant traffic.
“Already having a strong presence online, COVID really was just a growing experience for our team and business. It forced us to hone in on our individual skill sets and think outside of the box as the online market was growing and we could quickly become a small fish in a big pond if we didn't do so.
“We re-evaluated marketing strategies, our approach to purchasing, our e-comm content and website experience.”
Speaking on the replatforming, Crockford said the reporting and simplicity of the new platform made it an easy choice.
“We are easily able to implement and oversee strategies that in the years prior were quite clunky and honestly hard to do,” she said.
“The priority when making this transition was to execute the move during a quiet trade period so that we could ensure any issues that we may or may not stumble across wouldn't affect our customer experience and sales.
“Our customer definitely shops with more confidence, we see a lot less abandonment of carts and our customer seems much more trigger happy with our product as we have developed and nurtured that trust with our customer over the years.”
Alias Mae has also expanded its sizing ranges, with its upcoming Autumn/Winter season including sizes up to 42 for all shoes developed by the brand.
“We intend to keep playing to our strengths,” Crockford said. “We dipped our toe in the men's footwear pool momentarily and have decided to stay focused on building our women's footwear brand in order for it to reach its full potential.”