United States Shoe Sales, 2020-2021
Completion Date:
Project Overview
Americans simply love looking good because if you look good, you feel good. The desire by Americans to look and feel good starts at the bottom. When you meet someone or see someone the first thing you do is check out the footwear. Shoes are the gatekeeper to a person’s soul and Americans love spending to make their soul feel and look amazing. Not only are shoes a gatekeeper, but they are part of the American $88.47 billion shoe (footwear/sneaker) industry. The shoe industry in the United States is only a tasting of the bigger global shoe industry worth $365 billion which is under the umbrella of the global fashion industry that’s worth $2.5 trillion! This dashboard gives insight into America’s shoe sales (2020, 2021) which digs into the industry’s sales number of units sold, selling price, and market share by brand, by region, by color, and months within the two year study. The information in the dashboard gives a great picture as to what brands are selling, where they are being sold, and what colors people want to look good in wearing with the underlying theme of whether or not sales recovered in 2021 from the global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 when the nation’s economy was pushed edge.
Role:
Problem Statement
The American shoe (sneakers) industry’s GARGANTUAN challenge was whether-or-not sales between the years of 2020-2021 recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic hit the U.S. hard economically in early and throughout 2020, and by the end of 2021 the country was beginning to take steps to try and get back to some reminiscent of normalcy. This dashboard delves into the overall low shoes sales during the pandemic year and how sales appear to rebound nationally the following year in 2021. Even though the sales appear to rebound nationally, numbers do not lie. Yes, between January, 2020 and January, 2021 Sales increased 59%, BUT inversely the same sale matrix, Sales, dipped in the Southwest region by 6%. WHY? Again, numbers do not lie which is why this dashboard solves the macro-and-micro sales questions of whether or not the nation’s shoe sales recovered and either why or why not? This analysis of 2020-2021 will help the industry adjust and adapt from a major past event in order to continue moving forward and growing both at the national and regional levels.
Executive Summary
Data Dictionary
Key Takeaways
Next Steps
Brands: Without a doubt Adidas and Nike rule the number of shoes sold and revenue in all five regions in the U.S. Both these juggernauts will undoubtedly continue being either number one or two in normal years, pandemic years, and probably through recessions. The suggestion is not for these two, the focus is on the third spot for sales, Asics. Yes, nationally Asics has the third most sales but only because of the sales in the South, Southwest, and Midwest. Skechers has the third most sales in the West whereas Converse has the third most sales in the Northeast. In the West, Asics makes $477m less than Skechers and $61m less than Converses in the Northeast. My recommendation for Asics to become a true number three nationwide is to really delve into the numbers of the regions that sell well and compare it to the regions of the West and Northeast, ask the question WHY, then begin with a data analysis of the amount of advertising per region, everything demographic which includes age-ethnicity-socio/economic-urban/rural, and then come up with a campaign to increase sales about 10-20% based upon the data analysis.
Northeast/Midwest: Of the five regions the Northeast and Midwest are the two regions with the smallest number of sales. The Northeast population makes up 17.1% of the nation’s population but only has 12.5% of national shoe sales; the Midwest makes up 20.6% of the nation’s population but only has 6.25% of national shoe sales. The Northwest and Midwest only compile for 18.75% of national sales which is still behind the Southwest which lost sales. The Northwest sold 18.75% less than that of the West and South and the Midwest sold 25% less than West and South as well, BUT the Midwest only has 3.1% less population than the West. These two regions should have comparable sales to the top two regions, West and South. The Midwest has major metropolitan areas like Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, St. Louis, or Cincinnati to name a few whereas the Northwest has New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Baltimore to name a few but they greatly lag behind in sales from the top selling regions. My recommendation is to set a goal for the demographics who are willing to spend money on shoes to play, work, and for fashion. In order to catch up with sales, the campaign to raise sales in the Northeast and Midwest has to be a multi-tiered approach from social media like TikTok, to the radio, to billboard advertising, to celebrities wearing and talking about shoes, to all the professional athletic teams. The Northwest would be fun to work in with advertising since it is so highly densely populated, word should spread quickly.
Southwest: The numbers are somewhat obscure with the Southwest region. The region is third in sales but the sales numbers are interestingly bad. Southwest had lower sales in 2021 than in 2020 by 4%; for example, in September, 2021 the region had a 47% drop in sales from September, 2020; and Adidas, yes that Adidas, had a 10% drop in sales. Someone dropped the ball in advertising or something happened with this region where customers did not go to the brick and mortar stores to buy shoes or decided not to purchase shoes online. Something happened and that something needs to be found, understood, and a game plan to never let that happen again during a pandemic or not. Was that something economic, cultural, political, or a total fluke. My recommendation would be to hire an outside firm to slice and dice the sales data comparatively to the other regions then it is highly recommended to look at state (in the region) and regional governmental policies that could have affected sales. For instance, did state governments withhold or deny federal pandemic funding; were people afraid of losing their job and chose not to buy shoes due to government policies? Either way, hiring an outside firm would definitely explain the why and what could be done in the future to not have a whole region take a loss in sales.
Overall Recommendation: In sales, especially sales during a historic pandemic, and even though sales were in the tens of billions, the why has to be understood. The reason sales were good nationally and certain regions has to be understood in order to learn and continue that growth whereas the reason sales fell in certain regions also has to be understood for continued growth. In fact, my opinion is that the regions where sales lacked be understood more than those who did well. It is my overall recommendation that shoe (sneaker) sales are fully understood during the pandemic in 2020 and post-pandemic in 2021 by region, state, and county. Think of what political campaigns do to understand their voters, they break down all their data from national, to region, to state, to county, and finish with zip codes. I think going to the county level should suffice but anything less is not recommended. A thorough study on all three levels (regional, state, and county) of shoe sales, get that data established, then do a comparative analysis between shoe sales, clothing sales, food sales, home sales, entertainment sales, and even gym membership sales of all three levels as well to get an understanding in order to develop a games plan to increase sales.
Deployment
