“We’re helping them buy into a lifestyle”: Accent Group launches footwear marketplace

Dean Blake

21st Nov 2019

Accent Group yesterday launched dedicated footwear marketplace Crèmm – a platform that brings together domestic and international footwear brands.

Crèmm features 50 brands at launch, and around 12,000 skus – both set to double over the next six to 12 months. 

According to Accent Group chief executive Daniel Agostinelli, the launch of the marketplace will provide a number of benefits to its existing brands, as well as attract new international brands. 

“Crèmm will provide our brands the opportunity to reach new customers by sitting among leading international and local brands in a new destination for footwear,” Agostinelli said. 

“Accent Group has significant knowledge of the target consumer and existing retail infrastructure to help rapidly grow and elevate new technologies, which will be beneficial for the growth of Crèmm.”

Chief digital officer Mark Teperson said the launch will fill a gap in the Australian retail market, with consumers seeking a centralised footwear platform.

As well as being a destination for product, Crèmm will feature editorially driven content executed through working with fashion influencers. 

“They’ll be curating stories of the moment for consumers, and that could be styled around the time of year – the races, the festive season, or festivals – so we are creating edits around what is happening in our consumers lives,” Teperson told Internet Retailing. 

“We feel like that’s a way to be more relevant to our customers. We’re not selling a category, we’re helping them buy into a lifestyle.”

Crèmm will also serve to drive sales across Accent Group’s existing brands, which have a low instance of cross selling. 

“This suggests that we have really good segmentation, but also that represents an opportunity for us to cross pollinate and take a greater share of wallet in the category,” Teperson said. 

This effort could grow Accent Group’s 20 to 25 per cent market share in the footwear category, and help further grow digital sales, which are in excess of $100 million and are growing at a rate four times faster than the broader footwear market.

“Footwear sales in the last 12 months have grown 23 per cent, and we grew at 100 per cent, so I think it just further lends itself to demonstrate the focus and attention we put on the category,” Teperson said.