Marketing is local at Shoe Carnival

Most consumers would prefer to buy products from nearby stores. Shoe Carnival Inc., an Evansville, Indiana-based specialty footwear retailer with 404 stores, is responding to that preference with a new local marketing initiative.



Shoe Carnival has implemented the SIM Partners Velocity local marketing automation platform, to scale local search marketing in an effort to drive incremental in-store traffic and sales, as well as improve the overall customer experience.



Shoe Carnival is now able to cleanse and distribute its store location data to ensure visibility and accuracy across listings in local and mobile search results, online directories, maps, and more. Through Velocity’s location publishing capabilities, Shoe Carnival’s search and mobile optimized store location pages feature unique content for each store, as well as a responsive store locator.



To turn “near me” searches into store purchases, Velocity Wallet offers are being tested in key locations by leveraging a consumer’s mobile wallet. Once downloaded to a consumer’s mobile device, mobile wallet offers can be redeemed in-store as well as used for location-based GPS and beacon notifications. Efforts across the program will be measured at the individual store, regional, and national levels with Velocity’s reporting and insights capabilities.



“Ensuring the very best experience across the entire buyer journey is a top priority for Shoe Carnival, and that journey often begins with a local ‘near me’ search ¬ whether it be via a search engine, a map search, or another discovery outlet,” said Todd Beurman, senior VP of marketing, Shoe Carnival. “With Velocity, we will be able to scale our local marketing efforts to ensure visibility and relevance across the entire local marketing ecosystem, so that our customers, no matter where they are ¬ have the best possible shopping experience.”