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mirapodo has more to offer than just shoes! For the past six months, Germany’s leading online retailer for shoes has also been offering fashion items to its customers. The fashion product range is solely managed via the partner programme. And how are customers reacting? Philipp Ludewig, Head of the Platform Management and Merchandising Department told us more about the extension of the product range. Additionally, he told us which partners mirapodo is looking for and which requirements are necessary for collaboration.
On its online platform, the MYTOYS GROUP offers three different shops. Could you briefly explain which products you sell in which shop and what the background is for the integration of fashion at mirapodo?
Philipp: In the framework of the combi shopping concept, customers have the opportunity to shop in three stores simultaneously. They all have a different focus: myToys is the leading platform for all things concerned with kids. That’s where you find everything for life with children, from children’s fashion to toys through to sports equipment. yomonda is our home & living shop with practical items for the household, as well as furniture and home accessories – so all things concerned with the family home! mirapodo is the leading shoe platform for families. In the past few years, we’ve strengthened the brand, extended the product range and developed mirapodo into the top location to shop for shoes for the whole family. By merging women’s fashion and shoes under the mirapodo brand, our customers can shop from an even more extensive lifestyle product range via our mirapodo app and in our online shop. Apart from a large selection of shoes, you can now also find sports apparel, accessories and fashion with mirapodo.
How would you describe the typical mirapodo customer?
The typical mirapodo customer is a woman with a family, in her mid-thirties and a family shopper. She orders several times per season and buys across all our product ranges and shops. We recently conducted a customer survey in order to find out how our customers like our new product range. The results have shown that our customers appreciate that they can now also shop for fashion on mirapodo.de. And order statistics support this. We were apprehensive that the additional fashion range might dilute our brand positioning, but that was completely unfounded.
»According to the survey, our customers still see us as THE expert for shoes. The fashion range is seen as a sensible addition and enables us to display brands even better and more completely.«
Which requirements does a partner have to fulfil to sell on mirapodo? Which kind of partners are you looking for?
We’re looking for partners from the fashion and lifestyle industry, ideally with some marketplace experience. It’s especially important that potential partners have their own B2C/B2B logistics. Furthermore, they should have a technical interface with Tradebyte (TB.One). A partner has to be able to make master data and content available for us. With more than 100 integrations, the technical processes between the MYTOYS GROUP and Tradebyte are sophisticated enough so that partners can profit from our mutual expertise if technical obstacles occur.
How should the mirapodo platform develop in the future?
The MYTOYS GROUP has a DNA of 20 years’ experience and has always worked together with partners, even when the platform business model wasn’t popular yet. Since 2015, mirapodo has also collaborated with partners who carry out end-customer logistics and has therefore developed into a platform. We’re planning to extend the product range and processes and introduce tools so that our partners can actively work with us to develop and manage the platform. Furthermore, we’d like to increase the proportion of orders which are generated via the app from 25% to 50%.
»Nowadays, more than 100 partners sell via mirapodo and we would like to expand this figure in the next few years.«
How do you profit from the collaboration with Tradebyte?
By collaborating with Tradebyte, we’re able to offer our customers strongly aligned product ranges. That means we can push our platform strategy and grow our product range at the same time. Tradebyte offers us a standard to handle other business models together with our partners alongside our classic business model. Processes for data, orders, etc. are standardised via TB.One and a high quality of data is ensured.
»We can profit from Tradebyte’s marketplace expertise and contacts to many partners in the fashion industry to extend our pool of partners.«
You are interested in the mirapodo partner programme? Please contact your Account Manager!
