In Blog 94 I talked about putting good people in key positions. In this blog I wanted to talk about our Uner size 5 and Over size 10 event.

We were having really good success with the styles that went beyond the size run of 6-10. Customers had a hard time finding them because most stores only carried 6-10m in women’s shoes. So I decided we needed to be a point of difference. Most Nordstrom stores carried many more sizes than average but that was mostly in the Ladies Shoes departments.

Special Overs and Unders Hash Wall

We had our special sizes run in a hash wall. By that I mean we ran all the styles mixed together by size. Under size 5 and over size 10. We called it the “Overs & Under wall. It was really easy for the salespeople to go this area if they had one of those sizes and a wide assortment to choose from. Fact of the matter was a lot of brands don’t even carry these sizes.

Expanding the wall

We decided to expand this selection. I said earlier we bought a bunch of styles we didn’t have displayed on the floor in the Moda Spana brand. Rick made available many more styles to choose from so I bought everything they offered in the specialty sizes. I also looked at brands such as New Balance in the Active world and did the same thing.

We expanded our overs and under wall by about 3-4 sections. Candice worked with our sales people to start calling their customers to tell them we were going to have a special event to showcase our special sizes. We put them on racks for the day and advertised the event in the Sacramento Bee.

Opening was busy

We were really busy from the opening of the store. The customers really appreciated the attention to these hard to find sizes. Point of difference is a great way to set you apart from the competition. We also expanded our narrow and wide selection too. Our Under size 5 and Over size 10 event was a success.