eCommerce Success Case: Gioseppo

We once again focus on brands that do particularly well in electronic commerce. Cases worthy of study for their type of product, positioning, marketing strategy, sales channels… or for all of this.

Probably, what lies behind  Gioseppo footwear brand is a combination of everything mentioned, and a vision that has allowed them to adapt to what the public and the market itself demanded at each moment.

How do you go from being a shoe factory in Elche to becoming a global brand? We will tell you if you keep reading, with the most valuable lessons that can be drawn from its history.

Get ready to put yourself in Gioseppo’s shoes, and learn about its path.

Elche (Alicante), early 90s of the last century. The Samper family (José Samper and Mara Pertusa) opens their business: a new footwear factory and a different product line.

José Samper came from this sector, so he knew perfectly the production, logistics processes, the commercial strategy… and had the necessary contacts

At that time, Spanish shoes were already highly valued by consumers, but in the case of Elche, the reputation was particularly high. Numerous brands had their facilities and headquarters there. The curious thing is that most of these manufacturers produced for third parties and did not have a strong own identity, nor a network of their own stores.

But in addition to the business model, which we will discuss in more detail below, the type of product they wanted to make was also important. It had to be:

They were clear that they wanted a solid and international brand, therefore, they probably chose to dispense with the family name. This was very common among manufacturers in Elche in those years, but for the Samper it seemed somewhat limiting.

Samper, at a national level, is a surname that can be remembered quite easily and does not present any problem when pronouncing it (beyond being able to be confused with Semper, Sampere…) But would it work well in the international market? There they had many more doubts.

Therefore, they were looking for a name that:

After thinking about it a lot, they came to the conclusion that Gioseppo was a great option.

We said at the beginning that it is a brand that started from an advanced vision for its time, but also that it has known how to evolve with the needs set by the market.

This is clearly seen in its products, which, although they maintain coherence in the concept, have been increasing their catalog reaching new audiences with other categories.

We can clearly distinguish between several different stages, but the first is that of children’s footwear. Its entry into the market was made from a niche: that of sandals and shoes for children, in which the combination of functionality and resistance predominated. They were relatively simple designs, but designed to last.

This first period lasted approximately a decade, in the year 2000, Gioseppo began to diversify. It was no longer a children’s brand, since now it also manufactured women’s and men’s shoes.

This diversification we are talking about came accompanied by a certain aesthetic change.

In their shoes, sneakers and sandals, they began to be seen more in trend, they used more daring colors, decorations, different materials… let us say that it is at this moment when, in addition to practical shoes, we can talk about fashion, but without losing the family focus.

From 2010 onwards, and up to the present, a strategic change in its positioning is observed. Little by little, that family brand is turning its catalog towards a different idea: lifestyle.

While its warehouses were filled with casual sneakers, urban shoes or ankle boots and “fashion” sandals, its image was becoming more sophisticated, becoming less family-oriented and more aspirational.

In reality, what happens from 2018 onwards is that we fully enter the era of eCommerce, although in the case of Gioseppo, we are talking about the era of omnichannel. This brand was already very strong in the retail channel with its own stores and presence in multi-brand establishments, but it entered strongly into digital, selling in its online store and in marketplaces.

Here came a transformation of the business, which we will see in detail in a second post of this success case. There we will talk about its marketing strategy, collaborations or its mobile app, in which they have focused many of their efforts and resources. But since all that is a lot, we will leave it for the next post in the series.