Habbot founder Annie Abbott talks shop on shoes.
What was your experience in the industry before Habbot?
I did a two and half year stint at Net-A-Porter in the early years of the eCommerce site, from 2001 to 2003, as a buying analyst. This was followed by joining the Sass & Bide team in 2004 as a business analyst. I then spent six subsequent years with footwear company Figgins Group in various buying and product development roles.
What prompted you to launch a footwear business?
A desire to introduce the types of shoe collections I found commonly in Europe, but not in Australia. More specifically, beautifully made low heel shoes in fantastic colours and materials. Most of the quality shoes I found in our marketplace were either low heeled and ‘conservative’ or high heeled and ‘fantastic’ – but rarely a mixture of the two. I was confident Habbot would fill this gap.
What was the biggest challenge in setting up the venture?
Initially it was finding Italian makers that were prepared to take a punt on me, especially given the far distance from Australia, my age and gender. To counteract this, I found three different makers so that I didn’t have all my eggs in the one basket if they decided to pull out along the way (which two of them did!) .
What was the best breakthrough moment?
Seeing my shoes walking on the feet of a stranger at Melbourne Airport back in 2012.
What has been a successful initiative?
We are excited to re-launch #myhabbot a program we launched in late 2016. This is where we invited customers to design their very own Habbot classic brogue. They could do this to their own liking, choosing from up to 14 leathers and various detailing. It was a wonderful concept celebrated by many of our special friends and loyal customers and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to launch it again this year.
What is the brand's current presence in the market?
Habbot is currently operating two Melbourne CBD stores, one in Royal Arcade and Strand Melbourne Arcade. This is in addition to an e-commerce site. Habbot is set to open our first hosted space in the Megan Park store on Gertrude street, Fitzroy in April. I hope to introduce others like it in the future.
What was integral into building this?
The ability to run our own race and make swift decisions to adjust to the changing retail climate. This is paired with maintaining a consistent product quality and customer service standard. By taking the time to understand how we fit into our customers lifestyles we’ve found on-brand ways to enhance our product offering to suit them such as our recent #myhabbot customisation project which we plan to expand upon later this year.
What are the biggest challenges facing the footwear sector?
Polarisation of consumers' footwear purchasing habits may lead to a shortage of demand for the middle ground ‘dress shoe’ categories. Meaning the consumer is making the choice to either buy significantly better made shoes, but less of them, or to wear the same types of casual shoes for most occasions. This casualisation of footwear has meant that flip-flops and athletic footwear have increased market share to the detriment of dressier style constructions. This is in the same way that leisurewear has encroached on mainstream apparel categories.
What are the key opportunities?
To improve quality and comfort without sacrificing choice by giving the customer a say in what their shoes look like via premium product customisation, when and where they want to buy them via innovative store locations and delivery methods.