The Digital Frontier (Part 1)

Tchooz Shoes have been doing their thing for many years now and doing it very well we might add. As the official distributors of the PUMA brand in Lebanon, they put the PUMA brand on the table as one of the top players in athletic and casual footwear and apparel. Whether through their stores' distribution (both Tchooz Shoes and PUMA shops), their ads or their sponsorship initiatives, PUMA became a household name in Lebanon and Tchooz Shoes became known for its multi-brand concept in athletic and casual footwear and apparel as well. 

So why are we talking about them here on our website? Well, we simply had the honor to help their brand do its magic online. And here, we’re going to break down how we did it. 

E-Shop: Build it and they will come (because we’ll make sure they do)

First, we started with the creation of an e-shop by using the Shopify platform and the technology that comes with it. Our work began with the selection of the most appropriate template and developed its customization. This entailed researching local and regional player to create the most optimal sitemap and ensure the most user-friendly navigation. 

Once the e-shop was tested, we went live with it and actioned advanced ads through Facebook’s Business Suite, driving traffic to the website and getting sales conversions. 

What happened between April 2021 & December 2021? 

• Increased online customers 11X 
• Increased online orders 18X 

Social media presence because that’s where the OGs are at 

In parallel to creating the e-shop, we started taking on Tchooz Shoe’s social media channels. We worked closely with the internal team to understand and co-develop the necessary tools to enable the quick sharing of materials (i.e. new collections, upcoming drops, national days, key moments, etc.) as well as the quick sharing of approvals. With the help of PUMA ME, we took a deep dive into the PUMA brand universe, understanding the brand’s DNA and guidelines and until today, we closely collaborate with them when we have big activations in the pipeline. 

In-Store – Because the physical world still matters (so far…) 

For Black Friday, a major sale was actioned across Tchooz Shoes stores, helping bring in flocks of people to check out the physical locations and the merchandise. What did we learn? That while people love the convenience of shopping online, after 2 years of lockdown, they certainly missed being out and about and trying stuff on. 

Black Friday also coincided with the reopening of the PUMA Achrafieh store which was destroyed during the August 4th explosion. With the help of the Tchooz Shoes team and the ABC marketing department, we created an online/offline campaign to announce the reopening.

Describing the actual campaigns and activations is a story of its own, so we actually created a Part 2 to this article.  If you’re intrigued, continue reading here. 

Describing in TWO words our partnership with Tchooz Shoes: Challenging & Rewarding.  We are looking forward to achieving more milestones together! 

The key learnings from Tchooz Shoes can be summarized as follows: 

1. Building a brand’s digital presence is way smoother when the client already has a solid offline presence, with not only a sales infrastructure to share but also many insights about consumer behavior. 
   
2. A close collaboration between agency and client gets the work done faster & more efficiently. 
3. Content is a continuous effort built on brand pillars and key milestones (and not a generic construct).
4. A solid budget (that is not stopped and rebooted on a whim) and that is continuously optimized is KEY. 
5. Monitoring and optimizing the customer experience is an on-going exercise.