Vans to focus on offline footprint

With around 45+ exclusive stores in India, footwear brand Vans plans to build a robust brick-and-mortar store network through various formats including EBOs, MBOs and SISs. The brand further reveals its plan to set up stores majorly in metros and some in tier I cities. Talking more on the format preference, Ankita Bajaj Shankar, Marketing Leads, Vans India, told Retail4growth, “While we have presence in both LFS & EBO formats, our experience has been better in EBOs. This is largely owing to the fact that the consumer can experience the brand and the culture better in an EBO environment, where we have the scope to tell the brand and the product story. We are looking at sustainable ways to expand our offline footprint through EBOs, SIS and multi-brand stores. While the focus would be on metro cities and tier-1 markets, we will selectively explore opportunities in tier-II locations as well.” On the effervescent topic of building omni-channel network, Shankar added, “We work on a healthy mix of online & offline channels of sales that suits the purchasing pattern of younger consumers, who are our TG. As for omni-channel, we are still in the early stage of the brand journey in the market and would build on this in the years to come.”