Kotofey is a children’s footwear brand with a chain of branded stores. The brand was preparing an advertising campaign to reach more parents and raise awareness.
The campaign needed data, not guesswork: who comes to the stores, why they buy shoes for their child, what stops them from buying and where to find these people.
Task
Collect customer data for the advertising campaign. To do this, we looked for answers to seven questions:
- which purchase scenarios are most common;
- why shoppers choose the shoes, and why they abandon the purchase or go elsewhere;
- what occasions drive purchases and what customer profiles emerge from them;
- what shoppers buy instead of Kotofey and who the brand competes with;
- how well the brand is known;
- how parents judge the quality of children’s shoes;
- who and what influences the choice.
How we ran the research
We surveyed more than 100 visitors to Kotofey stores in Almaty at the very moment they were choosing and buying shoes. This way, answers rely on fresh experience rather than memory.
The questionnaire had seven sections:
- Ways of buying shoes, their pros and cons.
- Purchase situation and occasion.
- How often they buy children’s shoes.
- How often they buy Kotofey.
- Shoe selection criteria.
- Who influences the choice and where they learn about new arrivals.
- Why they leave without buying.
To capture a diverse sample, survey locations and times were planned in advance:
- premium and budget locations, mall stores and standalone ones;
- weekdays and weekends, daytime and evening hours;
- shoppers alone, with children and with the whole family;
- those buying regular shoes and those who need specialised footwear;
- those leaving with a purchase, without one, and those returning shoes.
What we found
Six customer segments
Shoppers were segmented by purchase occasion. One person can fall into different segments in different situations, so the total exceeds 100%.
- 72% — parents of fast-growing children. The child has grown and needs the right size.
- 66% — seasonal shoppers. The weather changes, so do the shoes.
- 40% — parents of schoolchildren. Indoor shoes and footwear for the school year.
- 10% — parents of young athletes. Shoes for sports clubs and active leisure.
- 8% — special-occasion shoppers. A holiday, a trip, an event.
- 3% — bargain hunters. They wait for sales.
For each segment we built a profile: age of parents and children, languages, purchase frequency, brands they know, where they buy and whom they trust. The core motivation was captured in a single sentence. For example, for parents of fast-growing children: “As my child grows, I as a parent want comfortable shoes in the right size to always be ready.”
Why people buy in store and what gets in the way
About 45% buy children’s shoes only in stores. The main reason is trying them on: a child’s foot grows fast, and the shoes must fit right away. Shoppers also value taking the purchase home without waiting for delivery.
35% buy on marketplaces and online stores: Wildberries, Lamoda, Kaspi.kz. 15% combine both channels, 5% order via Instagram.
In the stores themselves, purchases most often fall through because of:
- long waits for a sales assistant and weekend queues;
- the right size is out of stock;
- few bright models and little specialised footwear — sports, orthopaedic;
- it is hard to find the right model on the shop floor;
- children get tired and the purchase drags on;
- no comfortable fitting area or kids’ corner;
- little information on sizes and materials;
- pushy sales assistants.
Where they learn about new arrivals
60% learn about new arrivals from social media — Instagram and TikTok: they follow bloggers and brands and read reviews. 30% trust friends and family more. 10% notice online and in-store advertising.
Shoppers named specific bloggers, and we compiled them into a single list.
Language matters for the campaign too: about 60% of shoppers speak only Russian, 28% speak Kazakh and Russian, 8% only Kazakh.
What Kotofey received
A 25-slide report: six customer profiles, reasons for buying and walking away, footwear quality requirements, competitors, channels and bloggers.
With this data, the brand can decide whom to target, where and in which language. The in-store barriers point to what to fix at the stores themselves: size availability, floor navigation, a kids’ area.
