These days it is not so rare to hear about success stories coming out of the unlikeliest of places. When Facebook boomed in popularity back in the early 2000s, only then did people realize the true potential it held. Before that, it was simply a project by a group of college students including Mark Zuckerberg, and it had as many odds of becoming successful as it did of failing. That is the unpredictable side of running a business.
But what’s amazing about the 21st century is the way social media has completely transformed how businesses succeed. No longer is success dependent upon the number of brick-and-mortar stores you have around the world. Instead, only those are successful who have a presence in the online marketplace, and who are able to grab their customer’s attention on it.
This is exactly how EGO, a UK-based brand of shoes, has suddenly become a brand that can be seen everywhere. Whether it is social media influencers or Hollywood celebrities, Instagram is full of their pictures wearing EGO shoes. As a result, the brand has seen its sales increase exponentially in recent years, raking in over £2.5 million from e-commerce channels alone in 2018.
History of the Brand
Although the brand established its current online presence around four years ago, it has existed as an entity since 1976 when it was launched for the first time by a Manchester-based entrepreneur, Mohammed Fiaz. For the first couple of decades, the brand operated as a shoe-maker which was made available at shoe stores.
However, since it offered trendy footwear otherwise unavailable in the market, soon it saw its demand soaring as celebrities and influencers began preferring it over other shoe brands. The brand offered a unique selling point: quality, trendy footwear at an affordable price. Around 10 years ago, EGO established its own brick-and-mortar store, marking the success of the brand.
The Social Media Opportunity
The brand, in its current shape and form, is now being operated by two cousins, Adeel Fiaz (who is Mohammed Faiz’s son) and Usman Riaz. These young, dynamic individuals had been associated with the business since an early age, as Adeel started working alongside his father when he was only 16 years old (he’s now 34) while Usman was also working with them during the time the e-commerce industry was picking up the pace.
To provide the business with increased exposure, Usman started marketing the EGO product on e-commerce channels such as eBay and Amazon, and he quickly realized how much potential these platforms held in allowing the brand to access a customer base around the world. Adeel had a desire to transform his father’s business into a multi-million-pound fashion brand with presence around the world, and hence he also saw immense potential in the online marketplace for his father’s business.
Building upon that experience, Adeel decided to create a page on Instagram for EGO, and soon enough the business page had more than 30K followers (without any paid ones) within the first month of its launch.
Customers came pouring in with their inquiries. However, after Chloe Lewis wore the brand’s shoes on the popular show TOWIE, demand for the shoes skyrocketed, paving way for the official website of the brand which surfaced just four days after this display to cater the demand.
A Dynamic Business
The cousins Usman and Adeel are obviously very driven when it comes to driving their business to success. Their business model requires them to keep the merchandise up-to-date with the changing trends, and hence the brand launches new items every week.
Through social media, the business is quickly able to communicate the new trendy shoes available for sale to its millions of followers on social media, including the ones following influencers that promote EGO shoes religiously.
Statistically speaking, social media has been great for the brand. A brief comparison of 2017 and 2018 figures revealed traffic to have increased by almost 73%, with an increase of almost 16% in conversion rates as well.
