Mail In Shoe Cleaning?

[Keeton]

Hey Guys,
I've started a mail in shoe cleaning business, but I've been struggling to get a single sale, and I don't know where to go from here. I'm running ads on google for a mail in shoe cleaning business, have had clicks but no one has bought. I've also emailed a bunch stores that sell shoes, to see if they would want to offer their customers shoe cleaning, and my company would be the fulfillment for them, and I haven't heard back from a single one. Do you guys think I've tested the market enough, and there's just no market for a shoe cleaning business, or are there other methods I need to try before calling it quits?

I don't know if I'm in the desert of desertion, or if there's just no market for the service.

What do you guys think?

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I like your idea, seems like it might be a unique solution to having shoes last longer. Surprised there are no takers which makes me wonder if the problem is with your messaging, or execution in it.

 

[MitchC]

These guys have cool content

I think a similar strategy would work even better for a mail in brand

There’s plenty of big YouTube channels that do restorations so people like watching this content

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If you are getting clicks but no conversions it’s your site or your offer

Hard to say if it’s the idea or not because I think the idea is good but it also hasn’t been proven. Getting clicks is a good sign that it’s not the idea.

 

[Keeton]

These guys have cool content

I think a similar strategy would work even better for a mail in brand

There’s plenty of big YouTube channels that do restorations so people like watching this content

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If you are getting clicks but no conversions it’s your site or your offer

Hard to say if it’s the idea or not because I think the idea is good but it also hasn’t been proven. Getting clicks is a good sign that it’s not the idea.

I shot some content of me cleaning shoes, and I wanted to post it up on YouTube shorts, Instagram reels, and TikTok. I definitely think that kind of content would do good on short form content platforms, and would bring a lot of attention to the brand. However I deleted the videos before posting them, because I wasn't satisfied with them. I also agree that it could be my website, I think I need to redesign it, make it look more fitting to the service. I'm going to change some things up, then do a follow up in a week or two. See how it goes.

 

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[Keeton]

I like your idea, seems like it might be a unique solution to having shoes last longer. Surprised there are no takers which makes me wonder if the problem is with your messaging, or execution in it.

I'm thinking it could be a mix of things. My google ads are getting clicks, so I'm thinking its my website deterring the customers. Also my messaging could be wrong, it also could be people don't want to send me their $1,000 shoes, because they think my business is a scam and will run off with their shoes, who knows. So I need to find a way to build brand trust as well. Like creating content for social media, things like that.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I'm thinking it could be a mix of things. My google ads are getting clicks, so I'm thinking its my website deterring the customers. Also my messaging could be wrong, it also could be people don't want to send me their $1,000 shoes, because they think my business is a scam and will run off with their shoes, who knows. So I need to find a way to build brand trust as well. Like creating content for social media, things like that.

Can you post the website for an analysis?

 

[Keeton]

Can you post the website for an analysis?

Yeah, The website is RizzKicks

 

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[socaldude]

Do you guys think I've tested the market enough, and there's just no market for a shoe cleaning business, or are there other methods I need to try before calling it quits?

So you haven’t gotten a single customer or sale?

Personally I have some high end shoes that could use some refurbishing.

Normally I clean my dirty white sneakers with those magic erasers they sell at the cleaning aisle at Walmart. Your pricing does seem a little high for shoes that cost $40-80.

I think you can pull something off, just get the business model right.

 

[inputchip]

I haven't purchased shoes in years, and I'm not in the sneakerhead market, but your prices seem really high to me.

You have 3 offers



You show a $35, $55, and a $75 clean, and shoes that are probably worth $50, $40, and $100 respectively. Why would anyone purchase a $35 clean for a $50 pair of shoes? It just doesn't seem like an appealing offer to me. What's the difference between these 3 different cleaning levels? Am I supposed to be the judge of how dirty they are and order the appropriate level, or does the $35 clean only get them a little bit clean versus the $75 clean?

I would be looking at targeting the high end customers who have a $200+ pairs of shoes and focus more on "restorations" versus just "cleaning".

 

[YanC]

I definitely see potential here. It reminds me of this cool business, Knife Aid: Knife Sharpening - Professional Mail-In Service | Knife Aid®

They appeared on Shark Tank. Basically the same as you but with knives. Seemed to be pretty successful ! Maybe you can have a look at their website and business model.

 

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[Joejordan95]

the pricing tiers are off, instead of having "Basic, Platinum, Premium" have "Silver, Gold Platinum" or something along those lines

Also you should list off the features and benefits of each service ideally in bullet point form or something similar

shot some content of me cleaning shoes, and I wanted to post it up on YouTube shorts, Instagram reels, and TikTok. I definitely think that kind of content would do good on short form content platforms, and would bring a lot of attention to the brand.

You should post it then. don't delete it.

What have you got to lose by posting the content? nothing
what have you got to gain? sales? awareness?

 

[Desolation Row]

the pricing tiers are off, instead of having "Basic, Platinum, Premium" have "Silver, Gold Platinum" or something along those lines

Also you should list off the features and benefits of each service ideally in bullet point form or something similar



You should post it then. don't delete it.

What have you got to lose by posting the content? nothing
what have you got to gain? sales? awareness?

Agree with the name of the tiers. For me it also doesn't make sense to have the priciest offer between the cheapest and the medium one ( 1-3-2 instead of 1-2-3).

Also agree with the other posts here:
- I would change the type of shoes for each tier to something more representive for the price points.
- At least the lowest tier seems to be to expensive (and the most expensive maybe to cheap ? ) I would at least try to lower the basic offer temporarily to see if you can get sales this way.
- Post your Videos on Social media and on the page NOW.

Everything else is really spot on, well done and i think it only needs a bit of adjustment!

 

[heavy_industry]

If you do not offer this service world wide you should specify very clearly that it's US only.

As others have said, the cleaning tiers have very confusing names and there is no explanation on how they differ. But you shouldn't have tires to try to upsell to customers: all shoes must come off perfectly clean.

What I would do instead is set your pricing based on the shoe material, with a special "restoration" option for expensive shoes that are worth it.

Try to reduce the prices and offer substantial discounts for bulk orders (multiple pairs) and add subscription options. It's better to try and make profit from large quantities.

Your ideal customer would be someone that sends their entire wardrobe for cleaning... every year. That's what you should target.

There is definitely a market for this, you're just not tapping into it correctly.

 

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[MetalGear]

Recrafting

Recraft your Allen Edmonds shoes. If old shoes look tired or need new soles send them back and we will rebuild the shoes from the ground up.

www.allenedmonds.com

 

[fastlane_dad]

Hey Guys,
I've started a mail in shoe cleaning business, but I've been struggling to get a single sale, and I don't know where to go from here. I'm running ads on google for a mail in shoe cleaning business, have had clicks but no one has bought. I've also emailed a bunch stores that sell shoes, to see if they would want to offer their customers shoe cleaning, and my company would be the fulfillment for them, and I haven't heard back from a single one. Do you guys think I've tested the market enough, and there's just no market for a shoe cleaning business, or are there other methods I need to try before calling it quits?

I don't know if I'm in the desert of desertion, or if there's just no market for the service.

What do you guys think?

The shoes you picture on your site I've been tossing into my washer on a weekly basis for years and they come out looking new every time. The prices do seem high as well considering what the cost of the shoes are.

I would target shoes that can't be cleaned easily - suede, dress shoes, etc. I'm also with others on more of the rebuilding or fixing shoes more so then cleaning.

Obviously I'm not the market - but did you run or setup any preliminary tests to see if there will be demand (not that the way you are doing it currently now is bad!)

 

[Keeton]

The shoes you picture on your site I've been tossing into my washer on a weekly basis for years and they come out looking new every time. The prices do seem high as well considering what the cost of the shoes are.

I would target shoes that can't be cleaned easily - suede, dress shoes, etc. I'm also with others on more of the rebuilding or fixing shoes more so then cleaning.

Obviously I'm not the market - but did you run or setup any preliminary tests to see if there will be demand (not that the way you are doing it currently now is bad!)

You're definitely right, I need to have more expensive shoes in the pictures, like limited edition shoes that are $500+ I've lowered the prices, and did a total redesign on the site. I'm going to also add the options for suede, just so people know I can do those. I don't currently have the expertise to do a shoe restoration/rebuild. But I'll watch some videos on it, and I have an old bad looking pair of shoes in my closet, I'll experiment with those. Thank You for your input, I appreciate it.

 

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[Keeton]

If you do not offer this service world wide you should specify very clearly that it's US only.

As others have said, the cleaning tiers have very confusing names and there is no explanation on how they differ. But you shouldn't have tires to try to upsell to customers: all shoes must come off perfectly clean.

What I would do instead is set your pricing based on the shoe material, with a special "restoration" option for expensive shoes that are worth it.

Try to reduce the prices and offer substantial discounts for bulk orders (multiple pairs) and add subscription options. It's better to try and make profit from large quantities.

Your ideal customer would be someone that sends their entire wardrobe for cleaning... every year. That's what you should target.

There is definitely a market for this, you're just not tapping into it correctly.

Thank You for your advice. I've lowered the prices, and changed the package names. Also I did a redesign on the site. I'm also going to include a suede cleaning option, and offer a restoration/rebuild option. I appreciate your input.

 

[Johnny boy]

Bro immediately just start cleaning dirty a$$ shoes on camera, chop it up to be a 30 second video of the most interesting parts of it, 3 seconds of each stage, narrating it and saying "okay today we are cleaning these adidas, blah blah blah" and then post it to tik tok, instagram reels, youtube shorts, etc. Do 3 shoes a day.

You WILL get a video that gets 1m views and 500 people all message you and say "bro can you do mine??"

This is prime for social media.

Even if you gotta clean your own shoes or other people's shoes for free, the content is the key. Just stay busy.

I can almost guarantee this will work if you make content and promise not to give up before you've cleaned, filmed and posted cleanings of at least a few hundred pairs.

If you can find a way to do 10 a day you will succeed even quicker. It's about speed.

Once you've done 30 pairs of shoes or so, then build a little website that lets people go through the ordering and pricing process and have the link in your bio so it's automated. Give them a printout label in an auto email or something that makes it easy to send the shoes in.

Great idea I like this hustle, but your current method of getting sales is trash. Shoe stores will just brush you off, you're talking to unimaginative employees anyways. And it's not something people really search for I imagine. This is something you scroll through tik tok and see and you go "oh that's dope" and check it out. Zero cost of advertising.

Website would be like "pick your type of shoe", then "pick what kind of cleaning you want" and offer tiers. Then it takes them to a page that says the price. Very easy to set that up. "buy now" button then they check out and you get paid, they send in the shoes and you send them back in a week or so. Offer upsells like an odor eliminating thing, or new laces, or partner with someone who can paint artwork on them when you're done cleaning, idk. Lots of options here.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

Bro immediately just start cleaning dirty a$$ shoes on camera, chop it up to be a 30 second video of the most interesting parts of it, 3 seconds of each stage, narrating it and saying "okay today we are cleaning these adidas, blah blah blah" and then post it to tik tok, instagram reels, youtube shorts, etc. Do 3 shoes a day.

You WILL get a video that gets 1m views and 500 people all message you and say "bro can you do mine??"

This is prime for social media.

Even if you gotta clean your own shoes or other people's shoes for free, the content is the key. Just stay busy.

I can almost guarantee this will work if you make content and promise not to give up before you've cleaned, filmed and posted cleanings of at least a few hundred pairs.

If you can find a way to do 10 a day you will succeed even quicker. It's about speed.

Once you've done 30 pairs of shoes or so, then build a little website that lets people go through the ordering and pricing process and have the link in your bio so it's automated. Give them a printout label in an auto email or something that makes it easy to send the shoes in.

Great idea I like this hustle, but your current method of getting sales is trash. Shoe stores will just brush you off, you're talking to unimaginative employees anyways. And it's not something people really search for I imagine. This is something you scroll through tik tok and see and you go "oh that's dope" and check it out. Zero cost of advertising.

Website would be like "pick your type of shoe", then "pick what kind of cleaning you want" and offer tiers. Then it takes them to a page that says the price. Very easy to set that up. "buy now" button then they check out and you get paid, they send in the shoes and you send them back in a week or so. Offer upsells like an odor eliminating thing, or new laces, or partner with someone who can paint artwork on them when you're done cleaning, idk. Lots of options here.

Bingo.

Marketing a service business, whether a physical one or a digital one is all about bringing bits and pieces of what you do behind the scenes for clients out and in front of them.

The marketing IS the product (or service).

And this is especially true for intangible services like say digital marketing, which people can't otherwise "touch".

 

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[RicardoGrande]

Hey Guys,
I've started a mail in shoe cleaning business, but I've been struggling to get a single sale, and I don't know where to go from here. I'm running ads on google for a mail in shoe cleaning business.

I don't know if I'm in the desert of desertion, or if there's just no market for the service.

What do you guys think?

Kind of like how MJ and the others said, it doesn't seem like a bad idea on the face of it.
Would you compare it to cobbling, or strictly shoe-cleaning?

Even then, shoe cobblers (especially boots, let alone sneaker hype beasts) have been exploding on youtube.
So maybe your positioning is out-of-whack? Perhaps you could re-orient and described your self as "A cobbler in the postbox" or "A shoe shine that's just a few stamps away"?

On the other hand, kind of like the mail-in knife sharpening service from awhile back (and that mj mentioned in tgrre ), maybe there's just a barrier to entry in your potential customers mind's when they read about your service? I don't know about you, but the thought of having to take one to two pairs of my size 13 honkers, jamming them into a bag or a box, and sending them off just for a clean and waiting 1-2 weeks doesn't seem to have the biggest payoff if I could use the same 30 minutes packing and driving (hate going to UPS if I can avoid it) to simply brush and shine my shoes myself. Just my two cents though.

You want to help those with little time on their hands, perhaps you could be a valet or a service-call type business like a maid or window washer that just shows up at x time every month or few months and cleans the shoes, collects your payment, and then they don't have to think about the shoes for another few months?

 

[Keeton]

Kind of like how MJ and the others said, it doesn't seem like a bad idea on the face of it.
Would you compare it to cobbling, or strictly shoe-cleaning?

Even then, shoe cobblers (especially boots, let alone sneaker hype beasts) have been exploding on youtube.
So maybe your positioning is out-of-whack? Perhaps you could re-orient and described your self as "A cobbler in the postbox" or "A shoe shine that's just a few stamps away"?

On the other hand, kind of like the mail-in knife sharpening service from awhile back (and that mj mentioned in tgrre ), maybe there's just a barrier to entry in your potential customers mind's when they read about your service? I don't know about you, but the thought of having to take one to two pairs of my size 13 honkers, jamming them into a bag or a box, and sending them off just for a clean and waiting 1-2 weeks doesn't seem to have the biggest payoff if I could use the same 30 minutes packing and driving (hate going to UPS if I can avoid it) to simply brush and shine my shoes myself. Just my two cents though.

You want to help those with little time on their hands, perhaps you could be a valet or a service-call type business like a maid or window washer that just shows up at x time every month or few months and cleans the shoes, collects your payment, and then they don't have to think about the shoes for another few months?

Yeah I definitely see what you're saying. I've made the process as simple as possible, but it still might be too much friction for the consumer. I've thought about just doing local shoe cleanings. But that isn't really scalable, and there's a much small customer base. It's just an idea, I created a website and ran some ads to see if I would get any bites. Maybe its time to move on to the next idea. As Bill Gates says, fail fast and fail often.