BeachMint and Aldo Group will be joining forces for a new partnership by which BeachMint can reduce inventory risk and increase selections from ShoeMint.
Under the new partnership arrangement, Aldo will serve as BeachMint’s manufacturing partner, producing shoes for ShoeMint. Steve Madden will no longer be ShoeMint’s manufacturing partner.
Aldo also acquired an equity stake in BeachMint.
In a statement referring to the BeachMint-Aldo team, David Bensadoun, president of Aldo Group retail and Aldo product services, said, “The beauty of ShoeMint is that it is a brand that is positioned in a very similar way to our Aldo brand — beautiful leather-based fashion footwear at mid-level prices.”
BeachMint is an e-commerce company based in Santa Monica, CA offering a variety of creative fashion and lifestyle brands from notable designers with many associated with celebrated film personalities.
BeachMint brands, besides ShoeMint, include JewelMint, StyleMint, IntiMint, HomeMint and BeautyMint.
Aldo, based in Montreal, Canada, has some 1,600 stores worldwide and sells shoes, boots, sandals, handbags and accessories for men and women. Among Aldo’s signature brands are Aldo, Call It Spring, Little Burgundy and Globo.
A key problem for BeachMint, that should be solved by partnering with Aldo, has been a lack of repeat business.
“The number one reason why customers aren’t purchasing again is that we don’t have enough stuff,” said Josh Berman, co-founder and CEO of BeachMint.
“What we have learned is we needed to have much more assortment,” he said.
With their new association with Aldo, BeachMint will be releasing around 30 new shoe styles monthly, up from its previous releases of eight to 10 new styles monthly.
“We are very bullish on our shoe business. It is one of the biggest markets for BeachMint,” Berman said. “…We are going to invest heavily in 2014 in television and other media to further grow ShoeMint.”