Koio is a New York-based sneaker brand delivering Italian craftsmanship to modern consumers  looking for comfort, quality, and style that can go anywhere. All this at a fraction of the price of traditional luxury sneakers on the market. Since their inception in 2014, Koio has quickly become a social media sensation, recognized around the world as the footwear of choice for influencers, jetsetters, and busy working professionals alike.

The digitally-native brand has since expanded to two permanent brick-and-mortar locations in New York and Los Angeles.

As one of Endear's inaugural customers, Koio has augmented their strong digital presence through store-based marketing efforts. A steady stream of associate-driven follow ups, personal product recommendations, and thank-you messages has helped Koio maintain and boost their customer engagement and extend their brands' voice via a personalized and memorable in-store experience.

In anticipation of the launch of the Tempo style sneaker in July 2019, the Koio team developed a marketing strategy combining social media, e-mail, and IRL in-store engagement. To promote their new shoe to their stores' local customers, select Koio locations and pop-ups implemented an event-based marketing campaign using Endear's segmenting and bulk messaging capabilities to target shoppers in each store's neighborhood and invite them to their store's launch event.

These messages touted the launch of their newest silhouette and extended an invitation to celebrate in-store or, of course, make a purchase online. Messages sent as part of this campaign had a 36.2%* open rate, more than double the industry average, and 10.7% of in-store sales over the shoe's launch weekend were attributed to associates' outreach through Endear.

While the brand has now been using Endear to connect with shoppers for over four years now, this was Koio's first event-focused campaign implemented through Endear. But beyond directly attributable sales, this campaign and others like it serve to reinforce a sense of Koio community and open the door for further storytelling opportunities via physical retail locations and, most importantly, the teams that work there. Fostering a conversational relationship rather than a purely transaction one is invaluable when building a loyal and valuable customer base and an essential part of what Endear offers to its users.

*vs. an industry average of 15% for U.S. retailers