How to get your footwear ordering right for 2025

Steve Bird, Foremost Golf Business Development Consultant and Education Lead, offers four crucial tips on how golf shops can improve their shoe ordering and margin for next season.

Do you go into your footwear pre-book meetings armed with a buying plan? Many do not, which has contributed towards a general overstocking in this category over the last couple of years. If yours is a shop that is forced to have a big sale at the end of the season because you have too many golf shoes, let’s do something about it.

The phrase ‘don’t try the same thing over and over and expect a different result’ comes to mind.

Putting a buying plan together does not need to be complex. This article will explain four key points to focus on when constructing a buying plan.

1. How many shoes to order

Even though we’ve experienced very different years in terms of trading (and weather) patterns recently, our till system analysis shows that there is a real pattern to the number of shoes sold in golf shops each year.

When analysing pairs of golf shoes sold each year, the average number should be reduced by 15 percent to allow for custom orders.

Finally, factor in any marketing campaigns your retail group is doing that could require additional purchasing, to help drive sales in this category. You will then have a good estimate for your pre-book number to stick to. Don’t be tempted by ‘better terms’ for buying more. It is only better if you sell them. The biggest contributor to low margins isn’t buying at the wrong price, it is overstocking.

2. More or less choice?

There are so many brands, models and colours to choose from nowadays, custom ordering is becoming increasingly popular, meaning an enormous pre-book could be a big mistake. Concentrate on the most popular sellers, price points and margin makers. Stocking too many brands usually results in diluted sales, larger pre-book commitments and more ‘bitty stock’ to try and sell off at the end of the year.

Foremost selects a number of key models from our suppliers and puts together a comprehensive marketing support package for these models before the season has even started. This alignment of marketing enables our pros to reduce risk in their ordering and ensure their digital marketing is promoting the exact models that they have in store.

3. What sizes to order

According to FootJoy, 80 percent of shoes sold in 2023 were between sizes 8 and 10. Consult your till system to see your sales breakdown by size and order accordingly. The typical 7-12 size run order in each shoe leads to overstocking. You could have all size options in your most popular model, but it makes sense to reduce risk by removing the less popular sizes in other models.

4. Margin mix

If you have access to higher margin footwear options or exclusive products, make sure you always have these in stock. Selling products like these is a much better way to increase margin than just ordering more shoes to get a higher discount.

Buying for your golf retail store isn’t straightforward by any means, but you can definitely stack the odds in your favour by doing a small amount of preparation before your pre-book meetings.

Follow these simple guidelines and reach out to your retail group for support, as they will be well versed in helping put these plans together.