Why Isn’t That Shoe Online Yet?
And a little look at what really goes on behind the scenes at Sissa Sorella.
Every now and then, we get a message from someone who has spotted a new pair of shoes in one of our stores or on Instagram, only to head online and find they’re not on the website yet. It’s a completely fair question, particularly if you live interstate and the website is your SissaSorella store.
The short answer is that we’re getting there (we promise). The longer answer is that there’s quite a lot that happens between a box of new shoes arriving at Sissa Sorella and those same shoes appearing online, and we thought you might actually enjoy seeing a little more of what goes on behind the scenes.
Because while Sissa has a Canberra boutique, a busy online store and beautiful shoes arriving from around the world, we are still a very small Australian business with a very small team.
Behind Sissa is a small team of amazing women
At the heart of Sissa Sorella is Kate, supported by a wonderful group of casual team members who are an incredibly important part of the business. They look after our beautiful customers, help keep the store running, unpack deliveries, merchandise, dust, pack and post orders, stand in line at Aus Post every day, answer enquiries and generally keep things moving, and like most casual teams, they also have families, careers and commitments of their own.
For Kate, running Sissa Sorella means wearing just about every small-business hat imaginable. There’s buying and choosing collections which is a huge job, managing stock, looking after customers and suppliers, running the store and the website, packing orders, creating content, dealing with accounts and administration, and solving the hundred little things that inevitably pop up every day. During busy times, as all small business owners know, the days can stretch to 17 hours, seven days a week.
So while Sissa might look like a lovely sea of pink floors and beautiful shoes from the outside, there isn’t a big e-commerce department or photography team hidden out the back. All of what you see online is created right here by … us!
What actually happens before a shoe goes online?
When a new delivery arrives, every style first needs to be unpacked, checked and entered into our inventory before we can do anything with it. From there, getting a shoe onto the shop floor is relatively simple - but getting that same shoe onto the website is quite a different story.
Before it can go online, we photograph every style ourselves, and this is one part of the process we’re particularly committed to. Rather than relying on supplier images or placing a shoe in a light box, the photographs you see on the Sissa Sorella website are all our own. Wherever possible, we photograph the shoes on real women because we think it gives you a much better idea of how they actually look and wear.
We do it this way because we know it gives you a much better idea of what you’re actually buying. You can see how the shoe sits on a real foot, what the shape looks like when it’s being worn, where the straps sit and how the colour and finish appear in real life. Along with our measurements and fit notes, it’s all designed to take as much of the guesswork as possible out of buying shoes online. It might be a more time-consuming way of doing things, but if it means fewer sizing mistakes, fewer frustrating returns for you and, most importantly, a much better chance that when your pink Sissa Sorella parcel arrives your new shoes actually fit, we think it’s worth the extra effort.
Once the photography is done, those images still need to be edited and named, the shoes measured and the fit considered so that we can give you useful sizing information. Then we write the product details, load all the sizes, colours, prices and stock information into the website and check everything before it goes live.
When several new-season deliveries arrive at once, you can imagine how quickly that job grows.
Which is why you might see them in store first
We could leave every new delivery sitting in boxes until all of that work is finished, but we don’t think that makes much sense either. If a beautiful new collection has arrived and is ready to wear, we want our customers to be able to see it, so sometimes the shoes make it onto our shop floor before they make it onto the website.
We know this can be annoying for our interstate Sissahood, particularly when you spot something you love on social media and can't immediately find it online. We promise we’re not keeping the good shoes to ourselves. It simply takes us a little longer to create the online version of the experience properly.
We could certainly make the process faster by using generic supplier photographs and very basic product information, but we’d rather take the time to show you the actual shoes we have in store, photograph them properly and give you the fit information we know makes buying footwear online a little easier.
And if you are interstate - we’ll try and get the Sissa service to you however we can!
Our online Sissahood is a huge part of Sissa Sorella, and just because you can't walk through the doors in Deakin doesn't mean you should miss out on the personal service you'd receive if you could.
If you've spotted something on our social media that isn't online yet, or you're unsure about the fit, sizing, colour or anything else, please get in touch. Kate and the team are always happy to talk things through over the phone, and if you need a better look, we can arrange a video call, show you the shoes on a real foot or send you additional photos or video.
It’s our way of bringing a little of the in-store Sissa experience to you, wherever in Australia you happen to be.
A little patience means a lot to a small business
There’s a lot about running a small business that customers quite rightly never need to see. But we love what we do, and we’re incredibly lucky to have such a supportive Sissahood around us, both here in Canberra and right across Australia. We also know that when you're excited about a new pair of shoes, you want to be able to get your hands on them.
So if you see something in store or on Instagram before it appears online, please know they are coming and we'll let you know as soon as they are live - or better still, send us a message and ask about it. We will always do our best to help and get them to you asap. Make sure you are signed up to our Sissahood emails HERE because we always email about new drops when they are up online.
Our profile may have grown a little over the years, but we’re still a small Australian business doing things in a very hands-on way. It takes a little more time, but we think the personal service, real photographs and genuine fit advice that come with it are worth holding onto.
Thank you thank you for your support, excitement and shared shoe-love!
