The large French Vivarte retail group announced on Tuesday that it has entered exclusive negotiations for the sale of André, the well-known French chain of urban shoe shops that was at the beginning of the group, to Spartoo, one of the two leading French online shoe retailers along with Sarenza. The move supports the notion that an omni-channel solution may be a viable alternative to traditional shoe retailing and the approach of pure e-tailers like Amazon or Zalando, which are also exploring investments in physical stores. Spartoo has agreed to take over practically all the 175 stores of André, many of which are in excellent urban locations, as well as their employees. They will continue to operate under the André banner and will continue to sell André's own shoe collection, but they will also start offering some of the international brands such as Adidas, Geox, New Balance or Vans. The André stores will also act as click & collect points for orders placed on Spartoo's online platform. The personnel in the stores will use tablets to show alternative products from Spartoo's wider collection of branded and private label items to customers. More in Shoe Intelligence.

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