Shoephoric Goes From Social to Shoe Shopping

Shoe addicts, celebrate! Or shall we say, get Shoephoric?

Shoephoric: [Shoo-for-ik]; adjective: Immensely happy because of shoes.

To Ann Jacobe, the “founder-in-killer-heels” of Shoephoric.com, an online community solely for shoe junkies in the Philippines from all over the world, the fascination with shoes started at a young age.

A few years later she found herself with a vast collection of footwear. Despite all those shoes, she tells me that she invariably “ended up using the shoes that came into view first.” Armed with her IT background, she created a database of her personal shoe collection.

After she was featured in a local Philippine fashion magazine, she started receiving emails from friends and readers to help them with their shoe organizing dilemmas. She used this opportunity to build an online application, MyShoephoria, as an answer. It was launched on April 28, 2011, and was later renamed Shoephoric.

Since then the site has received the People’s Choice Award in the “Lifestyle and Leisure” category in the 12th Philippine Web Awards, and launched a mobile app. She has even showcased the startup‘s product at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

To date the site already has more than 100,000 members, as well as followers on different networking sites — from shoe designers to fashion bloggers, and just about anyone else who is fond of shoes.

If the shoe fits

Currently based in Salcedo village, Makati City, Shoephoric HQ houses the other members of the team as well, with their rather unique titles. Lyndon Cruz is the “Shoeporic Rockstar Programmer,” Ray Piedra is the “Graphkiks Designer” and Jo Irene Hilario is the “Shoecial Media Marketer.”

Shoephoric is currently bootstrapped (no pun intended that time!), but makes some revenue from featuring shoe brands and related products. Targeted ads can be seen on every member’s page, and they also generate revenue through promotions and sponsorships.

Shoephoric is looking forward to launch “Shoephoric Shops” in the future, which will allow shoe retailers to set up their own online shops. A virtual storefront, an online payment solution, an inventory system, email, and social and mobile marketing tools are just some of the features that will be provided to these retailers.