Shoes.com Shuts Down

Shoes.com Technologies Inc., the Vancouver, Canada-based online shoe retailer, has shut down operations effective Friday, and will work with its lenders to liquidate its assets and assign some of its companies to bankruptcy. The company took its websites offline and said it had closed its two brick-and-mortar stores in Vancouver and Toronto. Previously called Shoeme.ca, the company was founded in 2012 after Zappos pulled out of the Canadian market.

Total Retail's Take: The abrupt closing of Shoes.com comes as a surprise to many, especially since the company was once touted as an IPO hopeful. What's more, the company's chairman and CEO Roger Hardy previously ran a successful e-commerce company — online eyewear merchant Coastal Contacts, which was sold in 2014 to Essilor International. Shoes.com recently said it had more than $200 million in revenue two years ago and had hoped to reach $1 billion by 2020. However, some problems came to light: The company was plagued by customer service issues and peppered by legal claims from unpaid suppliers, according to reports. Furthermore, Shoes.com was facing a more competitive market than ever, thanks to the fact that earlier this month rival online shoe seller Shoebuy.com was sold to Wal-Mart.