Historic shoe retailer, Besson Chaussures has chosen a ‘best-of-breed’ architecture to regain control of its digital ecosystem. At the heart of this setup, OneStock orchestrates orders across all channels and the brand’s three European markets.
A historic player in footwear
Founded in 1982, Besson Chaussures relies on a network of more than 200 stores (196 in France, 8 in Spain, and 14 in Belgium) operating under a managed-agent model, where the retailer retains ownership of stock while independent managers handle in-store sales. With revenue of around €330 million, roughly 9 million pairs of shoes sold each year, and more than 3 million loyalty card holders, Besson remains a heavyweight in out-of-town footwear retail, in a sector marked by competition from fast fashion and heavy dependence on weather. The brand has also expanded into textiles and recently adopted a responsible label, engaging customers, suppliers, and employees around leather with greater traceability.
A shared platform that reached its limits
Until recently, Besson Chaussures operated on the Wshop ecommerce solution, built on the SoCloz platform. This setup severely limited customization options and sometimes exposed the retailer to changes rolled out for the vendor’s other clients. This lack of autonomy pushed the IT teams to undertake a complete overhaul, with a clear goal: regain technical control while accelerating innovation.
Rather than entrusting its information system to a single software suite, Besson Chaussures opted for a ‘best of breed’ approach, selecting the best-performing solution on the market for each functional component. Adobe Commerce was chosen for the ecommerce infrastructure, and the overhaul was also an opportunity to launch dedicated ‘webstores’ for each of the brand’s three historic markets, connected to their respective local stock, complemented by a site covering several other European countries.
OneStock: Orchestrator of Orders
Within this ecosystem, the omnichannel foundation (stock unification, order orchestration, customer promise, retail operations) was entrusted to OneStock, chosen for its ease of implementation and maintenance, and the ability to connect directly to Adobe Commerce via a dedicated connector between the two platforms. Rolled out in November 2024, this setup also allowed Besson Chaussures to significantly evolve its omnichannel offering and replace its former in-store ordering solution, with several scenarios deployed simultaneously in France, Spain, and Belgium:
- Order in-Store: to compensate for in-store stockouts and manage mixed baskets
- Ship from Store: to ship orders from any store location
- Unified Click & Collect: drawing on store stock or stock sourced from another store
- E-Reservation: to help drive store traffic
- Delivery Promise: to ensure reliable delivery times are communicated to customers
A path of continuous improvement
The brand is now continuing to refine its country-specific customer journeys, with the ambition of measuring, over time, the return on investment from this shift toward a truly omnichannel model – one that is more open and more firmly controlled in-house.
At OneStock, we are proud to support Besson Chaussures in this international growth, alongside partners such as Adobe Commerce, in delivering an increasingly demanding customer promise, both in-store and online.
Source: Les Clés du Digital: Jean-Luc Raymond, “Besson Chaussures dompte son omnicanalité grâce au « best of breed »,” September 1, 2026, lesclesdudigital.fr
