By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN

Last year, women purchased 728.8 million pairs of shoes in the U.S., and men purchased 327.4 million pairs, according to market research company NPD Group. Even with all that footwear out there, shoe-repair shops are becoming increasingly rare. Stepping up are a number of online cobblers, who accept and return footwear by mail.

There are just 7,000 shoe-repair businesses left in the U.S. today, down from more than 120,000 during the 1930s, according to the Shoe Service Institute of America, a trade group. Many cobblers now have Web sites where consumers can select from a wide range of services—from basic repairs to major refurbishments—and place orders, complete with printable prepaid postage labels.

Cobbler Who Accept Shoes by Mail

John Tully for The Wall Street Journal

Tom Pell holds a photograph taken around 1955 of his father's first shoe repair shop in Spring Lake, Michigan.

We visited MailInShoeRepair.com, which didn't have an order form, prices or details about the kind of services we could purchase. Instead it featured instructions to call or email owner Tom Pell to place an order. Mr. Pell responded within 24 hours to our email requesting shipping materials for a pair of faded leather men's dress shoes with flimsy, worn soles. He noted that a large envelope was on its way but didn't ask what we needed done or detailing the price or wait time. But we shipped the shoes anyway, without specifying the services we wanted.

Less than two weeks after we shipped our shoes to him, we received our shoes back from Mr. Pell with a handwritten note requesting a check for $60 by mail as payment. We were satisfied with their new sets of full heels and soles and fresh coat of polish.

Mr. Pell says he's a sole proprietor who operates his business part-time from a workshop behind his home in Pentwater, Mich. He trusts customers to follow through with payments, though he admits he's gotten burned a few times. He adds that his prices include shipping costs, which vary according to postal-service rates.

Mr. Pell says he learned shoe repair from his father, who owned a cobbler shop that is no longer in business. If customers don't describe what they need done when placing an order, he says he'll contact them to ask. But in our case he didn't because he says he misplaced the email we sent him with our contact information. He says he went with his instincts on what needed to be done, which was a standard repair job.