Italian shoe companies urged to embrace digital marketplace
Italian footwear manufacturers association Assocalzaturifici is pushing members to embrace the digital marketplace and understand the benefits of ecommerce, particularly in reference to selling shoes in China.
At a conference in Milan called ‘The digital artisan’, it launched a digital platform that will be operative from the next edition of theMICAM in February.
“Firms need to communicate and interact with this public: it is not only a question of merely being present online or even of having an e-commerce channel,” said Assocalzaturifici. “They need to learn to use a new digital syntax when approaching the consumer. The in-store experience is by no means disappearing, but the retail is becoming more and more digitalised: it has to provide an experience that combines both the physical experience of the product and use of online information and sales channels.
“Italy is still to a large extent absent from this global digital competition and this can and must constitute a stimulus for exploring new digital strategies without further delay.”
Assocalzaturifici will help companies develop their digital expertise through online seminars on various subjects of interest to the footwear industry, ranging from aspects of tax relief and credit management to communication and specific strategic markets. The first seminar is scheduled for 9 December at 10:30am.
“Guaranteeing the perfection and absolute excellence of ‘made in Italy’ footwear remains our companies’ prime objective,” said Assocal president Annarita Pilotti, “but today, traditional craftsmanship has to work alongside the new technologies so as to be able to tell new generations of young foreign consumers about the beauty and quality workmanship of Italian footwear.”
Image credit: Micam
