The stories of 3 merchants who started using ShopCall, the first video-shopping platform that allows you to continue advising customers remotely and at any time, through a simple video call.
The Covid hurricane has swept over Italy – and the world – with a thick blanket of breathlessness, depriving businesses and operators in the tertiary sector, retailers and service providers of oxygen, which report losses that in some cases exceed 60% of the annual turnover for 2020.
Forced to their knees, traders desperately seek a foothold to get back up: everyone needs some sort of concrete support to overcome this moment. There are those looking for support to bypass the forced closure of businesses and not lower the shutters, to increase sales, to not lose contact with trusted customers or to entice customers to come into their store, despite everything.
The answers to the lockdown seem to be online and the enhancement of innovative forms of purchase: refugees at home, consumers buy remotely, even if not without some hesitation, especially when the products or services to be purchased are not really commodities.
When it comes to choosing more complex goods or those that would need advice – a piece of clothing or an artisanal product – the traditional customer struggles to indulge in e-commerce and would prefer to take advantage of the advice of a trusted shopkeeper.
Distance and presence now coexist with ShopCall, the first video-commerce platform that allows every merchant to continue advising customers while shopping, remotely and at any time, simply through a video call.
The innovative platform for bringing the physical showcase online and encouraging in-store visits via video call is already a success: it appeals to the most digitally advanced merchants and has also conquered the categories that are by their nature more anchored to tradition.
This is thanks to the simplicity of this video-shopping system: the brick & mortar store goes online with just one click, without the need to download anything or even opening an e-commerce store.
ShopCall is effective and transversal and promises to conquer even those who think they cannot take advantage of a sale – or even a simple consultation – in a video call.
Here are some all-Italian success stories.
Cakes and panettone in a video call? Alberto Marchetti smiles at the customer to sell with sweetness
If the customer cannot go to the Bottega, the Bottega goes to the customer, directly on their smartphone, tablet or PC.
You enter people’s homes to feel closer and bring a taste of normality and sweetness just when it is needed most. This is where the Video Bottega di Casa Marchetti project comes to life: an idea born from the famous Turin ice cream maker Alberto Marchetti together with 10 other artisans in the confectionery sector, in an attempt to keep the good buying habits of gourmet customers intact.
Casa Marchetti is a Virtual Shop which can be accessed through a video call with ShopCall.
Walking through the shelves and peeking through Marchetti’s delicacies is as simple as clicking on a link: with a touch the customer will find themselves catapulted into the shop and will be greeted by the contagious smile of the well-known Maestro del Gusto who, as it happened until a few days ago, he will virtually accompany customers to the shop, advise them on their purchases and fill the cart with them.
Why should an ice cream maker choose ShopCall? ““The intention is to share the moment of purchase with customers– says Marchetti – while maintaining a certain physicality, the ability to talk and smile live”.
Care of relationships and trust-building: ShopCall helps to keep customer habits alive and makes the shopkeeper the protagonist of the shopping experience again, framing online purchases with normality and tradition.
The Casa Marchetti project begins with the sale of the highest quality artisanal cakes and panettone. Thanks to ShopCall and video commerce there is no need to line up to get them: a click suffices to get advice from Alberto and choose the pastry excellence to bring to the table for the holidays or every day. It’s really easy!
De Wan: the boutique becomes smart
The digital world has never struggled to break through as much as in the luxury sector. Due to a combination of factors: the products’ prestige and their character of craftsmanship – difficult to appreciate from the screen – the characteristics of the target –accustomed to touching and anchored to classic shopping – the importance of experience and relationship with the shopkeeper – which transcends the simple purchase of the product.
Entering a boutique is a pleasure, it is a luxury in itself. Depriving it can affect the purchase’s value.
And if restrictions on mobility inhibit walking and risk lowering the shutters of boutiques, some are forcing themselves to stay open, using the levers of innovation.
This is the case of De Wan, a historic boutique in the centre of Turin, declared a Red Zone since the beginning of November 2020, which did not surrender to the emptiness of the city and created the Smart Boutique De Wan.
Thanks to ShopCall, Elisabetta De Wan continues to virtually host her customers in the shop: “I take them around the halls, among scarves, bijoux and foulards – says the shop owner – we chat, I give advice and ask questions about tastes. Through the video shopping platform, I send the photo of the desired object, the price and the shipping costs in real-time. It is a sort of middle ground between e-commerce and live shopping”. A fresh and engaging novelty that people like and that also attracts new customers intrigued by the instrument’s potential: “The experience is fun and some people have already started buying Christmas gifts”.
Welcoming the customer, pampering them and giving value to the shopping experience: ShopCall reinvents luxury shopping and stimulates traffic in boutiques, even from a distance.
Gli AROMI Sicily: “ShopCall is a strategic lever to enhance our e-commerce with video shopping”
ShopCall video commerce also appeals to those who are already online and are used to selling through e-commerce.
This is the case of Gli AROMI Sicily, a Mediterranean company producing hundreds of officinal and aromatic herbs from Sicily that, thanks to ShopCall, can welcome all customers inside its greenhouse and sell without borders.
But there’s more: with the ShopCall video shopping, the products of Gli AROMI are finally told and valued as they deserve.
Enrico Russino, the founder of the company, narrates the properties of the herbs produced and enchants customers with the stories of skilled craftsmanship. It is he who has chosen to combine ShopCall with the existing e-commerce platform, to boost business. ShopCall wins and convinces because “it motivates the customer, making them feel at the centre of attention” says Russino, adding that “this has allowed us to record an increase in sales and to carry out an active sale”.
More power to the merchant and lights focused on the product’s unique characteristics: by video calling with ShopCall, the customer virtually enters the greenhouse and, lulled by the seller’s stories, can almost smell the scent of the Mediterranean scrub, while allowing themselves to be transported into an online shopping experience, which no longer has anything to envy from a physical one..
