Growth Talks
eCommerce
Our own eCommerce: Vinusta
More than an agency: We run the food online shop Vinusta in-house and know exactly what eCommerce customers need.
Whenever there’s an opportunity in sight, we seize it, broaden our horizons and let our customers benefit directly from our experience.
It was no different with Vinusta, our online shop for Italian delicacies. When the opportunity arose last year to take it over along with the products in stock, all employees and open questions, we didn't hesitate. In addition to the potential for profit, we were motivated by one aspect in particular: the chance to put ourselves in the shoes of our eCommerce customers, to manage everything ourselves from the magazine to customs regulations and product purchasing, to learn, to grow and to pass on the knowledge we have gained. First-hand experience for first-class customers.
Not too much time ago, you decided to take over the food online shop vinusta.com, with all the risks. What made you take this decision?
Denis Pellegrini, Zeppelin founder: The first motivation was that we wanted to develop further as an agency. Zeppelin has always developed sophisticated online marketing campaigns with high performance results. Our clients were always very satisfied, but that “certain something” was missing in the field of eCommerce. Thanks to Vinusta, we can now communicate on a par with our clients - from eCommerce company to eCommerce company.
The second reason was that we wanted to build another company within the Zeppelin Group that had a scalable business model. The eCommerce market in the food sector is a fast-growing market and Vinusta certainly has good prerequisites to be successful.
You worked for Vinusta before Zeppelin took over the online shop. How have the growth measures affected the sales figures? What has changed overall? (0:57)
Alessandro Fontanari, store manager: Exactly, I am the store manager. I've been working in eCommerce for a few years now, and last year we optimized three macro areas in Zeppelin's growth team, with different results.
1. First of all, we transformed the logistics process and increased the average value of the shopping cart. We managed to consolidate deliveries of different products and to save time in preparing orders.
2. We have also improved the customer acquisition process. Thanks to a new, proactive way of selling, we were able to acquire over 5,000 new customers.
3. And last but not least, we optimized the sales process itself. Based on marketing data, we removed less popular products and introduced new ones for which demand was higher.
All these measures have resulted in sales doubling over the year, from €250,000 to over €500,000.
What is your next, big growth goal and how do you plan to achieve it? (2:17)
Denis Pellegrini, Zeppelin founder: The goal of 2021 is to double sales again and to increase the margin at the same time. But we will only succeed if we reposition the brand. We are currently working on that and in February we will relaunch the online shop.
Zeppelin has recently set a new focus on growth marketing, Vinusta is a kind of internal pilot project. What are the major advantages of the new approach? (2:39)
Michele Ciliberti, web marketing team leader: Thanks to the growth marketing activities, problems in the sales process come to light that would otherwise remain hidden. We've collected a lot of data on target groups, demographics, user behaviour and age groups, and figured out how to reach people we wouldn't have come in touch with without the campaigns. We can pass this valuable information on to our eCommerce customers and use it to adjust product, pricing, promotion and distribution policies accordingly. This is a huge advantage, because it makes it possible to rule out measures that don't work in digital, and to further expand those that work well. Problems and obstacles to sales are removed, which would be much more difficult with traditional campaigns. Thanks to growth marketing, we can get results in a much more direct, fast and profitable way.
Was it a good idea to take over Vinusta? (3:59)
Denis Pellegrini, Zeppelin founder: Yes, it was indeed the right decision. With Vinusta, we can live our passion for branding and performance every day. It's a real pleasure to break new ground together as a team and to be able to share these great results.
What added value can Zeppelin offer eCommerce customers thanks to Vinusta?
Denis Pellegrini, Zeppelin founder: The digital positioning of online shops and brands is part of Zeppelin's daily business. Thanks to Vinusta, we can now offer even more:
1. We can break new ground in customer acquisition.
2. We have transformed our web marketing team into an eCommerce team, which allows us to simplify the cooperation with buyers and store managers and to make it more profitable.
3. We have developed many measures to increase repeat purchases from customers.
4. We have worked out improved handling of transportation charges, commissions, delivery times, returns and even customer service.
5. We think in margins! We optimize transactional sales margins, but also the overall mass of an online shop.
Do you also want to break new ground with your eCommerce? Learn everything about growth marketing in eCommerce here!
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