New ecommerce site Storytalia promotes products made in Italy

When you think about products that are made in Italy, at first you will probably think of brands like Gucci, Ferrari, Versace and Prada. But there’s much, much more. That’s why a new ecommerce site has launched. Storytalia wants to promote quality goods from selected brands, so its visitors get to know “the unexpected made in Italy”.

Storytalia was launched during an event in Milan on October 30, news agency ANSA reports. The website shows products for sale from little-known yet high quality producers of textiles, fashion, design and food. The main aim of the site is to help these manufacturers and producers reach more new customers in Italy and abroad.

Italy is food, design and fashion
“After long and extensive efforts made over the past several months, this is the key moment,” said Paolo Zegna, president of Stil Novo Management, the owner of the site. Zegna explains that he saw in his business travels how difficult it was for small firms to find distribution networks abroad. By bringing such brands and product categories together under one roof, they will help each other gain visibility, Zegna thinks. “Made in Italy really works well when it presents itself with all its strengths together: food, design, fashion.”

Storytalia also features editorial content, which explains the “story” part of the name. It wants to tell the stores of the accompanied company’s territories and their products by features pieces about little known aspects of Italy itself. “Like hidden jewels of cultural heritage, traditions, behind-the-scenes workmanship and must-see places way off the beaten path”, Chiara Dal Conto, editorial director of Storytalia, says. Zegna hopes that through the editorial part, expectations and desires will be created which will be then translated into sales. Storytalia will get a cut of transactions on the platform.

Expanding to the rest of Europe
The ecommerce site has private backers like Zegna himself and Leonardo Ferragamo, CEO of Palazzo Feroni Finanziaria and President of hotel chain Lungarno Collection. But also financial institutions like Unicredit and Simest, and Italy’s Ministry of Industry have invested in the site.

According to Zegna Storytalia could reach potentially huge sales of a few million euros in a few years as more firms join and more markets are penetrated. For now, the website is targeted at Italy, France, Germany and the UK. By end of this year, all content will be translated into English and by 2015 the rollout should extend to the rest of Europe. After that, the American market will likely follow.