10 Oct FLOOR TO OUR MERCHANTS: MISTER WORKER™

How did you come to the idea of creating ​​Mister Worker™?

Mister Worker™ was created in 2012 under the name of ‘KittyUtensili.it”, one of the first B2B e-commerce sites dedicated to industrial professional tools. Shortly after launching the website, we had focused on internationalization with the objective to do business in Germany, whose market was particularly appealing.
However, we encountered some unforeseen difficulties and even risked closing down! 

What happened and how did you manage to recover and make your business grow?

We realised we were not ready for the German market. However, since the website had already been translated into English and we had nothing to lose at that time, we decided to move forward anyway: since then transactions have been on the rise. In 2017 the company was participated by AME Ventures, the investment company belonging to Michele Appendino, who over the past years has financed companies like Vista Print, Yoox, Mutui Online, eDreams and Vola Gratis. We opened up an office in Bangkok to manage the Far East market more easily and in 2018 we changed the brand name into Mister Worker™ to give the company an international footprint.

In how many countries do you sell?

Today, Mister Worker™ is an Italian startup with 75% of its turnover coming from foreign markets. Our website is available in 7 different languages, our catalog features over 40,000 products which have so far been sold in more than 160 countries. Considering that the UN recognizes 206 states, we can say that we have almost completed the world tour!

What is your target market?

Our target are manufacturing companies and maintenance professionals. In particular, we are specialized in two sectors -aerospace and online gas- however our customers come from a variety  of  industries.

Can you mention some of your customers? 

Versace, Siemens, Ducati, Saipem, NATO, Coca Cola, Birkenstock to name a few. 

What are the cornerstones of your strategy and what tools do you use to communicate with your customers?

To us, marketing is necessarily digital. I personally value search marketing, however social media are effective, too: we count over 120,000 followers on Facebook and Linkedin provides a valuable platform as well. When it comes to customer engagement though, one-to-one marketing is key.

Do you suffer from an increase in sales during particular times of the year, does seasonality affect your business?

As an ecommerce selling worldwide we see different seasonality patterns. August in Italy is very calm while business runs as usual in other countries. Generally speaking, the busiest timeframe is between September and May.

Why did you decide to use MyBank and how does it fit your digital development strategy?

Within B2B, receiving and processing orders usually requires longer times and payments are not made with credit/debit cards. MyBank will surely boost traceability and enable immediate online payments, features that meet our need for streamlined and faster processes ensuring at the same time secure transactions and data protection at both the customers’ and our end.

What results would you like to achieve with MyBank?

We see two success factors in MyBank: first and foremost, by making this solution available to our customers, we want to provide them with an e-payment method based on their secure and familiar home-banking environment. Offering customers the possibility to use their usual payment platform will make it easier for them to finalise their orders.

Secondly, MyBank allows faster order processing times, thus making our ecommerce business more efficient. When customers pay with MyBank, we get immediate confirmation and can be sure payment is done. Consequently, the offer we had made to the customer turns into a confirmed order that we can immediately move forward with: shipping and delivery times are significantly reduced allowing us to be very competitive. Therefore, we are confident MyBank will contribute to further growth in terms of sales as well as customer retention.

By providing immediate confirmation of the transaction, MyBank payments allow 100% automatic reconciliation. How can this feature contribute to optimise collection processes?

To us, in addition to reconciliation, the great advantage of receiving immediate payment confirmation is that we can process customers’ orders straight away: on the PrestaShop platform and via HiPay, the payment gateway we use to benefit from MyBank, the order is automatically confirmed and can be processed as soon as the payment is made by the customer.