11 Feb FLOOR TO OUR MERCHANTS: FIMELATO

Fimelato is the digital brand that innovates the Italian tradition of men’s bespoke tailored suits. How did you come up with such a unique formula combining crafting excellence, at-home services and digital innovation?

The idea occurred almost naturally. The overused and, in our view, misused adjective “exclusive” in the world of high-quality tailoring has generated a certain effect of “exclusion” towards some market segments, and consequently some sort of gap between supply and demand. This gap has become bigger and bigger over the years to the point of making tailoring perceived as something accessible only by a niche audience.

Fimelato aims to “revamp” the bespoke tailoring system by serving potential customers at home. Thus, the customer actively takes part to the process of designing and creating his own tailored clothes, and has a clear overview of the costs involved in his purchase all along the way.

Your brand is “new normal” by design. What are the aspects of your business that have been digitized, and based on what strategy? What are your main challenges?

All our marketing, sales, loyalty and administrative processes have been digitized in such a way that the relationship between Fimelato and the customer does not end with the purchase but rather starts with it. Our concept is all about offering an exceptional human experience every time our customers get in touch with Fimelato. Paradoxically, the sale of our tailored clothes itself is only one among many elements that make the customer journey an unforgettable experience.

The challenge ahead of us is about creating and consolidating a loyal Fimelato community. Today, the offers we are all exposed to are too many and there is a real risk that even the best initiatives get unnoticed in a sea of one-click away ideas and proposals.

Your business adventure began in 2019, just before a very difficult year where we all faced an unprecedented health emergency and a true revolution in consumer habits. What impact has Covid-19 had on your business?

Fimelato was founded in 2019 as a company, however its master tailors are on the market since over 30 years. Due to the pandemic, 2020 forced us to significantly accelerate the reorganisation of our processes, particularly in terms of customer communication.

In our world, customers predominantly belong to a very traditional market segment and are used to very traditional communication channels, mostly face-to-face. It is precisely physical distancing that has partly affected our development plans and has forced us to anticipate some activities while postponing others.

2020 was dedicated to pampering our customers and all loyal Fimelato “fans”. Therefore, ample room was given to digital communication in all its forms, and to the launch of new services such as “30suMisura”, a free wardrobe consultation service provided by one of our master tailors via a 30-minute video meeting.

How important are digital payments at Fimelato and how do they fit your user experience?

Payments are a phase of the purchase journey which we consider crucial at Fimelato. Our customer needs to perceive security and transparency while finalising their purchase. At the same time, payment tools needs to provide ease of use: in a sector such as bespoke tailoring, a significant number of customers still prefer to use cash.

A Fimelato suit can also be paid with MyBank. Who are its users and which of its features do they appreciate in particular?

There is actually no particular customer category opting for MyBank payments.

In our experience, MyBank users are a very miscellanous group of customers in terms of age, location and social role. Recently, we are noticing a general effort to improve the payment experience. Let’s say that the features that are truly crucial to our customers, are security and transparency.

Why does MyBank fit your digital brand strategy?

The adoption of MyBank is very much in line with our company mission to revamp bespoke tailoring, a sector that is still strongly linked to tradition also when it comes to payments.

We should not forget that even today, and this is the case for the bespoke tailoring sector as a whole, a large percentage of orders are paid in cash. There are several reasons for this: on one hand, the lack of willingness to change which belongs to traditional tailoring, and on the other hand some sort of perception of “danger” and a lack of trust towards “innovative” payment methods.

MyBank is what Fimelato needs to overcome this challenge.

What results do you aim to achieve with MyBank and which of its features do you have mostly benefited from so far?

By 2021, all Fimelato transactions will be exclusively digital and MyBank will be an extremely important driver both for us and our customers.

With MyBank, Fimelato has progressively improved its brand reputation and boosted transparency, also in the highly delicate payment phase. Even many of the most innovation and change sceptic customers have embraced digital.

For a digital brand like Fimelato, transaction security and data protection are essential features to build trust and customer loyalty. Not only has MyBank always focused on security, but it is also a GDPR and PSD2 fully compliant solution. Is this something you keep in consideration and promote?

Fimelato customers love privacy and security as much as beautiful tailored clothing. For this reason, MyBank protection of our customers’ data in compliance with the GDPR and PSD2, is something that is highly value-adding for us.

In addition to embody the “new normal”, Fimelato is 100% “customer centric”. With you, customers do not simply make a purchase, but live an exclusive experience that goes beyond a top quality bespoke tailored suit: the personal Travel Tailor, the 30suMisura video consultation service as well as a world of extra services and benefits with the Fimelato Exclusive world. How would you summarise the Fimelato experience?

We work to ensure our customers a wonderful experience, with a perception of well-being, quality, good taste at any stage, and with a constant focus on making them always feel at ease.

The Fimelato experience has a duration of 6 months from customers’ last purchase and this includes a sea of extra benefits for them, all strictly complimentary.