24 Mar FLOOR TO OUR MERCHANTS: RISTOATTREZZATURE

Today, Ristoattrezzature is the reference e-commerce in Italy for the purchase of professional catering equipment and furniture, however its history of excellence in this sector goes back over thirty years. What are the most significant challenges you have faced?

We work in the catering equipment and furniture sector since the early 90s. With a strong sense of entrepreneurship, my father Giuseppe Onorato founded the company and thanks to his continuous focus on quality of both products and services, he managed to become a point of reference for thousands of businesses. Then, in 2011 I was the family pioneer of online activities and launched the very first e-commerce in our industry. In those years, the challenges were really big: you need to consider that e-shopping did not have big numbers yet, and, on top of that, the products we needed to ship were neither smartphones nor clothes, but huge and heavy professional equipment pieces. Managing to optimise packaging quality, shipping times, returns management, after-sales technical support have all been real challenges for us.

Speaking of excellence, Ristoattrezzature is an award-winning e-commerce: already acknowledged as one of the best in its sector in 2020, not only in 2021 it has won the Istituto Tedesco di Qualità ITQF and La Repubblica Affari & Finanza prize of best Italian e-commerce in its category, but it has also received the recognition of “Italian Excellence” from the Eccellenze Italiane team. What are the values at the core of your strategy that have led you to reach these goals?

A lot of passion for our work. Every single day, we try to find the best solutions to ensure our customers have a unique shopping experience, the best we can possibly offer. We take care of our customers at every stage of their journey, from first negotiations to delivery, product installation and after-sales support. Our motto is: for guaranteed success, the customer must come first!

On your online shop there is everything you need to open a new business and buy complete sets of professional equipments for cafés, bars, pubs, bakeries, pizzerias, pastry shops, butchers, ice cream shops, supermarkets, hotels and much more. How digital are your customers and how have the pandemic and lockdowns affected your business?

Our customers are increasingly embracing digital transformation and the pandemic has definitely encouraged and accellerated this process! Lockdowns have heavily affected our sector as a whole, but I have to say that my father and I have managed to keep our strong entrepreneurial spirit alive. Ristoattrezzature managed to transform its product range to adapt to the new demand, that is by offering everything that was impossible to find in the first months of the pandemic: masks, sanitizing gel, ozone generators and much more. Our offer of critical supplies has made it possible for thousands of people to find essential products to combat the pandemic.

Digital payments have been and continue to be a crucial driving force for the growth of e-commerce and retail. How important are they for Ristoattrezzature? Is it something you have focused and invested on?

Digital payments are the beating heart-and-soul of a successful eCommerce! Providing secure payments methods that offer immediate confirmation is a key component for us at Ristoattrezzature.

Why did you decide to adopt MyBank payments?

Many of our customers prefer wire transfer payments. The main problem with them was related to processing times. After having left our e-commerce, some customers were busy with other tasks and had the tendency to procrastinate, which significantly slowed down order management processes. MyBank has been the perfect solution!

How has MyBank met your needs and those of your customers?

MyBank allows our customers to finalise their purchase directly from the secure environment of their online banking without leaving our e-commerce website, while providing us immediate certainty of payment and, as a result, speeding up our order management processes. With MyBank, orders are shipped on the same day, so we can provide an excellent service. A “win-win” situation with real benefits for our customers and our company.

Ristoattrezzature offer customers the possibility to physically see and touch the professional equipment and machinery available on the website, thanks to a huge exhibition space near the city of Palermo. What does this physical store represent for you today?

An excellent way to attract less digitally mature customers.

Your customer service communication channels include website, telephone, e-mail, Whatsapp: many different channels to contact you are available. Are you on social media as well and, if so, why?

Yes, absolutely, we are on social media where we love to share special promotions, the services we offer as well as the projects we work on. This is great for maximising customer interaction.

What is your focus at the moment and what aspects of your business will be at the core of your strategy this year?

In this particular and challenging moment in history, in which materials are becoming increasingly difficult to find and prices continue to rise in every sector, we are trying to get as many products in stock as possible, to significantly expand our warehouses and to boost product discounts. Basically, we are trying to go against the flow to support customers and differentiate ourselves from competitors.