The VICINO project is the brainchild of 3 entrepreneurs who love their heritage and are passionate about the food and wine sector and care about the work of local producers. The main objective of VICINO is to exploit the technologies of the digital revolution to bridge the gap between producers and consumers by creating a gastronomic culture and raise the profile of companies behind the final product on sale. The name of the project - VICINO - aims to highlight the idea of closeness between producers and consumers, breaking down the barriers of distance.

COMMpla's role

COMMpla was contacted by VICINO in June 2020 and was immediately very excited to start this new project. The request made by VICINO was not the creation of a simple online wine shop, but the creation of an innovative marketplace focused on creating a personalised shopping experience, on the creation of a community of food and wine enthusiasts and on the enhancement of the profiles of the various local producers. To bring this vision to fruition, COMMpla has taken care of VICINO's technical platform and marketing strategy implementation. COMMpla has created a brand identity in line with the company vision of closeness between producer and consumer. The brand identity has also been infused in the e-commerce user interface and user experience by exploiting the enormous customisation potential of the Prestashop platform. COMMpla has also overseen the creation of three phases of multi-channel marketing campaigns aimed at promoting the Marketplace on the main social networks and search engines:

• Business model and value proposition creation.
• Launch of the marketplace through the creation, engagement and conversion of relevant leads.
• Customer loyalty building.

An innovative marketplace tailored to people

Consumers frequently have the problem of not knowing how much a particular product really costs or what lies behind the product. VICINO addresses these issues, putting producers and consumers in contact on the basis of the common philosophy and ethics of production. VICINO.it was designed to best simulate the shopping experience that one would have if they went to buy wine directly from the producer. The user has at his disposal a series of dynamic and interactive tools designed to make it easy for them to browse the marketplace and increase purchases. Users can browse among the various producers and add the wines that they want in a wishlist called "box" or directly add them to the cart. It is also possible to purchase only some of the products added to the cart. The users can use the "Virtual Sommelier", a machine learning tool that suggests the best food-wine combination based on the wine (softness, aroma, acidity, etc.) or food, or recipe.
Additional features are:

• Advanced search for products on the marketplace by name, type, price or region.
• Encyclopedia divided by categories: region, types of the vine, tasting, traditional recipes, etc..

The execution of a winning business project requires an in-depth knowledge of different business aspects: from product strategy and marketing campaigns to the creation of various digital platforms, such as a website, custom software or e-commerce. If you would prefer to focus on managing your business, you can delegate the development and execution of part of your business strategy to an experienced technical partner.

Feel free to contact COMMpla