The Advantages of Investing in Technology
in the Luxury Fashion Industry

Visual Retailing's technology helps ETRO to maintain high Visual
Merchandising standards in their luxury fashion stores around
the world and communicate the joyful brand's values.

The Italian luxury fashion brand was founded 1968 in Milan by Gerolamo Etro as
a textile design company and marks its 50th anniversary this year. Nowadays the company is managed by his four children, with everyone bringing their own creativity into the process without forgetting about the roots and the heart of the brand.

Made in Italy

ETRO is mostly known for its paisley patterns and the collections can all be defined by five key words: color, travel, art, nature and play. The core value of the brand is characterized by the combination of rooted traditions and new technologies and innovations. Offering their customers beautiful and valuable "Made in Italy" fashion is just as important as keeping up their high standards regarding Visual Merchandising in the stores.

This is where Visual Retailing's technology excels. ETRO introduced MockShop almost 2 years ago to the Visual Merchandising team in the head offices in Milan. Since then, the team consisting of 10 people, was able to improve their strategy when it comes to keeping a consistent brand image throughout the 200+ stores around the globe. Saving costs and time to be more focused and detailed in projects and to keep the ETRO vision consistent in every single shop have proved to be the
best benefits so far.

Clear and structured Visual Merchandising guidelines are key

Marianna Biscotti, Visual Manager Wholesale & Franchise, is highly satisfied with MockShop and how much the communication with her customers in different franchise markets cross-border benefits from it. Sending out clear visual guidelines that all speak the same language but are still specified for each market is easier than ever before.

"As I cannot physically consult my customers and I am not able to visit every store personally, MockShop simplifies my work in order to transfer a clear vision of product specifications."

MockShop was introduced just at the right time, when the company started to "rethink the tradition and try to maintain it with a more contemporary approach", she continues.

Furthermore, Federico Nicolosi, Visual Manager APAC and Travel Retail, mentions that a huge difficulty prior to using MockShop, was to establish different visual guidelines for each market from one office. As every Visual Merchandiser has their own bench market and each of them is different (e.g. Europe vs. Asia), MockShop highly supports them in creating individual guidelines in a fast and effective manner. "We were in need of finding a solution that works for all of us, to customize each market whilst keeping our value in all guidelines consistent. The fashion world is changing so fast and we need to react quickly as well".

“Visual Merchandising is a strong key factor to
achieve the target of the selling in our stores”

Siri Peterson, Sale Associate at ETRO Milano Flagship Store

Bringing ideas into the stores

In the past it was very difficult to create accurate guidelines. Those were more a general idea of how to match the items and for the staff of the stores it was very complicated to locate the correct rack and to place the items properly in a good sequence. Furthermore it created a lot of costs and was too time-consuming. "Now we have control over every single rack in our stores and we simplify the sales associates' job by high amounts", says Federico.

A perfect reflection of ETRO's values is easily created by MockShop. Since it shows sales associates exactly where to hang which items, they save a lot of time which they can invest in their customers to offer them an unforgettable shopping experience.

"Visual Merchandising is a very important tool for us, as it is the first thing the customer will feel and experience when entering the store. It can arrange a beautiful atmosphere that will make the customer feel connected to the brand and its products. It is definitely a strong key factor to achieve the target of selling in our stores. MockShop highly contributes to that" says Siri Peterson, Sales Associate ETRO Milano Flagship Store.

Visual Retailing’s software was especially a great supporter during the planning process for the reopened flagship store in Via Monte Napoleone 5 in Milan in September, 2018. The store really highlights the love for detail and quality, exactly what lies in ETRO's DNA and what is communicated to the customer.

“What I love about MockShop, is the possibility to build an entire yet very precise store
in a 3D environment in less than 1 hour. Those environments really reflect the true
dimension and measurements of the real stores and can be easily be recreated
from the guidelines, which is extremely useful.”

Federico Nicolosi, Visual Manager APAC & Travel Retail at ETRO

Combining tradition and innovation

Regarding the fast-pacing fashion industry and trends that evolve and fade within days, MockShop significantly helps the Visual Merchandising team to keep up with the needs of their customers.

By choosing MockShop, ETRO decided to invest even more than before in technology to focus on its vision to combine old traditions with innovation and regarding to Federico, the whole VM team is excited to see the progresses that will continue to be made by using MockShop in their everyday work.

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The Advantages of Investing in Technology in the Luxury Fashion Industry

Visual Retailing's technology helps ETRO to maintain high Visual Merchandising standards in their luxury fashion stores around the world and communicate the joyful brand's values.