Pittarosso: from retailer to a successful e-commerce

Pittarosso is a true giant in the Italian footwear retail world. With over 13,000 employees and 200 stores across Europe, it has been the undisputed leader in traditional Italian footwear and fashion items for more than 20 years. Even though it's now an ecommerce powerhouse, the road to digital success wasn't always easy.

Pittarosso embraced online selling with a bit of reluctance, launching its ecommerce store only in 2017. Soon after, its online store began registering millions of orders every year, winning over an increasingly loyal and passionate customer base.

Want to find out how Pittarosso turned a traditional business into a multi-million-euro online machine? Come behind the scenes with us at the company's headquarters in Padua. We spoke with Pietro Rossato, the Digital Manager, to uncover their brand journey and the secrets behind creating a personalized online experience that took Pittarosso to ecommerce success.

From retailer to ecommerce without losing sight of customer experience

Pittarosso began its journey in 2003, and in just ten years it already had more than 200 locations in Italy and abroad, establishing itself as one of the country's leading footwear retailers. The secret to its success? The ability to offer fashionable styles at affordable prices.

When the time came to go digital in 2017, Pittarosso's team knew that the key to maintaining their success would be translating their shopping experience into the new online store.

It wasn't just about putting products up for sale online, but about recreating for customers the same great experience they found in physical stores.

"A customer's order isn't just about buying shoes or clothing. It's a complete experience that has to include an extremely intuitive, few-clicks process for online purchases and returns." Pietro Rossato, Digital Manager at Pittarosso.

This customer-centric philosophy soon proved to be a winning one.

Thanks to the platform's new design in 2020, the company significantly improved the customer experience on its website, achieving a 97% increase in revenue. How did they do it? By integrating a scalable backend platform with a headless frontend to ensure a smooth, seamless connection.

Riding this success, the company decided to apply the winning formula to its logistics operations too, focusing on top-tier deliveries to offer an unbeatable shipping experience.

Let's not forget that logistics management for physical stores is relatively simple: just keep them well stocked, customers walk in, pick the product they want, and the experience is practically under the brand's full control. In the world of ecommerce, however, things are very different. Here, the shipping experience plays a crucial role, representing that key stage before the order reaches the customer. Pittarosso understood the importance of this stage and invested to ensure every parcel reaches the customer's hands quickly and efficiently.

Using tracking notifications to engage customers

In the world of ecommerce, the customer journey doesn't end when a purchase is completed. On the contrary, online checkout marks the beginning of the most crucial part of the story, the one that culminates with the product in the customer's hands.

Pittarosso knows well that this is the moment of greatest excitement for the customer, and that it's the perfect time to boost engagement. That's why it created a truly unique automated tracking experience. Not only can customers follow their order through a fully branded tracking page, but they also receive exclusive discounts and updates on the latest campaigns.

Forget generic, one-size-fits-all transactional emails! This strategy not only keeps customers informed about their order status, but actively engages them, strengthening their relationship with the brand.

"Customers are very satisfied; you can tell because they keep coming back to our site, often for the promotions and links they find in tracking emails and on our personalized tracking page." Pietro Rossato, Digital Manager at Pittarosso.

Pittarosso therefore leverages the delivery process to foster deeper relationships with customers, keeping them informed at all times and getting them to engage with the products they love. By adopting proactive communication, customers feel valued and informed at every single stage of the customer journey, even when deliveries don't go as planned.

Easy returns, returning customers

For many fashion brands, returns are the Achilles' heel of their business, but for Pittarosso they represent an opportunity to deliver an outstanding customer experience.

Did you know that 54% of European shoppers avoid making a return because they see it as a huge hassle? While receiving few returns might seem like a good thing, it's important to consider that unhappy customers who don't return a product will almost certainly never buy from you again.

Instead of discouraging returns with a complicated process, Pittarosso made them extremely simple, reducing them to just a few clicks on an online portal, without even needing to log in. This streamlined returns process increases the likelihood that a first-time buyer becomes a loyal customer.

So ask yourself: do you simply want to fulfill orders, or do you want to seize every opportunity to bring customers back to buy from you again?

What a brand can learn from Pittarosso's ecommerce success

The secret to Pittarosso's success? Investing in the right platform to manage its ecommerce logistics.

When Pittarosso started looking for the ideal partner to deliver the best customer experience and simplify processes, they chose our shipping platform. Thanks to this partnership, Pittarosso centralized all its logistics processes, from parcel tracking to carrier and returns management, turning its online store into a real strength and revenue driver.

"Sendcloud lets us easily manage order fulfillment and shipping, and this reinforces our image as a customer-focused company: we don't just slap on a logo, we personally oversee every stage of the online order process." Pietro Rossato, Digital Manager at Pittarosso.

What a brand can do to boost its digital success

Let's recap what we've learned in this article.

The customer journey needs to flow smoothly, from checkout all the way to returns. It all starts with seamless browsing and a simplified checkout. Choosing your preferred delivery method should be as easy as ticking a box. From there, to maintain trust and engagement, it's crucial to deliver orders on time and keep customers constantly informed throughout the delivery process, even when things don't go as planned. Finally, an easy, intuitive returns process is a powerful tool for boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty. Making the returns process simple and accessible turns a potential letdown into an opportunity to strengthen customers' trust in the brand.

You don't need deep tech expertise to make the most of innovation. With the rise of things like AI and smart technologies, the idea of digitalizing the online experience and shipping processes can feel intimidating. But as the saying goes, every long journey starts with a first step. For brands, the point is to find the right ecommerce solution that allows for continuous improvement.

Pittarosso's ecommerce evolution can be a great source of inspiration for any traditional retailer looking to turn their retail business into an online sales success story. The secret is to see every order not just as a product sold, but as an extension of your brand experience delivered straight to your customer's door.

Pittarosso is living proof that with the right mix of technology, insight, and love for the customer, improving your ecommerce isn't just possible, it's essential. Want to learn more?

▶️ Dive deeper into Pittarosso's success story