La Sportiva was born in 1928 when its founder, Narciso Delladio, began hand-crafting wooden clogs and leather boots for the farmers and lumber-jacks who worked in the surrounding Italian Alps.
The demand for Narciso’s boots grew after the war and his reputation would soon cross the borders of the neighbouring valleys. His knowledge of the craft and passion for innovation would run from generation to generation, through the 1950s when his son, Francesco, joined the business and the 1970s when Francesco’s sons Lorenzo, Luciano and Marco began working for the company.
Today, La Sportiva produces the world’s leading climbing and mountaineering shoes, as well as specialised hiking shoes, mountain running shoes, ski mountaineering boots and technical outdoor clothing for climbers and mountaineers. It now employs approximately 280 staff and is still proud to call the Dolomites home.
The challenge
La Sportiva has four brand stores in Italy and Spain and distributes to more than 70 countries worldwide. It previously had a website that was content-rich and ranked well, with 140,000 monthly sessions. However, what it needed was an eCommerce platform that could launch quickly to build upon its rising global reputation and make it easier for its international customers to purchase online.
Luca Mich, La Sportiva Marketing Coordinator explains: “The challenge was to completely rebuild and quickly launch the new website without losing any traffic. Our marketing team are not HTML specialists so it was very important that the content management system was simple and easy to use. We investigated a number of companies and spoke to lots of agencies but we decided upon the Kooomo SaaS cloud platform because it would get us to market fast. Better yet, without the need to spend on IT infrastructure, as it is truly an out-of-the-box solution, we were able to dramatically reduce the launch costs.”
The results
La Sportiva’s top five markets are Italy, Germany, Austria, France and Spain, and its website launched in five languages; English, Italian, German, Spanish and French in order to deliver the best brand experience to its customers, wherever they happen to be.
“We can access the Kooomo platform anytime, anywhere. The dashboard is easy to use and gives instant access to statistics so we’re able to see which markets we’re doing well in, and those ones that are ready for further growth”, explains Mich.
La Sportiva eCommerce Manager, Francesco Trenti agrees: “Thanks to a highly successful SEO and migration strategy we were live within four weeks and began delivering a great user experience from day one. Kooomo has helped us increase our brand awareness with site visits growing every month. Compared to the same month last year, organic traffic has increased by over 500% from Germany and 120% from France. Since going live, we have already shipped to approximately 50 countries from Sweden to Slovakia, Iceland and Australia.”
Trenti explains how the Kooomo integration partner, PVS, has empowered La Sportiva to efficiently fulfil orders: “Our warehouse is managed by PVS which has been a real time-saver. When we receive an order, it’s automatically forwarded to PVS to pick, pack and ship it for us.”
Trenti has been impressed with another app integration called Feedaty, which helps him to manage customer feedback and enquiries: “With Feedaty, customers can rate and leave feedback on their shopping experience and review the products. This helps us to respond quickly and shape how we do business in the future.”
Looking forward
In 2016, Lorenzo Delladio, La Sportiva CEO and President was awarded the honour of “Knight of the National Order of Merit” for conducting the family business with an eco-sustainable approach and maintaining the company’s social responsibilities towards the environment. The principle of sustainability runs throughout the business and is a key to La Sportiva’s success to date.
“The future for La Sportiva is about sustainable growth. We plan to add to the online team and establish our footprint worldwide. Our ambition is to communicate our unique brand identity through a great online experience. By doing this, we forecast a growth in turnover, and we expect Kooomo to be an integral part of this,” Trenti, eCommerce Manager, concludes.
