SHAVE AND A HAIRCUT..." - AND A TABLET, PLEASE!

The #dnvb for Luxury Home & Lifestyle Ware Amerigo Milano is exploring new methods to reach out to its clients, by mixing up its digital nature with the real, tangible world. And by tying in new, and rather unusual business partners.
The Milan-based, high-end furniture, home accessories and lifestyle brand has recently set up a number of collaborations with barber shops and beauty parlors, that sell the Amerigo Milano Luxury Home & Lifestyle Collection to their customers.
Tangible yet digital, or better: the digital brand Amerigo Milano is teaming up with 'tangible', real-life partners (Beauty Parlors and Barber Shops) that show the brand's design collection, but ask their customers to resort to digital means the minute they wish to purchase a piece.
The success of the formula also depends on the particular characteristics of the selected partner businesses:
1- Comfortably seated on an armchair, during a treatment, the customer can browse the entire Amerigo Milano Home & Lifestyle Collection, on a tablet. In order to stimulate interest, selected items are shown inside the shops as corner and/or window displays, so that a potential buyer gets the chance to experience the quality of the designer pieces. The stylist's role is to tell the story behind the Amerigo Milano creations, and to help the customers decide which item may be the right one to match their (desired) lifestyle.
2- During a visit to the hair stylist's or beautician's, the client is already in the mood to listen or to chat: the stylist is a trusted person, who is used to talking to his/her customers, and who becomes a personal stylist that is able to point the client towards a certain lifestyle.
3- Using a tablet or smartphone, a potential Amerigo Milano buyer can place an order, send a customization request or ask for further details, directly to the Milan-based design and production team.
The successful union of the two is based on shared core business values, and on a similar client target. That way, a customer has been 'pre-qualified', even before s/he gets in touch with Amerigo Milano's collection.
The common thread that binds the two is the eternal, continuous quest for beauty.
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Matteo Perego, founder of Amerigo Milano, which is Italy's first #dnvb in its sector, explains: “In an era in which the sharing economy is teaching us, and businesses worldwide, new commercial approaches, it has become absolutely vital to review one's operating schemes, in order to be able to continue to offer a valid, relevant service to the customer. In our case, the clients come from all over the world - we therefore observe and take into consideration behavioral and shopping trends all around the globe, so that we can (cor-)respond to any upcoming issues and needs. We were amongst the very first in Italy to launch the touchpoint sales system, where customers can view and touch the products, like in a museum, but they can only and exclusively buy them online. Today's client is also a digital being - a user."
The mindset of digital sales does not only emerge from small, innovative niche-businesses like Amerigo Milano, but has by now reached 'giants' such as Zara, which has recently launched a trial store equipped with tablets, allowing customers to purchase online after having fitted the pieces instore.
Whereas Zara comes from a traditional store concept, and is adding the digital to it, Amerigo Milano is a digitally-native vertical brand, and is giving shape to its hybrid core, through its various 'real-life' touchpoints. Said that, both businesses have recognized the need to combine the digital with the tangible, in order to satisfy the client's/user's modern expectations
Digital sales, in their countless appearances, are moving fast-forward, revolutionizing the world we shop in.
As of today, Amerigo Milano has paired up with some of Milan's finest Barber Shops and Beauty Parlors, amongst which:
◦ Barberino’s (Milano: Corso di Porta Romana, 72; Corso Magenta, 10; Via Cerva, 11)
◦ Maison Cò (Brescia, Ponte di Legno)
◦ Italian Style Factory (Seveso)
◦ Modeline (Meda)
◦ Gianni Marcon (Seregno)
Stay tuned !