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~ Velasca ~

We meet up with Paola Parolo, Digital Marketing Manager at Velasca, an Italian fashion

company selling high-end shoes. She takes us into the world of traditional hand-made Italian
shoes that never go out of style.

e are at the Digital 1-on-1 event in Barce- Where do you sell?
lona, Spain. Any thoughts? “In the beginning, the idea was to export worldwide. However,
W“This is the first time I have been. I like the event a when everything was set up, we realised there are some big risks
lot. It is well structured and a great way to experience what is hot when expanding cross-border. As a company, you want to scale
in the market, talk to people and have time to network. The pos- up safely, based on valid data. Therefore, we started focusing
sibility to have one-on-one conversations is great. We wanted to on Italy, which is a very big market for us. Italy taught us how
meet suppliers of services and brands. That is what is offered here. e-commerce really worked, as we did not all have experience in
You can share challenges, experiences and solutions. You have the the field of online footwear. Another reason to focus on Italy was
possibility to meet the right people. The advice you get is wonder- that we wanted to be valued and accepted by the Italian people
ful and gives me a lot of ideas to share with my colleagues.” first, before crossing borders.”

Please tell us a bit more about Velasca. How did you do that?
“Velasca was founded in 2012 by Enrico Casati and Jacopo “Velasca was a purely online player. Despite that, we opened
Sebastio. They got the idea for their business when they met in our first temporary pop-up store in 2015 in Milan, one of the
Singapore, where Enrico was staying at the time. He was in need main fashion districts in Italy and the hometown of most of our
of a pair of formal shoes—good-quality ones—but did not want employees, clients and friends. We learned that the store worked
to spend a fortune importing them. When Jacopo came to visit as a converter - it helped to increase awareness and interest in
him, he brought him two pairs. If they could do that this way, our products. Driving the right consumers to the store gave us
why wouldn’t they be able to scale up the idea? In this era of insight and data on consumer behaviour that helped us approach
e-commerce, there are numerous examples of successful direct-to- the market. The biggest benefit is that we still sell D2C both on-
consumer (D2C) companies. The pricing for these formal Italian line and offline. We currently have five brick-and-mortar stores
shoes in Italy is high, but you sure get a high-quality product. in Italy and plan to open three more here soon. We are enlarging
When crossing the border, that becomes even more relevant, as our portfolio with different kinds of shoes, such as occasional
the price goes up. Back in Italy, they brought their idea to two and athletic shoes as well.”
popular stores in Milan and offered to set up their e-commerce.
As the founders of these stores were older, it was hard convinc- Are all of your models timeless?
ing them of the possibilities e-commerce had to offer. With that “Yes, they are. We have models that follow fashion, as we try to
knowledge, Enrico and Jacopo decided to start their own business. introduce various fresh and new products. We collaborate with
They collected money from family and friends and started their influencers, so we have a so-called writers collection. This focuses
search to find artisans that wanted to commit themselves to pro- more on fashion and is more detached from core Velasca products.
ducing the high-end shoes they wanted to sell.” One of the tricky parts of working with products that need to
be stocked, picked, packed and shipped in order to sell them is
What exactly is the product that Velasca sells? that you need to manage your warehousing correctly. Having an
“Our products are categorised as footwear. However, we do not evergreen product means that we do not have to sell the remain-
follow general fashion patterns in terms of seasonality. We try to ing stock at the end of each season. We can sell them either next
create timeless shoes befitting every season. We are an innovative season or move to a market where the season has not yet ended.”
company in the fields of processes, marketing and our com-
munication strategy. What we do is based on data analysis, as Do you have a lot of international orders?
we try to find the best ways to understand our customers. That “We expand carefully. Currently, we plan to open two interna-
way, we better know how to target them in a personal manner. tional stores in Paris and London. These cities breathe fashion
It helps us going in the direction that we want to. Contrary to and can give us the credibility we want. In that way, these
our processes, our product is not that innovative. We work with locations are a statement. Our other reason to open up shops in
traditional artisans who produce hand-made high-end quality these cities is more data-driven. We use digital marketing and
shoes, 100% made in Italy. When our company was founded, invest in countries to receive valid data on our local customer
many artisans had difficulties getting work due to the economic base. It helps us decide where we want to open a store. We enter
crisis and, as a result, new orders were welcomed. These days, we a market by raising awareness throughout the country and,
have six artisans that produce different kinds of shoes for us. We after collecting quality data, we might then open a store. Italy
are happy that they are part of our family and can grow with us.” will remain the core of our marketing investment. In the next
three years, we expect that 50% of our marketing budget will

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