Shopkeepers like bees

When, a few years ago, I thought of something like RetailTune, I could never have imagined writing this thought. Let's file it among life's pleasant surprises — in this case, a professional one, but with plenty of social implications.

RetailTune is not just the hive, but an ecosystem that lets the “bees” live, survive in some cases and thrive in others.

We really are technology that goes against the grain. I like to call it good technology. I don't love all of it — some excesses are exactly that, excessive and not very sensible. Our DNA is to protect the retailer, our bees, whether a small business owner or a large company with hundreds of stores.

We thought of everything from the platform's earliest days: the woods, the meadows, the flowers, the hive — everything needed so that the ONLINE world can move more easily into the OFFLINE world, that of RETAILERS.

It's not a concept everyone grasps easily — yes, I'm a bit presumptuous — but after years of conversations I can calmly understand and say that the world of companies and entrepreneurs falls into two broad groups: those who know how to read technology and translate it into concrete action, and those who simply endure it.

Honestly? I didn't think about the ethical side of RetailTune in its early stages — I thought about the pleasure of building something new, functional, solid. I didn't think much about the business side; that comes when the ideas are good. Today, though, I must say I'm proud to see the ethical value of our technology, of our complete system, of the way we can help use the digital world to keep physical, direct in-store experiences alive.

I like calling it a shop. A friend once taught me that the word negozio (shop, in Italian) comes from the Latin nego otium — “I deny idleness”, meaning “I am active”.

A small digression that makes me sound a little more learned than I actually am.

But the bees? Our bees are the retailers, that part of the economy that is essential to the ecosystem, without which everything dies, exactly as the disappearance of bees would destroy NATURE's ecosystem. They need to be protected, helped, and made part of the inevitable digital revolution.

And I like — we like — being able to say that we are an important part of this ecosystem.

I sincerely hope that society will resume in 2022 a philosophical and logical path that doesn't take it away from the essential values of our lives. Business, yes, but intelligent and suited to our idea of living well.

Claudio Agazzi, CEO @RetailTune