Gruppo VéGé focuses on Local Digital Marketing and chooses the RetailTune platform to increase the online visibility of its member companies' stores
Gruppo VéGé, the first modern distribution group founded in Italy, with more than 3,000 stores located across the country, has chosen the RetailTune platform to ensure proper management of the online presence of its member companies' distribution networks, as part of a 360-degree Local Digital Marketing strategy.
The Group's mission is to add value for the end customer at every stage of the complex purchase journey, offering increasingly personalized services and products, also through the development of and support for its member entrepreneurs, who interact directly with the specific characteristics of the territories they operate in.
It is precisely with this in mind that the collaboration with RetailTune came about: to offer technology, services and solutions that help businesses and stores engage consumers, managing effectively, efficiently and in a coordinated way the data on the digital touchpoints that users rely on every day to take offline action.
Today, more than in the past, the consumer's purchase journey is complex; consumers move chaotically across multiple touchpoints to gather the information they need. Consider that a mass-market retail customer comes into contact with as many as 10 different touchpoints of a retail chain, along a path that runs through traditional elements such as the store, the flyer and private-label products, as well as more innovative touchpoints such as the retailer's website, the Google ecosystem, and various online directories.
This is where the retail chain needs to be found, providing all the information potential customers are looking for – precisely because when the customer's experience with these touchpoints is positive, their loyalty grows. Thanks to RetailTune, Gruppo VéGé's retail chains will be able to manage digital touchpoints such as Google Business Profile listings, Facebook Location, Waze and Bing consistently and effectively, with the aim of providing information and answering users' questions. Here, all data – contact details, geolocation, and the opening hours of each individual store – will always be up to date
Still with customer care in mind, the RetailTune B2B App will be rolled out to all stores – an easy-to-use tool that lets each individual supermarket update its opening hours directly from a smartphone and add special hours. Alongside this coordinated presence comes network listening: the goal is for every retail chain to be able to monitor in real time the reviews and Q&As that users tend to leave on Google Business Profile, which affect its reputation. A dedicated Customer Care service will also be available, with a team of experts responding to user requests in real time.
The project with RetailTune goes even further; the retail chains will also be able to count on an innovative store locator. In addition to the map showing all stores, each one has its own Concierge Page, a dedicated digital showcase that helps increase the store's online visibility. Thanks to the platform's built-in local SEO capabilities, Concierge pages rank on Google for local searches.
Searching, for example, for “Decò Caserta” the first page of Google is entirely occupied by Multicedi supermarket touchpoints, showing the list of stores' Google Business Profile listings followed by links to the concierge pages of the Decò supermarkets in Caserta.
“We are very proud to be able to collaborate with Gruppo VéGé – says Claudio Agazzi CEO and Founder of RetailTune – to give visibility to the stores of its various retail chains. We know very well how interconnected the physical and digital worlds are today, and we know exactly which tools we can provide to brands and stores to reach their consumers online and bring them offline. A consistent digital presence for physical stores is essential, especially in the grocery retail sector; searches related to keywords such as “supermarkets near me” or “supermarkets open near me” have grown exponentially over the past two years, while loyalty to a given retail chain is declining, so being found by users, and providing them with the answers they're looking for, is a key factor for Drive to Store.”
“Being present with accurate and up-to-date information proves essential to consistently reach consumers' online search habits. A contact approach based on geolocated data, linked to maps and search engines, can be a winning move both to reach potential customers who gravitate around stores because they live in nearby areas or work there, and to reach new customers in geographic areas where traffic is seasonal” (e.g. seaside locations).
The partnership between VéGé and RetailTune stems from the desire to offer our member companies an excellent service to achieve better positioning in local SEO activities and, as a result, to be there for their customers in the best possible way” (Federico Sansone, Digital Marketing Manager of Gruppo VéGé).