Creating a phygital shopping experience for Italian customers

Shopping is evolving beyond traditional distinctions of online or offline experiences.

Since the pandemic, consumers have increasingly embraced a best-of-both-worlds approach that combines in-store and digital touchpoints—what’s being called the phygital experience.

According to a global survey conducted by IBM and the National Retail Federation (NRF), 27% of consumers said that hybrid shopping was their primary buying method. At the same time, 72% reported using a physical store either entirely or partly as their primary purchase method.

What is a phygital shopping experience?

Phygital experiences offer customers a seamless omnichannel journey interweaving through online and in-person touchpoints.

The future of shopping is experience, not product-led, with more brands seeking to balance technologies such as AI, VR, and IoT alongside the human touch.

Imagine immersive experiences such as virtual try-ons and real-time product customisation, such as superimposing a pair of shoes on your feet and tailoring them to your taste. Or, print on demand, where you choose a product and have it printed there and then using 3D technology.

How are businesses rising to the challenge?

With over a hundred stores in Italy’s major city centres, Coin, a luxury Italian department store chain, understands the importance of leveraging hybrid digital capabilities to create frictionless and secure shopping experiences.

Operating within a highly competitive market, Coin needs an efficient and reliable network solution to ensure frictionless and secure customer shopping environments.

Working together, we created a software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) that gives Coin benefits from built-in security and centralised control dashboard for all its business processes.

Our SD-WAN is both agile and cost-effective, providing businesses with greater confidence in their network at an individual, local and global level.

In addition, we provide the business with cloud equipment that combines different technologies using a single network, enabling Coin’s devices to select the right service at the right time, keeping their customers happy.

Elevating Growth

Moreover, predictive analytics and forecasting are crucial to uncovering potential opportunities and steering future growth. And it’s not just about identifying new pools of customers but harnessing data to inform new store locations, business investments, commercial approaches and targeted communication campaigns.

Coin strategically tailors its shopping spaces by analysing customer behaviours, such as interests, demographics, and spending power. This approach allows for creating personalised experiences. For example, through targeted SMS offers, Coin helps customers more easily discover products of interest.

The result is enhanced trust and loyalty fostered through seamless and relevant shopping experiences.

“Vodafone Business offers us these solutions in a secure environment, enabling us to analyse and track information at all times,” says Alessandro Faccio, CFO and Executive Board Director at Coin SpA.

The phygital customer journey

As consumers continue to demand hybrid shopping experiences, Coin is committed to empowering its customers to enjoy the benefits of both physical and digital shopping dimensions equally. Through mobilising phygital services like click-and-collect and SMS offers, Coin enables its customers to indulge in omnichannel experiences for maximum convenience.