100 artisans on the web thanks to Google and Italian Chamber of Commerce of Florence

For 100 craftsmen of excellence in the province of Florence, Internet has never been so close, grazie a Camera di Commercio di Firenze, in collaboration with Unioncamere and thanks to the support of Google Italy, who initiated the project "Made in Italy: Excellence in Digital ", a free advisory service for local businesses to raise awareness on the potential of the web.

Internet is a great opportunity that companies can leverage to grow and to target new markets.

According to research by Doxa Digital, in the last three years, only companies active in Network, despite the crisis, were able to increase their sales.

For those who can take advantage of Internet, in addition to, more open international markets: the 67% active businesses on the web exports its products, against 55% enterprises not digitized.

Born from this need the project "Made in Italy: Excellence in Digital ", started in 52 Italian Chambers of Commerce.

In Florence has already involved more than thirty companies, with the aim of reaching a percent by the end of February 2015, all six areas of excellence within the Florentine: ceramics of Montelupo, the art of the Florentine goldsmith, the glass of Empoli, la seta Lisio, straw hat of Signa and Porcelain Shower.

The history and tradition of these six productions of excellence are told on a website dedicated to the Made in Italy, through the virtual exhibitions dedicated by Google Cultural Institute in more than 70 Italian products.

The work of digitization of the companies allow you to take advantage of the portal "Google Made in Italy" as a global showcase, together with knowledge of the product for a direct link with the manufacturers.

“Becoming part of the global market is the challenge that the world of Made in Italy must face to continue to play a leading role – Ciulla said Diego Senior Policy Analyst at Google Italy and co-author of the initiative, with Leonardo Bassilichi, President of the Chamber of Commerce of Florence -. For this we want to help small local, returning to invest in the beauty of secular knowledge that could be lost. Internet is not just create a website or create an e-commerce; it is a new language that, if known, opens up possibilities that were unthinkable a few years ago. Taking innovation in the workshops in a country like Italy is a bet that we definitely want to win”.

“We know that most of our businesses, especially smaller ones, are lagging behind in meeting the challenges of the digital economy, but at the same time we consider it essential to meet the growth and development of the territory. The Internet has become an indispensable tool for getting to know the world and find your own niche market – Leonardo added Bassilichi -. The project carried out together with Google Italy goes in this direction and represents a concrete way to support excellence in her craft and so become even digital excellence”.

Entrepreneurs, those who have expressed a desire to move closer to a world previously unknown and those who, in these first weeks of the start of the project, have already exploited the full potential, under the careful guidance of two referees Gloria Mugelli and Antonella Ninni.

And 'the case of a company that has found itself involved in the creation of a video game set in the' 400, or a goldsmith's shop a few steps from Ponte Vecchio, whose storefront is now almost as beautiful as the real.

The rest, the Italian production system can be perfectly adapted to the peculiarities of web: The Internet is increasingly being used to look personalized and unique products, to discover cultures and realities are otherwise difficult to find, the same data as shown by Google.

In the two years 2012-2013 research on the made in Italy increased by 12%, with an interest in Italian products that still finds little satisfaction in the world of e-commerce.

Only the 34% sme has its own website and only 13% uses it to sell online (Data Eurisko, 2013). And yet, the artistic heritage and variety of crafts, food and wine Italian may offer a key to improve access to the international market, doing so to overcome the difficulties many companies related to the recession and the stagnation of the internal market.

Michael Lattanzi

By the number 35 – The Year of 15/10/2014