Discussing E-Commerce with Dario Loison at Valore Artigiano

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‘Valore Artigiano’ is a project created by Confartigianato (Confederation of Italian Craft Industries) and CNA Vicenza (Union of Artisan Enterprises of Vicenza) under the scientific guidance of Venice International University and the art direction of Fuoribiennale. The E-Commerce workshop that took place on November 21 in Vicenza is a module of the project.

The theme of this second workshop edition of ‘Valore Artigiano’ revolved around e-commerce and it drew in a large audience of representatives from artisan enterprises who showed great interest in the subject matter. The workshop was moderated by Luca De Pietro – from Venice International University – and featured speeches by Laura Di Benedetto (Make Tank), Alessandra Geminati (Etsy Italia Team), Giorgio Soffiato (Marketingarena) and Dario Loison (Loison).

And it was indeed Dario Loison who opened the workshop as he talked about his early days on the Internet, back in the 90s: "The year was 1996 when I built Loison’s website: it consisted of only a few pages, which were then followed by our first two online sales: the first went to a Swedish housewife who purchased four hundred panettone cakes for the Italian Association of Örebro; Sweden; the other sale tells of a peculiar story. We shipped the lot to an ice cream shop named Pinocchio in Osaka, Japan but the goods were on hold for a while. We tried to contact the buyer on the phone several times to no avail, until we finally received an e-mail message from the owner. He was apologizing for not replying any sooner, due to the fact that he was deaf. That’s when I realized how important the web was: through this medium, we would not only be able to “conquer” geographically distant markets, but also bridge the distance between us and people I would not have otherwise been able to reach".

“But how is the web used at Loison in the year 2013?” asked Luca De Pietro.

"Today, our relationship with the web has changed; it is still being used all through our organization, but the Internet is most of all a means to display our products as if we had them behind a crystal clear window. In fact, on our website each of our products comes with an information sheet displaying technical data, ingredients and packaging details. It is a useful tool for our customers, however such open display of information can put our company at risk because our competitors could take advantage of it. Nonetheless, I considered the matter and found that the advantage is stronger than the disadvantage".

"In addition, on our website - continued Dario Loison – all of our worldwide sales points are available: at any time, from anywhere –Australia to Canada – anyone can look up our products". "Last, but not least – he concluded – is our Press Area: we believe that it is very important to always be in touch with the communication world and inform journalists and bloggers of what Loison is up to, right when it’s happening".

In brief, our buzzwords are: respect and clarity!