NETCOMM SUISSE HOLDS FIRST BRAND MEETUP IN COLLABORATION WITH COTY FOR STRENGTHENING ITS COMMUNITY IN TIMES OF #STAYHOME

23 April 2020

On 21 April, Netcomm Suisse was organizing its first fully digitally held brand meetup in collaboration with Coty. The initiative underlines the association’s efforts and ambitions to build strong connections among their members by using digital capabilities in times of social distancing. 

Community Manager Alice Uboldi and Netcomm President Carlo Terreni were starting the 1.5h session by introducing the association’s new digital initiatives for various sectors, including digital workshops, conferences, interviews with industry experts and innovation leaders, and webinars. With these new formats, the Netcomm team is working hard to continue conversations among innovation leaders and building bridges for new collaborations during this critical period.

Considering that e-Commerce is a sales channel that is not affected by Covid-19, Carlo was asking the participants whether governments should support investments of small and medium-sized companies in their investments into online sales capabilities. The survey gave clear directions that there should be a public interest in e-Commerce as it can be considered as vital for small and medium companies to maintain at least a minimum of their economic activities. Moreover, 45% of the participants stated that small businesses should get free access to expert knowledge through mandates given to institutional partners. Each 27% were in favor of tax incentives for e-Commerce related investments and for direct subsidies related to investments into digital capabilities.

 

Raffaele Masi, Global Head of e-Commerce B2B at our partnering brand Coty, was introducing the company and its digital projects to our members. Coty is active in the cosmetics and beauty industry and has a history dating back to 1904 and its establishment in Paris. Today, the company is set up in three divisions: Coty Luxury, Coty Consumer Beauty and Coty Professional Beauty of which Raffaele is responsible for the e-Commerce department with hairdressers as their main customers. The traditional sales model strongly relies on real encounters with customers in their salons. Raffaele is currently working on transforming this traditional approach into a hybrid model where customers can also order their products online. What might seem as straightforward is quite challenging in reality as customers have been used to meeting the sales representatives regularly. But as customers understand that e-Commerce means freedom for them and that they still get support from the sales representatives, they become very positive in using the digital sales channel.

 

Finally, Benedikt Zingg, Market Insights Manager at Netcomm Suisse Observatory, shared some insights on how consumers are adjusting their behavior during these uncertain times. Given the fact that many households in Switzerland and around the world are facing uncertain times about their income, consumers are increasingly focusing on essentials. Therefore, eFood and online groceries are currently receiving a lot of attention. The same is also true for the entire do-it-yourself domain where various search terms on Google were enjoying a steep increase. Consumers are further looking for high-quality information which can be seen in a high interest in the search for leading Swiss online newspapers and news portals. Last but not least, people are looking for replicating human-to-human interactions through video applications and platforms which can be seen in rising download numbers of applications like Zoom, Houseparty, or TikTok.

 

We would like to thank all our members that have joined us for a very interesting exchange. Our next digital brand meetup will take place on 12 May in collaboration with BertO, a leading furniture brand.

 

Our members that joined us:

 

CriticalCase SAGL 

Masha.ai 

Transalpina SA 

eBusiness Institute 

Inveon 

Brandbuch 

Forcontact Europe 

Colombus Consulting 

Gamned! Switzerland 

H E A R S T Digital 

 

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