Pitti Uomo street-style view. Image credit: Pitti Immagine, photo by Jonathan Daniel Pryce
Italian trade fair owner Pitti Immagine next month will launch a new digital platform networking and marketplace activity ahead of the company’s physical fairs in September.
Pitti Connect will offer an opportunity for exhibitors at Pitti Immagine fairs in Florence such as Pitti Uomo, Pitti Bimbo, Pitti Filati, Fragranze and Super to connect online with buyers, activate business contacts and place orders while complying with the traditional timing of sales campaigns ahead of the fairs this fall. The launch is also an acknowledgment of new restrictions on public movement over the COVID-19 outbreak worldwide and in Italy.
“Pitti Connect will make it possible for exhibitors not only to better communicate all the facets of their brand identity, but will also have advanced functions for managing access to the marketplace and the order phase,” said Agostino Poletto, general manager of Pitti Immagine, in a statement.
“In fact, we have decided to create a customized marketplace product in collaboration with specialist companies in order to maintain a direct relationship with the exhibitors and companies as well as to ensure high qualitative standards and to control the entire process,” he said.
Pitti Connect will debut late June until September at which point it will be integrated with the physical fairs at the Fortezza da Basso.
Pitti Connect is a new digital marketplace for the trade fair franchise known for attracting "Pitti peacocks." Image courtesy of Pitti Immagine
Pithy take
Users of the Pitti Connect platform will be able to carry out scouting activities and assisted research, contact exhibitors, plan meetings and view collections through video chats or a virtual showroom with advanced functions.
Put simply, Pitti Connect will aim bring online the selection, segmentation, design, communication and spirit of the Pitti Immagine fairs into a digital environment, connecting exhibitors with Pitti buyers.
There are 90,000 registered and certified Pitti Uomo users, 33,000 for Pitti Bimbo and 25,000 for Pitti Filati.
This community generated 182,000 exhibitor searches on the Pitti Web site with more than 1.3 million Web pages visited during the last edition of Pitti Uomo in January.
Pitti Connect is also an acknowledgment that the fashion ecosystem has to adapt to changes wrought by COVID-19 disruptions in supply chain and public movement.
“We know all about the priorities and the challenges that fashion companies and brands are facing at this time, because we at Pitti Immagine are experiencing the same ones,” said Raffaello Napoleone, CEO of Pitti Immagine, in a statement.
“For over a decade, we have believed and invested in Web evolution – with the launch of the first collaborations with the MIT in Boston and the inauguration of the e-PITTI platform, right up to the institution of the e-P Summit,” he said, “and in the light of the profound digital transformation in progress that imposes innovative strategies for being competitive and looking to the future, we want to offer the very best existing technology with a totally new platform and an editorial layout that is rich in content, just like a regular magazine.”