The new generations of operators present at the Sardinia Agri-food Market, inclined to innovation, have joined with conviction in the experimentation on the research project aimed at developing an online e-commerce platform. Good response also from some wholesalers with proven experience who see the marketplace as an opportunity to offer a more efficient service to the market's customers and to intercept new ones.
"The marketplace is a virtual market where wholesalers can offer and customers choose and buy the fruit and vegetable products they want as if they were physically at the market - explains the president Vincenzo Pisano from his observatory as a historical operator - through an online reservation system and delivery to the point of sale. This new method will allow us to guarantee an additional service to our already loyal customers and to arouse interest also among potential ones, encouraged by the idea of not having to get up early to physically go to the fruit and vegetable hub of Sestu". For now, the first six companies of the market have been involved but starting from June, at the end of the experimentation, it will be possible to have a wider participation.
"To best serve customers who will use the marketplace platform - highlights operator Annalisa Ena - we will make an initial selection and a careful check on the products in order to guarantee their quality and freshness and avoid returns, losses and waste. Furthermore, we will try to optimize delivery times to ensure continuous supply and allow those who need it to obtain a close refill of the goods. We are fruit and vegetable professionals and modernizing the market is a necessity to avoid putting generational change at risk. By adapting marketing with the support of IT and digitalization we can bring young people closer to this job with the hope that in the future, having these more innovative tools at their disposal, they will decide to undertake our same profession but with less stressful hours and rhythms and therefore, with a better quality of life. The marketplace could also be useful to bring young customers, already accustomed to using online trading platforms, closer to the market. We are a tired category but we want to continue to believe in our work - concludes Annalisa Ena - I am sure that these new stimuli combined with enthusiasm will lead us to find the energy and determination necessary to face these changes and the challenges that the great competition puts before us".
Two other aspects are particularly relevant to ensure better functionality of the market: strengthening logistics and rationalizing the order reception system. In this first phase of the experimentation, we want to standardize a new working method.
"For two years we have also been dealing with small catering and we are partners of a leading company in Italy in the extra-domestic catering sector and we supply and distribute its products - explains Giuseppe Concas of GSN Ortofrutta - in addition to receiving orders and fulfilling them, we have to supervise logistics. Our goal is to be able to carry out the service impeccably and I think that the marketplace platform could help us organize the work better. Currently, in the early morning we receive orders via email, WhatsApp and phone calls but, in view of a greater workload, with this method it will be complicated to receive or sort orders; therefore, it is necessary to make the system more functional.
For now, we are making deliveries directly using our own fleet of vehicles, but we are talking to a logistics company to further enhance the service, with the hope that in the future, it can be organized directly by the market. We need to optimize travel and deliveries. Finding staff, with opening at half past four in the morning, is not easy. The world has changed and we must adapt to avoid decline. I am worried about seeing the drop in consumption and sales. The low propensity for generational changeover is another factor that should not be underestimated to avoid the closure of some companies. I think that this research project could represent an opportunity - concludes Concas - and bring us new satisfaction, contributing, in the future, to attracting young people to the market".
