A new online supermarket has launched in Italy, with the promise of delivering orders to smaller and more remote provincial towns.
Cicalia.com offers more than 8,000 products, from fresh produce to detergent, as reported by daily Corriere della Sera.
The venture is a brainchild of three young Mantua-based entrepreneurs who took on one of online's biggest issues: the management of fresh products. This issue has been resolved by introducing a system that estimates, based on the outside temperature, how many hours of travel a product can complete successfully.
The first results of Cicalia have been very positive and orders come mainly from people who work long hours and do not have time to go to the supermarket, or prefer to devote their free time to other things. Payment is via credit card or on delivery.
If customers are not at home when the courier arrives, they may collect their parcels in more than 1,700 collection points.
There is also a section online devoted to recipes; the shopping cart will fill up automatically with the necessary ingredients to make the dish.
Fruits and vegetables are the most popular products, while regional delicacies include those from Liguria and South Italy.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
