Renowned coffee brand utilizes Alibaba.com and praises results

Il Caffe Manaresi: Ancient coffee brand looks for expansion

“I am Alessandra Calcagnini of il Caffè Manaresi.

For over 130 years, Manaresi has been a renowned coffee brand in Italy and is recognized as one of the inventors of the Italian espresso as we know it today. Our coffee is produced entirely in-house, from the selection process to roasting and packing. This in-house production allows us to guarantee the best quality and we customize our goods and have full control over the final product that we proudly believe is genuine excellence. Made in Italy.

Our business was born in Tuscany, though we have a very strong presence with large distribution networks. The market still mainly remain within the region. In the last decade we have tried to expand our market to other regions but it's not that easy to expand the business locally because of the competition. Therefore, we are always thinking of ways to reach other markets abroad.

Last January, we decided to try Alibaba.com. Within 1 year, we reached foreign markets like the US, Canada, other European countries, Arab countries and even the Maldives with the help of Alibaba.com.”

‘Made in Italy’ to the world

“We knew that we had to develop our Alibaba.com profile but what did astonish us were the opportunities that immediately came from using Alibaba.com. Every inquiry was a chance for us to understand a new market, obtain information and adjust how we communicate and operate on that market.

Of course, we can count on a quality product that always draws the interest of prospective buyers. We also invested in Alibaba.com by dedicating a staff member, our visual communication consultant, to work on the platform on a daily basis.

From the very beginning, after we applied for our Gold Supplier membership, we received several requests through direct messages, inquiries and RFQ feedbacks. One of the very first contacts we received also became our first deal. After all the process of messaging, calls and sample testing now our coffee is distributed also in the Maldives islands.”

Alibaba.com’s keyword function really is the key

“Keywords seem to be the key to have success on the Alibaba.com marketplace. The analytics services offered by Alibaba.com are complete and easy to use and we go over our products' keywords monthly to assure that we meet the actual requests of the users. In order to increase the number of buyers who find our products on the marketplace, we believe that keywords optimization plays a key role.

The more we work on the platform, the more our products get a higher ranking, in that way we get more potential buyers to view them affording us more business opportunity.

We didn’t know how to do e-commerce before. For decades, we focused on traditional offline business so Alibaba.com is a good teacher and educates us how to do business online.  It provides us with the sufficient tools to build an online store and customize our online product posting.

We are very satisfied with the results that we achieved as we have received a lot contacts in the past few months. Alibaba.com is really helping us to expand our business to the world. We never imagined that our product could sell to a remote island like the Maldives. Alibaba.com is the online trade show that brings our products to the global buyers. And it is a cost saving investment compared to the travel cost for a trade show.”