While illustrious jewelery houses are suffering from the crisis caused by the pandemic, there are fewer famous brands that are expanding. Possible? Going against the tide is Marlù of San Marino (a little State in center of Italy), a company that sells prêt-à-porter jewels and bijoux in colored and worked steel. The super affordable jewelry brand created by the three sisters Morena, Monica and Marta Fabbri, opens new single-brand stores in the heart of the historic centers of four major Italian cities: Milan, Bologna, Bari and Florence. Not only that: next to the traditional shop, it offers an e-commerce system that allows customers of the 36 Marlù-branded shops to book online and buy from their trusted retailer. One way to avoid queues and crowds. Alternatively, you can receive your purchases at home.
To be precise, new stores are in via Torino in Milan (opening December 4th), in via Indipendenza in Bologna (December 14th) via Argiro in Bari (December 14th) and in via dei Calzolari in Florence (January 8th). The Marlù single-brand stores are now located in 12 Italian regions, and are added to over a thousand points of sale throughout the Italian territory.
From March to today we live like every person great difficulties. The pandemic has radically changed relations between people, daily life and all this has also entered the business world. But in our small way we tried to give a concert signal of confidence in the recovery and invest in the four new openings. We are a reality created by three sisters and like all women we are used to confronting problems immediately. During the lock down we immediately adopted, and also maintained in recent months, forms of remote work, we networked with our partner companies and started a production of health prevention devices from dispensers to sanitizing gels with the TimeToBeCareful brand , putting businesses back on track as early as April.
Marta Fabbri, marketing and communication manager Marlù
“My sisters and I have tried to see within a dramatic crisis what may also be the opportunities to reduce the economic impact of the pandemic. Already today lay the foundations for a real recovery starting next year – continues Marta Fabbri – for this reason, we have decided to open new stores this December. Those in Milan, Bologna and Florence are our property and the one in Bari instead opens thanks to the trust of an entrepreneur from that city, who believed in our development project. The restart, in fact, will not be a sort of slow motion that takes us back in time. We will find ourselves in a profoundly changed entrepreneurial and productive system, with which we will have to be ready to confront “.
To support the stores, the Marlù single-brand stores use simple Whatsapp numbers: each customer can book each jewel online from their trusted retailer. Net of the limitations of recent months for hours, movements and openings, the brand’s goal is to keep the proximity store customer relationship alive and constant. You choose the jewels from showcases and catalogs, you collect them in the shop without queues or gatherings or you ask to receive them directly at home. Also in this way it is possible to send gifts for relatives and friends throughout Italy. Not only that: communication passes first of all through social media, from Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok and YouTube. The community gathers Millennials, GenZs and Baby Boomers and e-commerce, says Marta Fabbri, has grown in triple figures.
