Bathroom Accessories
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Toilets & Bidets
Wall Tiles
Floor Tiles
Feature Tiles
Taps
Kitchen Sinks
Floor Tiles
Mosaic Tiles
Outdoor Tiles
Swimming Pool Coping
Natural Stone Cladding
Swimming Pool Mosaic Tiles
Tiles
Mosaics
Vanities & Mirrors
Showers
Kitchen Sinks
Taps & Fittings
Accessories
Vinyl Flooring
Baths & Basins
Remote. Interesting word, and quite elastic in meaning. It shot to popularity during those miz COVID days when we all had to stay at home. As we struggled with our isolation, it came to mean our cut-offness. We were remote, distanced, separated. Far away from each other. Cue the Teams Meetings and Zoom Calls, and there we were, working "remotely”. Suddenly the word took on new meaning. Apart but “face to face” and connected. And so began the era of “remote work”. A concept that would have been utterly undoable in the early 90s, when we were all glued to our desks “at work," close to a fixed line telephone. In fact, many of the activities we take for granted today would have been impossible 20 years ago. Now, we work from home, we connect with our faraway parents or children on the other side of our laptops, and shop from home. Remotely. Together but apart.
Did you know that in 1994, there were only 2 278 websites? By 1995, there were 23 500 sites. Still early days. Then, the year 2000 dawned (without the hiatus of Y2K), and Italtile’s website went live, taking its unique brand of Beautiful Living out into the young digi-verse of savvy style shoppers. Back then, it was only able to host a splendid gallery to showcase our signature style. But it laid the foundations for our immersive and exciting italtile.co.za today. One of the largest e-commerce sites in South Africa, offering so much more than just luxury, eco-chic products to enhance your shopping experience. There’s a great deal to celebrate; let’s take you back and walk you past all the milestones.
HOW IT STARTED.
Early 2000. italtile.co.za goes live. Rapid development enabled the introduction of the first digital service offerings to enhance the customer experience: a promotion section unpacking products with special prices; a Do It Yourself section; Tile Tips;
Why First Grade Tiles; a useful Tile Calculator to assist shoppers with the algorithm of square metreage; a section devoted to our completed projects; an “As Seen On TV” link from the home page; and a Contact Us page.
February 2015. italtile.co.za is reimagined and launched as an e-commerce site.
May 2018. Our Online Visualiser Tool passes the test drive with flying colours and goes live.
September 2020. Our uView tool is introduced to the website. It’s around this time that mobile traffic overtook desktop traffic as the world realised it couldn’t live without its mobile phone... and Italtile began the process of redesigning to adjust the online experience to suit the small screen. Google Shopping was introduced. So were our new-look product videos. Other additions: our Commercial presence; the Wishlist functionality; and a currency converter to assist customers shopping from Gaborone.
HOW IT’S GOING.
Right now, italtile.co.za continues to reinvent itself to enable the optimal customer experience, with ever-deeper immersion into the world of our signature eco-chic style and contemporary interior design; our many points of customer assistance now include a WhatsApp chat, an always-on customer support and sales team just behind your screen; national delivery and click-and-collect; regular blog posts covering a multitude of fascinating facts and concepts to interest both residential and commercial customers; tens of thousands of product images; product videos; promotions; our supplier warranties; a completed projects gallery; and, of course, our social platforms are linked in to allow Italtile’s golden thread to run through all the touchpoints on your customer journey. QR codes in our brick-and-mortar stores keep you connected to the webstore.
WHERE IT’S HEADED.
What’s next? Augmented reality to bridge the digital and physical worlds? For sure. Interestingly enough, as the world becomes more “remote”, digital platforms are able to curate more and more personalisation. As we approach 2030, bots, AI and virtual reality will all become a great deal more user-friendly than they are currently. (Perhaps, also, because we familiarise ourselves with these human-made interfaces.)
The digital revolution has happened, people. IoT and AI are here, rapidly refining themselves to assist us. AR/VR shopping experiences are already in their infancy. We may very well have holographic experiences flickering their style messages into your home. We hope we’ll be able to sort your online shopping out in a matter of a few seconds, with delivery in minutes.
We have so many more offerings on the runway? Our tech wizards handed us their worksheet, and these are in testing right now:
- New advanced search, product recommendations, and filters.
- Redesigned product page optimised for mobile shoppers.
- Style Quiz.
- Advice and FAQ content section.
- Shopping and consideration guides for bathrooms, kitchens, outdoor areas, main flooring, etc. Improved product display and merchandising with product features and benefits information added to images in the image carousel.
By 2050, the world will be a very different place from the one we know today, as a result of the integration of a whole range of technologies, including quantum computing, metaverse, augmented reality, nanotechnology, human brain-computer interfaces, driverless technology, artificial intelligence, workplace automation, and robotics.
The fear of the unknown, combined with separation anxiety, are both very real as we are encouraged to live more and more online. Have you noticed how we are urged to hop onto the FAQs page rather than interact with an actual human with our queries? But here at Italtile, where design and style are viewed as highly emotional spaces, and extra-mile service is a way of life, human-to-human connection is vital. It will never go out of fashion.
Wherever you are, on your online shopping journey, we’re here for you, just behind your screen, putting you at the heart of our style and service. There will be an Ital-bot in your future to assist with humdrum, run-of-the-mill stuff, but when you need a beating human heart to empathise with your frustrating shopping moment, or understand your design dilemma, we’ll be there. We’ll always be there.
Live Beautifully.
Ciao.
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