The kitchen sold on WhatsApp in August

The questions to ask

For online kitchen design, thinking out of the box meant asking: beyond classic e-commerce, what can I add that brings value to my client? What is my ideal client's journey and where can I improve it? What are the trends of the contemporary world? How can I make my potential client's life simpler? And how can I bring innovation to my sector and turn it into more sales and higher margins, without investors putting in money as in Silicon Valley? I cannot make a loss on innovation: I have no investment fund behind me ready to cover me.

Online design

Imagine a German, American or any other client who has no store nearby but wants the kitchen. What can they do? We launched an online design service. Using a sales script and a system of calls and video calls, we talk to prospects from all over the world, offering consultative selling. We then offer a 3D design of the kitchen or bathroom, with its quote, presented virtually.

When the consumer reaches the end of the presentation, they face a choice to lock in the offer most favourable to them: either they pay a deposit, or they book an appointment at the physical showroom. The advert that leads there says: “Want a RiFRA kitchen but don't have a store near you? A professional will provide your personalised 3D project”. The video starts, translated into every language: the architect designing, the factory where it is made, transport and installation, homes around the world, a client testimonial, the brand and the payoff, all inside one ad.

American Express clients are our best clients

We received a $20,000 deposit for a kitchen bought through online design, from someone who had never seen the product at all. Deposits from people who will see the product six months later, the time it takes to make it and ship it by sea. Beyond the financial advantage of getting paid sooner rather than later, the trust the client places in an Italian company without ever having seen the product or met a salesperson is huge. Deposits of $5,000 for a bathroom and from $10,000 upwards for a kitchen.

There is another psychological process to understand: the American consumer, paying by card, collects points. Why use a card rather than a bank transfer? It is insured, and they then convert the American Express points into purchases, for example plane tickets. If you want to sell to Americans you have to accept credit cards, because that is how they buy.

The Russian client in August

Then comes thinking out of the box in the full sense. A Russian client building a villa in Barcelona started the process by sending an email at the beginning of August asking for information. We followed up, he liked some products, we made him an offer. We told him we were closed for the summer break and he asked who would look after him, because he needed everything by 15 October.

To test him, I gave him my mobile number: I wanted to see whether he would buy a complex product through WhatsApp messages alone. The conversation started on 13 August. He never saw the product; the company was closed, and so were the showrooms. Yet he sent us an order for €25,000 of bathrooms, paying everything in advance, €13,000 in August and the rest in September.

I kept the dates: deposit on 13 August, a €16,000 bank transfer on 4 September. Meanwhile our competitors were closed for the holidays, with the message “see you in September”. Whoever was open, even with just a phone, took the order. And it isn't an isolated case: in one week in October we sold three online design projects, to a Swiss man, a German man and an Italian woman. The German said: “I don't need it now, but you never know. At worst I've thrown away €500”. That is the level of trust a client comes in with when marketing has done its job.

This is marketing that works. And bear in mind we hadn't even got to the advertising stage yet.

Think out of the box: trust, especially abroad, in companies that present themselves this way is taken for granted. If you present yourself like this, they take it for granted that you will deliver everything in six months, and they have no problem paying you a $20,000 deposit by card. Today everyone does video calls, and nobody is surprised any more to buy something from their phone. Back then too, what sold was all the work done beforehand: the brand, the photos, the videos, the testimonials. The client had already decided to trust us before writing to me, and WhatsApp only served to close the order.

From my book Direct from Milano and from my classroom courses. Figures and examples updated to September 2026.