Founder's Story - Angelo Coletta: How 3D & AR Will Kill Traditional E-commerce | Ep. 178

Episode Date: March 13, 2025

Angelo Coletta discusses his bold vision for transforming e-commerce through visual customization and immersive technology. Based in Italy, Angelo explains how Zakeke enables merchants to deliver personalized, 3D, and AR-enhanced shopping experiences that bridge artisan craftsmanship with mass production. He shares insights on the evolution of visual commerce, the strategic challenges of onboarding diverse B2B customers, and his long-term plan to redefine online retail, making digital interactions as compelling as in-person experiences.Key Discussion Points:Vision & Inspiration:Predicting the shift towards personalized, immersive e-commerce experiences eight years ago.The spark to merge artisan quality with mass-market affordability.Technology & Innovation:Integrating 3D visualization, AR, and automated back-office processes.Creating a scalable platform that serves small businesses to global brands.Strategic Partnerships & Market Expansion:Building dual pricing models for small and large merchants.Leveraging global partnerships to drive adoption in various markets.Takeaways:Visual commerce is set to become the new standard in online retail.Embracing emerging technologies can redefine customer engagement.Strategic innovation and flexible pricing models drive sustainable growth.Our Sponsors:* Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com* Check out CoinFlip and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: https://coinflip.tech* Check out Indeed: https://indeed.com/FOUNDERSSTORY* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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ago, had a fantastic time. But what you're doing is really revolutionary and I'm excited to dive in because I saw something like this about 10 years ago, but at that time it was like too soon, too new. But now I could see this becoming massive. So why don't you start off with, how did you get into this industry and why this business?

Thanks for inviting me here. And what we have done is, you know, maybe eight years ago, my vision was that e-commerce space will change dramatically in the next years. So my vision is that on one side, there there are customers they want to pay more to have something that is just for them, you know, they can create, maybe they can interact, they can do something like that. On the other side, industry in the back office finally is ready to offer like an artisan products done only for you at the same cost of mass production in many industries. And on the other side, brands are looking for

providing different experience, more immersive, more with more gaming action with their brands. So all these things together give me the idea that probably we have to create something to help Merchant to offer this new kind of experience to their customers and to help them to scale an automating process in a back office and digitalize all their channels from the production to the final customers. And so we have started the kicking and we have developed this platform that enabled Merchant to offer a very complex experience

in the visual commerce era that I think it will be the next step of growing up with commerce. I can imagine any commerce online without visual experience in the next years. So when you do something that's very revolutionary and when it's tied to emerging technologies, not every brand I'm sure sees the value in it yet. How has it been when you go back to the beginning to now, what's been the sentiment of these larger brands and then the sentiment of maybe smaller brands?

It's interesting because the visual layer is something that impacts with hundreds of different business. So there is different age for understanding how it is necessary. So what we have seen that the first world that has used our platform was the B2B world in the gadgeting, in the gift, in the sports where the habits of offering a customized product was something confusing. The only thing is that the process generally was manually or semi-manually. So we have started helping this brand scaling and automating their process, saving a lot of time and a lot of money

and helping them to be fast in offering the services to their customers and they started to offer a 3D preview too in the middle wide some other segment like luxury accessories, apparel and something like that. They start thinking that the futures, it would be 3D and not photos.

And so they start understanding that they have to become a company based on the 3D asset or so. They start thinking about make a 3D catalog and not samples. They start thinking that if they have a 3D catalog and not samples. They start thinking that if they have a 3D catalog, they can have interactive ads everywhere in a simple way. And so they are moving to this experience. If they have the 3D, they can offer AR and try on online or maybe in the physical stores.

If they have a 3D model, when they can in the back office, they can offer customization. And which way at the moment we serve more than 10,000 customers around 50,000, 15,000 at the moment, all around the world in 400 different industries from, you know, super small business, maybe they sell t-shirt or cap, customize it to big brands like Armani, Valentino, Beretsubisoft. They use the platform to provide a complex experience in any of their channels. So line, the B2B channel, in the physical store too. I mean, that's amazing. And I've seen the product, it's incredible. And I think, like you said, it's the future

and the future is now essentially. So as you are growing and scaling the business and you had to onboard more B2B customers, obviously for the consumers, was there a marketing strategy or a partnership strategy? What helped you as you went from a thousand to five thousand to ten thousand to fifteen thousand? Because that's a lot, right? That's a lot of B2B customers. Was there something that you found works really well? Yeah. All we've done here when we have started, the idea is that we think that this is a long-term

business. So the first goal that we have in the idea is that we think that this is a long-term business. So the first goal that we have in our mind is that we want to create a platform that works for everyone, for the small guys to the big guys, with a pricing model that works for all of them. So we have a self-provisioning plan that is for the small and small medium customers, they can do everything by their own. They can download the app using Insider's source and the cost is based on, you know, on a percentage of what they sell. And then there is a corporate plan for big companies

that add other needs. They need something account-based. They need some special things like cloud-dedicated, some specific API for integrating ERP and other things, PLM, PIN inside the company. And so first of all, we have created these two different line of products. And second things in terms of marketing,

we have 80% of our customer that comes because they find us in a different way in a different channel. And then for the big customers, we have a network or partner or other words. So there is a double strategy for small and medium. Generally, self-provisioning and the marketing self-provisioning and the marketing is based on digital activity. On the other side, a network of qualified partners to reach the customers where customization, visualization, trial is a piece of a big strategy in the challenge inside the company.

Yeah, that makes total sense. I think a lot of people struggle when they start a company around the pricing strategy. They never know how much they should price or who. It's always a tough one. So I really I like the strategy that you have so you can really get to everyone. So as you've gone on this journey who have you seen to be your biggest customers? Is there a certain industry, a type of company that you found is really, really taking on this new technology? So what we have seen that there is luxury and furniture

that are looking for improving their experience lines in terms of 3D interaction, AR and trial. So this industry is low but is coming with strongness because they have understood that they can change their part inside the company. On the other side the web-to-print industry is the largest and full of a lot of entrepreneurs from the small one to the big guys. So we have customers, very important customers in these different fields. So for example, we have in the brand, we have Armani, Valentino, Colmar. We have customers worldwide, Testone, Chandel Paris, and many other brands like that.

And on the other side, we have Best Buy, Uber Eats, Ubisoft, Omo, US Army, and many others, and a lot of gadgets in play, HP. We have a big agreement with HP in the large print format sector. So I think that this kind of industry are now the main player. But anyway, we have customers in 400 different verticals.

It makes sense around the future of customization, how people want curated and customized experiences for shopping or even customized products. I think I'm seeing a lot of these like, create your own fragrance versus a fragrance that the company makes. How do you see the future of, cause we're here already in 2025.

When you're looking five years, 10 years out, how do you see e-commerce and shopping evolving at that point? Oh, I think that this mix of technology are trying on configuration, maybe in the future, hologram or maybe other piece of this layer, AI agent, something like that. This will be the next interface

that customers will find online and offline. Because many of these actions, you know, online is, is learning how to offer some kind of experience that in the past, you can have only in the physical stores, like for example, a trial, okay. Or maybe AR when you are buying a sofa for example. You can see that actually in your room. On the other side, the physical stores are add a layer of virtual experience inside the stores to create a mixed experience inside. So these words are coming all together and And my vision is that in 10

years, I can't imagine any website, any physical stores, any B2B channel where the visual layer will not a piece of the interface. Everything, everyone will not do that. It will be like an old website. As we can see now, there is an e-commerce website over there, an IT. Yeah, wait, what problem? What photo? And you have to pray to understand who is going to deliver you. You had to make like a mobile site and a regular site and now all sites are like mobile optimized sites. If you're on Shopify or whatever platform. It seems like this will be the future. I'm very excited about e-commerce. I personally started in 2012 with e-commerce and then physical stores. So I can relate to the processes and wanting to do things this way.

I'm very excited about this. So now that you've been in business for as long as you have disrupting industries, thousands of clients, obviously people love you all around the world and in different industries. If somebody was coming up to you and said, Angelo, I want to be as successful as you one day. What is a piece of advice that you'd give to them? There's a lot of stories that someone tell me and I can say the same. story that someone tells me and I can say the same, that the wake up has to be early in the morning.

If your works are hard every day and you put the seed every day in the ground, for sure a tree will grow up. It could be big, super big, fantastic, but for sure it will grow up. So would grow up. So many times people, I think, yeah, spend a lot of time to see the heroes of this world. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, yeah, sure, someone can do this, but there are hundreds, a thousand of entrepreneurs that can make a really super interesting company. maybe would that be on the Time magazine or maybe with... They are not something that are meant to be written in a book, but there's a lot of money that you can gain and a lot of satisfaction that you can find along your entrepreneurship journey. I love learning a few words before traveling. It's opened up doors to new friends and unforgettable experiences, all thanks to Reseda Stone. This isn't just any language tool.

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some days or some night will be dark, but it's a piece of the job. Then the light is always in the next day. So you have to fight dark. If you wanna try to reach the goals of the people. I think that you can build your company day by day. You have to have a line vision, but you don't need to forget it. Today is a day for the Nissan Tibet.

Wow, Angelo, those are amazing takeaways. A lot of stuff to unpack there. I could see why you've had the success that you've had based on the things that you just said. Funny enough, our previous interview, we asked the same question and they said waking up at 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. was like the prime thing that helped them be successful in the timeframe. Waking up early, perseverance, working hard, figuring it out.

I love that not being in love with the company or the product because you might need to change, tweak. Many people say, oh, this company is my baby, which I think could be a detriment because they're not gonna be okay with feedback and change. You said a lot of great things, Angelo. If you wanna learn more about you, they wanna get in touch, how can they do so?

Sure, we have, you know, first of all, our website, zakeke.com, and everyone can reach me on my LinkedIn profile. I'm not a super social user, but I use LinkedIn, and so you can find me there. And I generally accept any request, because I think that if you have to stay somewhere on the social, it's to be social.

If you stay there without interact, it's only like stay like a poster on the wall, and I don't want to be. So I have chosen only one, because I't have time to do speak with everyone but only getting everyone can reach me. Well as Z A K E K E dot com. Angelo the some of the most successful people have like no following on social media right. They're not busy because you're too busy building up your company, scaling and growing. I can super appreciate that feeling. You've been amazing. I can't wait to have you on in a year from now. And then let's talk about the next technology and the next wave of

customization. I'm very, very interested in this topic. I think this is going to help a lot of people, but it's been great having you today on Founder's Story and thank you for your time. Yeah, thanks a lot. And, but it's been great having you today on Founder's Story and thank you for your time. Yeah, thanks a lot. And it'll be why once I have to wait. You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. How can you find amazing candidates fast?

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