Riassunto analitico
The present work focuses on the Italian textile-sector’s current situation, specifically the home-textile segment. In the first three chapters I highlighted the Italian textile sector’s structure and development, its different distribution channels, and the changing role of its sales force over the past decades. This theoretical explanation was aimed at offering a general scenario of the topic that will be empirically investigated in the last chapter. The purpose of my Thesis is to analyse the role of the sales force and retailers in the distribution channel of the home-textile sector. In order to do this, I conducted a qualitative analysis on the Arte Pura brand, the home-textile division of the textile and clothing company Daniela Dallavalle Spa. Arte Pura products are distributed in many countries around the world, however its main business is still concentrated on the Italian territory. For this reason, I conducted phone interviews with its 8 Italian agents and its 20 best performing Italian retailers to better understand their importance in the distribution channel, their tasks, and the evolution of their role over time. I then analysed their feedback through the lens of the current home-textile sector to provide a complete overview from different perspectives. This research provides insight into how the employed selling practices can be improved and how traditional strategies should be reinvented to keep up with the fast-changing demand of the home-textile sector.
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