Würth transforms the customer experience and drives business growth with mixed reality

“What we’re selling now is much more than just a product – it’s a new customer experience.”

Nicola Piazza, CEO at Würth Italia, is describing how mixed reality is helping the company to blend traditional product sales with innovative services and solutions.

“We want to bring more than just physical products to our customers,” he says. “We want to give them innovation, technology, digital and sustainable solutions.”

Piazza envisions this goal as pivotal to strengthening Würth’s role as leading provider in the sectors it serves. One that the company is trying to achieve by investing in mixed reality solutions and using them to enhance the in-person and online sales experience for its customers.

The move has already accelerated the company’s growth rates year on year. It’s also led to the creation of an innovation department – called Phygital Hub – entirely dedicated to mixed reality solutions.

“When you have to sell logistics solutions like shelves, vending machines and other systems for automatic replenishment like our Kanban, being able to show customers how those products would fit into their existing building is crucial,” he explains. 

“That’s why we’re so committed to using mixed reality: it allows us to make the sale of our logistic solutions more interactive – while also giving our customers a buying experience like no other.”

The answer to Würth Italia’s vision

Würth Italia, which is part of the global Würth Group, has been operating across the automotive, craft and construction sectors for nearly 60 years. Based in South Tyrol, the company has 2,500 sales consultants and 200 shops spread throughout Italy. 

Throughout its nearly 60 years of market presence, Würth has striven to promote a tech-driven approach to its operations. “Our vision for the future is to shift from being a simple product supplier to profit generator,” says Nicola Piazza. “And at the same time, we want to strategically place ourselves as a key partner for our customers.”

An opportunity to do so came up when the company was looking for a solution that would help them stand out among their competitors – all while giving them a new, different way of marketing their products.

“We needed something that could allow us to strengthen and streamline our sales process, improve exhibition capacity, as well as reduce time needed for configuration and maintenance,” he says. “All while making the customer experience more emotional and sustainable.

“We found the answer to achieving our goals in Microsoft’s mixed reality solutions.”

Inside Würth’s solution

Würth’s mixed reality solution has been developed in collaboration with Hevolus Innovation, a Microsoft mixed reality gold partner based in Italy. 

Its CIO Antonio Squeo recalls well the early days of the project. “When Nicola Piazza and his team came to us for their mixed reality project, they had two goals,” he says. “To improve revenues from the sale of Würth’s products and to boost activity on the e-commerce front.”

At the core of the initiative was the promotion and sale of a range of products within Würth’s portfolio – such as large shelves, PPE vending machines and modular systems – that are often too big and too heavy to be physically transported to locations and shown to potential buyers. 

“The most successful way to showcase a product is when the customer sees it in its real size, but it's not always easy to do this with some of these products,” he explains. “Our HoloProject allows clients to put on the Microsoft HoloLens 2 and preview the product’s digital twin in 3D, right in the space where it would be located.

“This gives them a clear idea of how it will fit within that space.” 

Würth also has a solution dedicated to post-sales operations like maintenance and remote support. This is called Holo Maintenance, and it’s compatible with Microsoft HoloLens 2. 

“The second part of our project is called Wverse,” he continues. “It focuses on Würth’s online store, which is currently responsible for 20% of products sold.”

To drive sales across this channel even further – as well as deliver a more immersive experience for customers – Würth has created, with help from Hevolus, a metaverse website that uses mixed reality to showcase products in a more interactive, tailored way. 

This is an immersive 3D cyber architecture consisting of a large lobby, a conference room, various private meeting rooms and expo pavilions, which visitors can enter by creating their own personalized avatar. All to deliver a completely new retail metaverse experience that can be enjoyed both through headsets and traditional laptops. 

“Imagine it as an augmented version of a real-life store, just much more interactive and detailed,” says Piazza. “By accessing our stunning metaverse, customers can have a tour of our company, our product range and systems and even interact with salespeople and systems consultants who can access the same 3D space as avatars and assist them. 

“The idea is that you can access it with any device you have, so you don’t need any special technology. By creating this website, we’re making our products even more accessible with a more emotional and immersive experience.”

A win for Würth, its clients and the environment

Würth’s initiative is enjoying widespread success. Compared to the previous year, the company has seen the number of new customers go up by more than half. Meanwhile, sales lead time has been halved.

Implementing the Wverse has also helped Würth to increase e-business revenues by 60%, while website visits have gone up by 20% compared to the year before. The number of active customers has also grown since its launch, while decision making is now significantly faster. 

“The Wverse has given us the possibility to reach multiple customers all at the same time,” says Nicola Piazza. “Previously, whenever we had to show them our company and our showroom, we would have to schedule an in-person meeting either in Bolzano or Rome, and arrange to take the customer there.

“Now, we can save money and time by talking to them on the website, which is helping us to reduce inventory costs and increase exhibition space. As well as improve the customer journey and cut down on our carbon emissions.

“At the same time, using Holo Maintenance, we can achieve a range of goals,” he continues. “From just-in-time problem solving, to preventing production stop and increasing customer satisfaction – all while reducing costs and emissions.”

The cultural shift continues

Since launching the mixed reality solutions, Würth has caught the attention of its own customers, who are now asking them to help create similar technologies for themselves. 

“We want to become a point of reference for our customers in matters of mixed reality solutions and offer them our expertise in this field,” says Nicola Piazza. 

“For this reason, we recently launched an in-house technology and mixed reality accelerator called Phygital Hub, which aims to find new mixed reality solutions for Würth, but also to sell to our customers.”

He stresses the importance of making sure that employees are included in these projects. “For us it’s essential to involve our people in these technologies,” he adds. “This is why we’re investing in showing them how mixed reality works: so that they can be the primary ambassadors of our technologies and can explain them to our customers.” 

This is all part of a wider cultural shift that the company is undertaking internally and externally – one aimed at reshaping Würth’s profile as an employer, as well as a retailer. 

“We want to become more attractive in matters of recruiting and training, branding ourselves as an innovative company that invests in the future,” he concludes.