New Ottici Associati web portal

The OA Group has decided to target the web for interfacing with consumers and opticians and has created an Internet portal for network professionals. The portal covers a range of services designed to make modern optics centers highly competitive.

'The Internet is now a widespread means of communication', explained OA Group S.p.A. communication manager Gian Andrea Bianchi, 'but in our sector it's rare to find distribution companies that choose to invest in the web channel for creating complete IT platforms'.

Portal services include online administration management for viewing invoices, due dates for the payment of supplies, the orders placed with customer service and a 24/7 check on the progress of work sent to the 'prontottica' laboratories.

Another service of interest is the group's matchup between online orders and integrated distribution logistics: with this innovative service orders for the two warehouses in Genoa and Milan and the third logistics base in Turin can be placed through the website or via customer service. The products (contactology, ophthalmology and frames) are then delivered within 24 hours throughout northern Italy and within 48 hours to the rest of the country. Thanks to these important new services, fixed transport costs and the possibility of placing orders online, an increasing number of opticians have almost eliminated the need to keep large stocks: enabling stores to have fast stock rotation is a sound competitive advantage that is considerably useful these days.

Another original and extremely useful aspect of the portal is the attention to marketing and professional updating. There is a special web tv section on professional training subjects, product tutorials and long-distance professional and marketing training.