The first Global Enterprise Metaverse is born: Würth Italia with Hevolus Innovation
MILAN, July 26, 2022 – All over the world, especially in the last two years, companies in the retail and consumer goods sectors have discovered the potential of metaverse to revolutionize the customer experienceWürth Italia, leader in the distribution of fixing and assembly products and systems at a national level, has chosen Hevolus Innovation, Microsoft gold partner for Mixed Reality, to introduce the first Enterprise Metaverse built with hVERSE in both its online and traditional sales activities, achieving excellent results, reducing CO2 emissions and offering customers a completely new immersive experience.
hVERSE It is Hevolus' low-code platform, accessible from the web and from any connected device, which allows companies to create proprietary Metaverses, with translation into 27 languages, multi-device, multi-platform and based on web 4.0, which was used to create one of the first Metaverse Enterprise following announcements in May 2022 by some of the major BigTech companies in the sector.
Furthermore, thanks to the metaverse it was possible enhance customer experience and generate new business opportunities, offering a revolutionary experience in a simple and sustainable way.
Würth Italia is part of the Würth Group and has been operating in the automotive, craft, and construction sectors for nearly 60 years. Headquartered in South Tyrol, the company has 200 sales outlets throughout the country. Throughout its six decades of presence, Würth has always worked to foster an innovative technological approach to your activities.
"Würth Italia has always invested in technologies and innovations that allow the company to optimize the customer journey and increase customer satisfaction." he claims Nicola Piazza, CEO of Würth Italia. "In the era of the digital revolution, the partnership with Hevolus has undoubtedly been a winning one, allowing us to create the first Metaverse in Italy: the Wverse. The Würth Metaverse (Wverse) represents a turning point, allowing us to evolve from a traditional website to a Web 4.0 solution, giving our customers a new, emotional, and immersive shopping experience and allowing them to interact within the Metaverse through their avatars. The Metaverse also allows for remote events, networking, and training. All of this also makes a significant contribution to sustainability, reducing many transfers and consequently significantly reducing emissions.".
Würth Italia considers the Metaverse and Web 4.0 A key technology for strengthening its market leadership. The company aims to achieve this pioneering role by investing in mixed reality solutions and using them to enhance the in-person and online sales experience for its customers. This strategy has allowed the company to accelerate its growth rates year after year.
Hevolus' solution for Würth
"Würth had two goals for the metaverse project: to increase sales and strengthen e-commerce.", he claims Antonio Squeo, CIO of Hevolus Innovation. "The potential of hVERSE is enormous, not only for creating new business opportunities but also for sustainable innovation. The accessibility and scalability guaranteed by our platform make the metaverse accessible to everyone, even online. The most effective way to showcase a product is for the customer to see it in its actual size, but there are cases where this isn't easy. The metaverse developed with hVERSE allows customers to visualize complex products and systems through their interactive 3D digital twins. This experience offers an extremely accurate idea of how the product might fit into the real space.".
The goal of the metaverse created by Hevolus is to help Würth Italia promote and sell its range of products designed for logistics, from large shelving units to automatic dispensers for personal protective equipment (PPE) to modular systems, which are often too large and heavy to be physically transported to locations and displayed to potential buyers.
The virtual environment is a futuristic, personalized and immersive 3D architecture that visitors can access with their own personal avatar. To offer customers an even more immersive and interactive experience, the Hevolus metaverse supports Mixed Reality, and this is all possible thanks to Microsoft HoloLens 2 holographic viewers.
"We are delighted that Hevolus is supporting Würth Italia and other customers in achieving their business and sustainability goals by leveraging Microsoft technologies such as HoloLens and our Mixed Reality development platform." he has declared René van Dormolen, Mixed Reality lead for Microsoft Western Europe. "The solutions used by Würth Italia are excellent examples of how experiences in the metaverse can help innovate and improve sales, marketing and support processes.".
Accessing Wverse, Würth Italia's metaverse, customers can tour the company, view the entire range of products and systems, interact with salespeople and system consultants through their avatars, and receive real-time assistance. Access is available from any device, so no special technology is required. By creating this metaverse with a Web 4.0 approach, Würth Italia is making its products more accessible than ever, offering an emotional and engaging experience.
Since launching its mixed reality solutions, Würth Italia has captured the attention of its customers who use Würth systems, increasing their number by more than 50% compared to the previous year. Furthermore, sales lead times have been reduced by more than half. Implementing Wverse helped Würth Italia increase its e-commerce revenue by 60%, while website visits increased by 20% compared to the previous year.
For more information you can read the case and the video made by Microsoft at this link.
