Puntopelle Leather Shop

PuntoPelle is an historical boutique located in the center of Rome, in via Margutta. The atelier serves an international portfolio of clients.

The Problem

“The site is too slow, we would like to have an e-commerce and we need some help with SEO.”

Puntopelle was my first client ever, it was 2018. I still work with them while writing this.
At the time I would have been happy to do some website and ecommerce restyling or marketing consultancy, SEO wasn’t really my thing but, hey, first client! Better close the guy!

They had an old, slow and poor in content website that, somehow, ranked in the first page for a couple of searches. They also spent some budget on search campaigns that did not bring any sale or contact.

But they had a great history indeed. Clients such has Cameron Diaz, George Clooney, DiCaprio. And Italian stars as well, like Gigi Proietti. Fascinating. You can see a guitar signed by Carlos Santana himself hanging on the boutique’s wall.

PuntoPelle is a luxury leather shop in Rome, they create handcrafted leather jackets, fur and leather accessories. Their main traffic source is word of mouth, recurring clients, and some SEO/SEM, for searches related to leather shops in Rome.

The Validation

First things first. We organized a shooting. Check.
We now have some materials for social media and we can start thinking about the website.

While posting and designing the website we created a newsletter for clients only that was well received. We kept an open rate of 60% and a good response rate too.

Careful Rebranding

The main purpose of the website was to drive tourists to the store from google searches.

We selected specific loca keywords and built the website around the brand's story, customer reviews, and the made in Italy aspect.

After completing the website, we successfully ranked first for our target keywords.

I developed the complete branding package, including the catalog, a new logo font, brand colors, and core values.

Our website ranks first for key searches like "best leather shop in Rome" or "best leather jackets in Rome," and our Google Business Profile appears in several additional searches.

SEO has become our primary channel for acquiring new clients, with 100% of our new clients coming through this channel.

So, we have a fully functional website and successful local keyword rankings, what can go wrong?

Obviously, Covid hits.

The Website went from this...

...To this

The Ecommerce

For a local business, relying mainly on tourism, being closed means having no cashflow. We postponed the ecommerce initially, but now it was time. In less than a month, with more than 100 products, it was live.

Initially, the ecommerce section received some orders from existing customers, but we did not actively promote it, as our products are handmade and bespoke, not typically purchased online. However, it served as a means to sustain the business during the pandemic. Currently, we continue to receive orders through the online shop, although they mainly consist of low-value, non-customizable items that are not central to our core business.

After the pandemic, we gradually regained momentum, improving our SEO ranking and enhancing website performance to drive further growth.

To this day 100% of new clients comes through organic searches and, quoting the client, "we've never been so busy, not even before the pandemic".

Through the collaboration with PuntoPelle, I was able to help them achieve significant economic results and online growth.

In those years we successfully rank first for our target keywords and make SEO the main source of new clients for the business. Furthermore, we created branding elements such as a catalog, font, colors, tone of voice, and core values that helped to solidify PuntoPelle's unique brand identity.

Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, we were able to eventually launch the ecommerce, which helped the business receive orders during those months.

Managing this project has been a great learning experience for me, both in terms of technical skills and client management.

I have developed a deeper understanding of the client's needs and how to guide them through the right decision-making process, without overstepping their boundaries. I have improved my critical thinking and put myself in a position where I was responsible for creating a viable and effective solution. This has helped me gain valuable experience in managing client expectations, while also delivering a final product that met their requirements.