Van sales or direct sales in the coffee market?

An ever-evolving sector, where technology plays an increasingly important role

The Italian coffee industry is a significant sector both nationally and internationally. In Italy, around one thousand companies operate in the coffee sector, spread across all regions of the country. These businesses directly employ approximately 7,000 people and generated a turnover of about €5 billion in 2022. Of this, €2.2 billion came from export sales and €2.8 billion from domestic market sales. The total volume of roasted coffee to be transformed into hot beverages in 2022 can be estimated at around 231 million kg, representing growth of approximately 3% compared to 2021 (Source: Coffitalia Yearbook).

In this context, what are the most common sales methods? Van sales or pre-sales?

In the coffee world, are we talking about van sales or pre-sales?

There is no single answer — it depends on the process and the distribution model adopted by the specific company producing and distributing coffee.

From our experience with numerous clients operating in this sector in Italy and across Southern Europe, the van sales model is widely used, often complemented and integrated with pre-sales and store accounting.

What scenarios and opportunities does modern van selling offer?

The transition towards modern van selling in the coffee sector opens up a range of interesting and advantageous scenarios for companies in the industry. Here are some of the main features and benefits:

• The ability to leverage the full potential of today’s technological ecosystems such as smartphones and tablets, mobile web, 5G telecommunications — enabling a system upgrade both technologically (in terms of speed, reliability, and brand image) and functionally (full digitalisation).
• Multichannel sales, with the opening and integration of different sales channels such as order collection and B2B.
• Integration with cashless payment systems, reducing cash handling through credit and prepaid cards, debit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and more.
• Geolocation and geomarketing, making sales force management and competitor analysis more effective.
• Data analysis and management, through charts and reports both on the app — to know in real time the situation of the customer being visited — and at headquarters for business control.

In short, modern van selling offers a faster sales process, thanks to real-time communication between the company, the sales force, and retail, as well as a reduction in the management time required for customer operations and end-of-route closing.

Among the companies working with Aton to digitalise and optimise sales processes in the coffee sector, we recommend reading about the experiences of Caffè Vergnano and Segafredo.