Sabatino
A truffle
transformation
Founded in 1911, Sabatino stands as the world's premier truffle connoisseur, offering a range of truffle products across the United States and distributing globally.
Overview
Faced with the challenge of managing multiple online platforms for direct-to-customer (DTC), trade clients in the US, and international distributors, Sabatino engaged Tribe to streamline their online presence. The objective was to consolidate three distinct Shopify websites – each serving DTC, trade, and international clients – into a single, cohesive global platform, coinciding with the brand's recent rebranding initiative.
Rebrand
Sabatino wanted their new site to embody their rich history and luxury proposition. Tribe received the updated brand guidelines and crafted a comprehensive digital design system. This system focused on strategically using bespoke textures and refining the colour palette to enhance the premium feel of the brand. The website redesign, embodying Sabatino's storied history and upscale nature, now serves as a digital testament to their luxurious identity.
Fresh Truffles
Sabatino have two core product offerings; fresh truffles and truffle products. We created different page types to allow for the different information consumers displayed, for example fresh truffles aren’t well known in the US so we chose to highlight a recipe and a demonstration video. Alongside that are categories for each of the fresh truffle varieties which allow them to be marked as ‘Out of season’. In the world of truffles this is important to communicate, and allows customers to sign up to the mailing list for when they arrive back in stock.
Shoppable Recipes
The recipes are particularly valuable for Sabatino, as education is essential for customers who aren’t as familiar with truffles and how to cook with them. Having a rich library of blogs and recipes already, we wanted to ensure new users that landed on these pages had clear awareness and access to shop the products. We redesigned the pages to separate out the information clearly using metafields, and then added in a ‘Shop the recipe’ section listing out relevant products that can be Quick Added to the cart.
DTC vs B2B
At launch, Sabatino required robust ecommerce capabilities for both DTC and trade operations within the USA. Tribe implemented a system where products and prices vary between DTC and trade customers, the latter having access to bulk purchase options. This was achieved through a tagging system on user accounts, effectively allowing two distinct market strategies to coexist on the same platform.
Internationalisation
For international clients, in non-US markets, Tribe set up a segment of the website showcasing specific European product ranges within Shopify's European marketplace. This setup not only caters to the unique demands of international customers but also positions Sabatino to easily activate full ecommerce capabilities in these regions in the future.
The website initially launched as an English-only platform. However, recognising the diverse linguistic needs of future expansion in European markets, we have strategically integrated Shopify's native translation and adapt features. This forward-thinking implementation ensures that the website is primed for seamless transition to multi-language support, catering to a broader international audience as Sabatino continues to grow.