Spreadsheets, paper notebooks, and disconnected sales channels. When Gondolina, an artisanal Venetian brand famous for its velvet friulane slippers, grew beyond its original tools, the founders needed a real step change.
Partnering with power2Cloud, Gondolina synced its e-commerce store, warehouse, and boutiques using Shopify and Shopify POS. This setup delivers a seamless shopping experience and a single view of every customer. It also prepares the brand for new store openings in London, Paris, Milan, Miami, and New York.
Gondolina Shoes is a Venetian footwear brand founded by Agnese and Javier. Born from a love story connecting Venice and Seville, the brand turns traditional friulane slippers into modern shoes. Master craftspeople handmake every pair in Friuli, Italy.
From Strolling Venice Streets to Launching a Brand
While many businesses are born from cold market analysis, others grow from a single personal moment of inspiration. Gondolina Shoes is undoubtedly the latter.
Agnese Cosulich and Javier Fernández Aguilar built successful international careers, living in over seven countries. Agnese has Venetian and Friulian roots, whilst Javier comes from Spain. When they decided to settle down, their shared goal sparked a new business venture.
Walking through the narrow streets of Venice, they decided to honour the friulana slipper. Gondoliers made these iconic shoes famous in the 1700s. Originally humble footwear, craftspeople stitched them using velvet offcuts from Sunday jackets and bicycle tires for soles.
Over time, the style won fans far beyond Italy, yet it retained its flat, rather uncomfortable sole. Agnese and Javier had a clear ambition: preserve this artisanal heritage whilst reinterpreting it for modern comfort.
Thanks to the persistence of Agnese's mother, they partnered with master shoemakers in Friuli for a tiny first production run.
This effort revived a versatile friulana you can wear with jeans on the beach or pair with an elegant dress. Agnese calls it an "elegant 4x4".
Today, top publications feature the project, including Vogue, Forbes, Elle, Mujer Hoy, FashionUnited, Sole 24 Ore, and Marie Claire. The brand has earned several accolades, such as Ambassador of Venetian Craftsmanship from the Chamber of Commerce in 2026 and Best Luxury Handcrafted Footwear Retailer in Italy.
Launching a Site Overnight and a Boutique in Three Days
Agnese launched the first Gondolina website literally overnight using Shopify.
She had no coding experience. However, she picked the platform after careful research because it felt intuitive and could scale easily. This project was never just a weekend hobby.
The first product launch relied on personal networks. Friends, family, and former host families abroad spread the word across several countries, backed by social media.
Yet handcrafted products rely on touch and feel.
Agnese and Javier realised customers wanted to feel the velvet, try on the shoes, and see the vibrant colours in person. They needed a physical space.
They found a tiny eight-square-metre shop near the Rialto Bridge.
Renovation quotes were sky-high and timeframes were long, so they renovated it themselves. They opened their first boutique in just three days, spending every free moment on-site while keeping their day jobs.
Agnese still remembers that first morning. At 7:40 AM, she rushed to the boutique to drop off boxes. With the lights still off, an American tourist walked in and unexpectedly bought two pairs of Gondolinas on the spot.
That tiny space at Rialto sparked everything else, leading to new boutiques from San Marco to Marzaria del Capitello. Today, five boutiques sit in the heart of Venice, each with its own distinct identity, ranging from the Premium Atelier to the Boutique Bijoux.
As sales locations grew, the brand started demanding structure that spreadsheets and notebooks could no longer provide.
Running a Business as a Couple Means Real Trust
"Running a business is hard enough on your own. Doing it together, sharing a home, life, and work, is a whole different level of challenge," Agnese admits openly "and that comes way before you look at the balance sheet".
Agnese and Javier quickly adopted 'octopus mode'. Like an octopus, they had to handle everything, move fast, solve endless problems, and above all, give each other space.
"You have to develop deep trust in your partner, learn to delegate, and divide tasks," Agnese continues "you must accept that the other person might make mistakes and allow them to do so. Only when you reach that level of trust can you truly run a business together."
That realisation helped them define clear roles.
Agnese is the visual heart of the brand. She manages materials, analyses trends, and translates Gondolina’s artisanal value into everything customers see and feel, serving as the core of the community. Javier manages the numbers, handles suppliers and staff, tracks sales and inventory, and manages everything behind the scenes.
When Growth Outpaces Your Tools
With new boutiques opening, complexity grew faster than the team. Three main bottlenecks started slowing them down.
First, online and offline channels operated separately. A customer buying at San Marco was a stranger when visiting the Rialto boutique. Digital campaigns targeted generic audiences. Inventory lived on one channel, retail sales on another, and marketplaces were not fully integrated. Every update required manual work.
Second, data was scattered. Information about sizing, popular fits, and preferred styles lived in fragile places: paper note pads, spreadsheets updated by Javier late at night, or the memory of retail staff. Everything relied on internal word-of-mouth.
Third, internal communication was fragmented. Emails lived on basic servers, quick updates happened on personal WhatsApp accounts, and documents were scattered everywhere. Information moved around, but it had nowhere to settle.
The business needed a technology step change.
One Office, Five Boutiques, E-commerce, and One Central Warehouse
power2Cloud started the project with a simple goal: keep what works, but connect the systems that grew organically.
The team tackled two urgent areas. For retail operations across online stores, boutiques, and marketplaces, Shopify manages catalogues and inventory while Shopify POS handles in-store tills.
For internal collaboration, Google Workspace unifies email, team chat, and shared drives between head office and the shops.
Shopify POS Brings Unified Commerce to Every Boutique
Imagine a typical moment in the boutique. A customer walks in, holds a pair of Friulana Bucintoro slippers, and asks if her size is available.
Previously, staff could not give a 100% reliable answer. Inventory, SKUs, catalogues, and marketplace availability lived on separate channels.
The same pair of Mary Jane Carnivals might show as available online but out of stock in the boutique, or vice versa. This meant endless spreadsheets, phone calls, and cross-checking at the end of the day.
By centralising operations on Shopify, everything updates from a single source of truth. Changes made in the boutique instantly reflect on the website, and vice versa.
This drastically reduced manual work. For a brand managing limited pre-order runs alongside core collections, knowing exact stock locations at any moment is vital.
Shopify POS made the real difference.
By replacing old, disconnected card terminals, all five boutiques and the e-commerce store started using the same system. A sale at Rialto updates website stock in real time. A customer who bought online walks into Marzaria San Zulian and already exists in the system. No repeated admin, no hassle.
Agnese describes it as "one of the most valuable investments for the brand".
Structured data helps the team understand customer habits, target marketing campaigns accurately, and achieve a higher return on ad spend (ROAS) than ever before.
Read more in our article on how to optimise warehouse management with Shopify.
H3 Google Workspace Connects the Team Behind the Data
The project also transformed internal team operations.
Previously, emails ran through basic hosts, quick chats took place on personal WhatsApp accounts, and files sat scattered across desktops and email attachments.
The issue was not just the effort spent finding files. Insights from retail staff (which model sold best at Rialto, which size was missing at San Marco, what customers asked for at Marzaria del Capitello) had nowhere to settle. They stayed trapped in WhatsApp threads, individual emails, or personal memories. Turning those insights into stock and production decisions required endless effort.
Google Workspace brought office and store teams into one digital space with unified email, chat, calendars, and shared drives.
Staff at Rialto can instantly view a document updated at headquarters. Group chats replace phone calls. Collection photo files now live in shared folders that always display the latest versions.
Communication got faster, and crucial business knowledge stays within the company.
Here you can find some ideas on how Google Workspace can improve collaboration and security at your company.
The Next Chapter Is Already Written
The work does not stop here.
The next step focuses on expanding CRM automations to provide every customer, whether B2B or B2C, with personal and consistent attention across all channels.
The team plans to segment audiences based on real purchasing behaviour across physical stores and online platforms, while maximising engagement through their newsletter, the Gazzetta di Gondolina.
They are setting up automated communications that maintain a warm, human tone. Crucially, this infrastructure prepares the business to support announced store openings in Milan, London, Paris, Miami, and New York without redesigning their digital setup every time.
Key Takeaways from Gondolina's Journey
Every brand has a unique story, but Gondolina's experience offers valuable lessons for any growing business.
- Technology doesn’t replace craftsmanship; it frees it. Centralising inventory and unifying sales channels adds structure without losing brand personality. It saves founders from drowning in administrative tasks so they can focus on creation.
- In-store data is just as valuable as online metrics, as long as you capture it live. Shopify POS works because it fits naturally into the checkout flow without adding extra work for store staff.
- Your workspace tools matters. Google Workspace connects office and retail teams just as naturally as Shopify connects sales channels.
- Choosing a tech partner is not about giving up control. It means finding experts who can translate your vision into a flexible digital structure.
