Direct News interview at the 2017 e-com show

Michel Robadin: With us Cédric Ricou, who is the CEO of emaloja, before talking about your company, talk about the show in general, which is a show that is extremely important for both the Swiss and the French.

Cédric Ricou : Absolutely, the e-commerce show is a high quality show, with highly skilled participants, all of this is very good for Geneva, for the cross-border region, given that it boosts everything that is digital and digital technology in the Lake Geneva region.

Michel Robadin: We will obviously talk about what you do. Emaloja, we see it in these images, in your stand. Before talking about what you do, your profession, your work, let's come back to this acronym, it's an acronym that tells us something. It looks a bit like this new toy for children with the name Maloja, obviously for all the Swiss who are lucky enough to go to Graubünden, there is obviously a big connection with what is happening in Graubünden.

Cédric Ricou: Absolutely, Maloja first of all, is a small village in Graubünden, but above all it is a breeze. A wind, and our logo is an anemometer, which measures the wind.

Michel Robadin: So who copied who? we find it, as we have said, at the level of children. It seems like 2 drops of water, maybe we should have protected the Cédric thing, or we should have been before the others. No, we can't be everywhere.

Cédric Ricou: We were visionary, since we created it in 2008, 2009, and now it has some success.

Michel Robadin: So, you have several strings to your bow. We're not necessarily going to talk about it today because you do a lot of things in relation to your activities. If we talk about Emaloja, it's something created, more or less since 2008. What exactly it consists of, we can already see it, your stand is already quite explicit.

Cédric Ricou: emaloja is international. It is a company that offers a turnkey solution, from the creation of the e-commerce site to final delivery, including all logistics activities, in our warehouses in Geneva. and in neighboring France. With this solution, it makes it possible to have a fully integrated solution, and it significantly relieves the entrepreneur who..., the activity is facilitated by the service. 

Michel Robadin: Eric, to schematize, to characterize the product, we can say that it looks a bit like a small Amazon, we can say it like that.​

Cédric Ricou: So absolutely we are in the same approach as Amazon, but this at the Swiss level and at the European level.

Michel Robadin: And then there is a group that exists, it’s also an e-commerce group, is that it, Swiss?

Cédric Ricou: We are quite active in e-commerce, we created a group on Linkedin called Swiss e-commerce. You can find us, and we can definitely exchange ideas, and above all see that the Swiss market has become mature in terms of e-commerce, and is growing exponentially. We are talking about 15 to 20% growth each year.

Michel Robadin: Cedric Ricou, we see it. There are a lot of stands, we are necessarily surrounded by stands. This is the purpose of these fairs. Is there competition in what you do?

Cédric Ricou: So, we had some competition…, well, an integrated solution like ours, not many of us in Europe offer it. In the logistics activity, we still have some competitors. But we remain a company which has a history, of almost…, with logistics, of almost 30 years. So we have a certain know-how.​

Michel Robadin: You are a little ahead of the others. Maybe it's not your place to say it, but I say it because it's certainly a little bit the case. Cédric Ricou, we are perhaps going to be interested in something that affects you a little closely, we are going to be interested in this invention. It is precisely this invention. You will see that it is an invention, which like all inventions, moreover, which we lacked. It's called  Smartear.

Cédric Ricou: So, Smartear

Michel Robadin: Smartear, mostly in English. Indeed Cédric, you are the representative for Switzerland. In 2 words, what pushed you to become interested in this object, we will see?​

Cédric Ricou: We are the distributor for Switzerland. What really interested us was a project by a team of young people, who have a Bachelor project, and which is relevant and increasingly useful these days unfortunately.

Michel Robadin: We are going to focus on the designer of this project. You will see it smells like the Mediterranean, France, Nice, the Côte d’Azur. Hello Sébastien Llorca. Thank you very much for having us. On this stand, we will understand why, because you are a partner at least for Switzerland. Sébastien, present your totally innovative project to us.

Sébastien Llorca: Hello everyone. So Smartear project is intended for deaf or hard of hearing people. So the goal is to make them see the sounds. That is to say, the idea is to associate each sound with a color in order to warn deaf people of what is happening around them. So we defined a certain number of color codes. In particular, if the fire alarm goes off, it will flash red, if the baby cries it will ring purple, if someone rings the doorbell it will flash blue, etc., etc. The idea is that this box, equipped with the microphone, will listen in real time to everything that is happening in the home, and will transcribe it in the form of light signals, on the small portable boxes that you see here, or also on the deaf person's smartphone. In order to warn her of what is happening around her. So in fact the idea is really to associate each sound with a color.

Michel Robadin: So, it’s a, we said it earlier, but we can talk about it again, you have already been honored on several occasions. What an invention Sebastian!

Sébastien Llorca: Exactly, we were awarded 3x in the Lépine competition, we won the national prize for intellectual property, we also won the disability prize from the city of Paris and also the silver medal, which shows that we managed to make a product intended for deaf people and which responds greatly to their needs.

Michel Robadin: Today, Sébastien, we are starting marketing. How does this actually work? Can we find any yet?

Sébastien Llorca: So, that’s where we started. We have already made a first pre-series of around fifty products in the France sector. And there, we are also launching on Swiss territory, since we had the launch party in Geneva, on May 3. And we are working with Mr. Ricou and the company Emaloja for the distribution of SmartEar in Switzerland.

Michel Robadin: So very important, in any case, at the Swiss level. This SmartEar will be reimbursed by insurance.

Sébastien Llorca: Exactly, so what we managed to put in place. Disability Insurance covers the system. Which allows it to be used for all, for many people.

Michel Robadin: Thank you very much Sébastien for being with us. And good luck. Do you still have a lot of inventions like that in your head, or not something else coming soon?

Sébastien Llorca: The next project will be for blind people. We will be developing another product for people with visual impairments. We, our society, the spirit of society, is to cover all disabilities. So the idea is to really be able to benefit as much as possible from new technologies to people in need.

Michel Robadin: You, as a visibly healthy young person, what pushed you to look for people who are ultimately less fortunate than us. It's your entourage, perhaps people who were at your side, who were not lucky enough to be able-bodied.

Sébastien Llorca: Exactly, I had the example of an aunt who lived alone, who unfortunately was hearing impaired, and who did not necessarily have the technological means to compensate for her handicap. So the idea was to say that now thanks to new technologies we can really overcome a certain number of problems. So the idea is to cover as many disabilities as possible thanks to these new technologies.

Michel Robadin: Thank you very much Sébastien. There you have it, 2 names to remember from this e-com show. You would have understood it. It’s emaloja to start with Cédric Ricou, who we have the pleasure of having at our microphone. And then also SmartEar. In any case, a beautiful invention which comes to us from the south of France and which, as you will have understood, is aimed at the deaf and hard of hearing.​

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