Three ways to search the marketplace
ItalianModa B2B offers three complementary search modalities, accessible directly from the main search functions of the marketplace. They cover the same underlying content — Italian manufacturers, brands, wholesalers, and the products they offer — but let the buyer begin from the input that is most natural in the moment: written language, spoken language, or a visual reference.
Each modality leads to the same destination: a list of relevant Italian companies and products. From any result the buyer reaches the Italian company directly, with no intermediaries between them.
These are the general search tools of the marketplace, used from the main search interface across the site. They are complementary to Moda Explorer, the dedicated visual product discovery engine, which serves a more specialized purpose around image, keyword, and Pantone-based product discovery.
Text search in seven languages
The text search of ItalianModa B2B accepts queries in any of the seven languages the platform supports: English, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Russian, and Arabic. A buyer can type a product type, a category, a region, a material, a use case, or any combination of these, and receive matching Italian companies and products.
The multilingual coverage is more than a translation of the search interface. The search understands queries written in any of the seven languages and surfaces relevant results regardless of the language in which the underlying Italian companies have described their offering. A buyer typing in German finds Italian companies whose product descriptions were originally written in Italian; a buyer typing in Russian sees the same kind of cross-language matching.
This matters in practice. International buyers do not always think about Italian fashion in English. A French buyer thinking about maroquinerie, a German buyer thinking about Lederwaren, and an English-speaking buyer thinking about leather goods are all looking for the same Italian companies — and all three reach them through text search in their own language.
Voice search
Voice search allows the buyer to speak the query instead of typing it. The buyer activates the voice input from the search interface, dictates the query in their own language, and receives the same kind of results that a typed query would produce. The voice input supports the same seven languages as the text search.
Voice search is particularly useful in three situations. First, when the buyer is on the move — at a trade fair, in a taxi, between meetings — and finds typing on a phone inconvenient. Second, when the buyer prefers to describe what they are looking for in a longer, more conversational form than a typed query would allow. Third, when the buyer is more comfortable speaking their own language than writing it, which is common for buyers operating across multiple languages every day.
Example. A Spanish buyer attending a leather goods trade fair in Florence hears about an Italian manufacturer specializing in vegetable-tanned leather small goods but does not catch the company name in full. Walking back to the hotel, the buyer opens ItalianModa B2B on the phone, taps the voice search, and dictates in Spanish: "fabricantes italianos de marroquinería en piel curtida al vegetal". The search returns a shortlist of Italian companies matching the description, including the one the buyer had been told about.
Image-based search
The marketplace allows buyers to search by uploading an image. The buyer provides a picture — a photograph of a product, an image from a magazine, an inspiration reference — and the search returns Italian products and companies whose offering visually corresponds to the input. This makes image search a natural starting point whenever the buyer has a reference but cannot easily describe it in words.
Image search in the general marketplace is the simpler counterpart of Moda Explorer, the dedicated visual product discovery engine. For deeper image-based exploration of Italian products — including keyword and color/Pantone search, broader visual matching, and a result gallery dedicated to product discovery — buyers are directed to Moda Explorer. The general image search remains useful as a quick way to begin a search from a picture without leaving the main marketplace interface.
How buyers combine the three
The three modalities are not alternatives that exclude each other: most experienced buyers use them in sequence. A buyer might begin with a quick voice query while traveling, refine the results with a more precise text query at the desk, and finally use image search to verify that a specific company offers the visual style the buyer has in mind. Each modality lights up a different angle on the same underlying content.
The text search is the most precise when the buyer knows exactly what they are looking for. Voice is the most convenient when the buyer is mobile or prefers a conversational pace. Image is the most useful when the buyer's idea is visual rather than verbal. The combination is what allows buyers from very different working contexts — buyers at their office, buyers on a trade fair floor, buyers translating an inspiration board into a sourcing list — to all use the same marketplace effectively.
What this means for buyers
- The marketplace can be searched in seven languages and through three modalities — text, voice, and image — so buyers can use the input that fits the moment, the device, and the working language.
- The text search handles cross-language matching: queries in French, German, or Russian return Italian companies whose offerings were originally described in Italian. Buyers do not need to translate their own terms.
- Voice search is well suited to mobile use, trade fair contexts, and buyers more comfortable speaking than typing.
- For image-based product discovery beyond simple matching — including search by Pantone color and broader visual discovery — buyers can move to Moda Explorer, the dedicated discovery engine.