Report Ecommerce in Italy 2020

E-commerce in 2020 will constitute a turning point. As in previous years, the forecasts indicate a double-digit growth rate, as has been the case in Italy for the past fifteen years. The Coronavirus effect is set to reshuffle all the cards on the table. The market sectors that have historically been top of the list, such as Tourism, will decline for the first time ever, whereas other sectors such as Shopping Malls and Foodstuffs will record triple-digit growth rates. For a number of traders, the main problem of growth in 2020 will not be the number of clients they have, but rather their logistics capacity to cope with them.

Many operators have in fact stopped advertising during the lockdown period, having reached saturation point in terms of their operational capacity. Other traders’ products are no longer attractive in times of crisis. The Clothing sector encountered its first crisis in online sales, since they could not compete against over-full wardrobes and the people’s inability to leave their homes.

Notwithstanding the crisis in various product categories and the general decline in consumption, 2020 is the year in which all Italians have begun to really discover the option of shopping online. Traders that are able capture this moment will be able to pick up new customers and build up their brand loyalty over time. 2020 will also be the year in which many traders will set up an online channel of their own, initially to shift their stocks of goods gathering dust in their closed stores, but then also to also be able to compete in the newly developing areas of demand, namely that of online purchasing from physical local stores. While up to now having a pizza delivered to your door has been perfectly normal, from now it will become equally normal to have anything else, even a screwdriver, delivered to your door.