Ecommerce Italy Summit 2026

Introduction

Twenty years of research on Ecommerce have given us a unique perspective on a market that, at the start of this research, was worth just under 2 billion euros—a figure that today is surpassed by individual operators in the top 10 alone, out of the over 16,000 businesses we monitor each month. Over the past two decades, we have witnessed the explosive growth of a sector driven by continuous innovation, often underestimated at the time of its emergence. Mobile, initially dismissed for having a screen that was “too small,” has proven to be the most effective tool for facilitating purchases at all times of the day. SaaS platforms have solved the chronic problem of IT teams perpetually tied up in updates and integrations. Payment systems, with the introduction of standards like 3D Secure, have necessitated urgent solutions to recover conversion rates that plummeted almost overnight. Marketplaces, long considered unsuited to the complexity of the Italian market, have instead arrived and imposed service standards that everyone has had to contend with. And then there are the regulations that, especially in recent years, have forced continuous innovation in technologies and processes: accessibility, duties, and retailer liability.

Over time, all of this has built solid barriers to entry, made up of accumulated investments and expertise, fueled by expert Ecommerce managers and, increasingly, by merchants of record capable of outsourcing the entire operation. But today we are likely facing the greatest upheaval in the sector since its inception. What happens when it is no longer the consumer who buys online, but their AI butler? Are we about to shift from B2C to B2A2C? If AI agents become the new customers, the website ceases to be necessary: all that’s needed is a product catalog and purchase terms in JSON format. The acceleration driven by Google, Shopify, OpenAI, and Amazon makes it clear that protocols for interacting with agents will be essential as early as 2026 for any merchant. This isn’t about adopting yet another technology: we are about to witness a redefinition of the very concept of Ecommerce. In this Report, we sought to explore the only defenses that brands and retailers can activate before finding themselves within an automatic, continuous, and intelligent comparison engine capable of comparing their offerings with those of tens of thousands of competitors in the blink of an eye. There are three such defenses: a brand positioned as essential, indispensable shopping experiences, and a direct and solid relationship with their customers.