Ecommerce in Italy to reach €19.3 billion in 2016

Ecommerce in Italy is expected to generate 19.3 billion euros in 2016, which would mean the online retail industry of the Southern European country will increase by 17 percent, compared to last year. Much growth is expected from tourism, IT & electronics and clothing.

The prediction was done by the Italian ecommerce association Netcomm during the eleventh edition of the Netcomm Ecommerce Forum. As said, if the predictions come true, ecommerce in Italy will have been increasing by 17 percent compared to the situation in 2015. Even more impressive is the growth of the Italian online retail industry if you look back at the last couple of years. In 2010, the industry was worth just 8 billion euros, which means it has grown by 140 percent during the last six years.

Share of mobile transactions: 24%

Online purchases from smartphones increased by 51 percent, compared to last year, and now account for 15 percent of all online transactions in Italy. If purchases from tablets are added to that share, mobile transactions now account for almost a quarter (24%) of all online transactions in Italy.

Popular product categories in Italy

The expected growth of 17 percent this year is mostly due to increased sales in product categories such as clothing, IT and electronics, publishing and tourism. Fast-growing product categories are online groceries (increase of 29 percent expected) and home & deco (39%).

Netcomm predicts the ecommerce industry of Italy will account for 5 percent of the country’s retail sales in 2016. Also, the average order of products was worth 75 euros, while the average order for online services was worth 253 euros. In total, there were 115 million product orders conducted, while services were purchased online 45 million times.

In Italy, there are now about 18 million online shoppers, but still the number of Italian companies selling products or services online is lagging behind. Predictions are there are just 40,000 companies active in the ecommerce industry. “Just compare these numbers with the 800,000 in Europe of which 200,000 are in France alone”, the association’s president, Roberto Liscia, comments. “This way, Italian companies do not only lose market share in Italy, but are also likely to lose revenue from foreign shoppers.”