Italy offers great cross-border ecommerce opportunities

Online retailers that want to become cross-border sellers and focus on growth markets, should pick Italy. The Italian ecommerce is expected to grow exponentially on short notice. To become successful, international sellers should be aware of local consumer preferences.

Cross-border ecommerce is popular in Europe, and owners of online business can take advantage of new opportunities that arise when they expand to a growth market. According to research done by Shopping Tomorrow Cross Border E-commerce and Salesupply, markets that show a strong growth of the ecommerce industry are Italy, Denmark, Norway, Poland, the Czech Republic and Sweden.

Ecommerce Italy is emerging

Specifically, Italy is expected to become one of the biggest ecommerce markets within Europe on short notice. This is an effect of the fast digitalisation of the country. The increase in popularity of online marketplaces has also caused young Italian consumers to buy cross-border more often.

Young Italian consumers often buy cross-border.

Though elderly Italians want to buy online, many of them lack trust in carriers. The biggest challenge for ecommerce companies that want to sell in Italy is a speedy delivery to the less accessible south of the country. Italy is installing a lot of new pickup points across the country. Using local carriers and warehouses can help cross-border sellers deliver quicker within Italy.

Preparing online stores to expand internationally

The report also identified what cross-border sellers need to prepare before they expand internationally. To start selling in a new market, cross-border sellers need to convince consumers to buy in their online store instead of in a domestic store. “Setting up a localized product range, locally common payment methods, and local delivery options can help gain the confidence of consumers. Launching a website in the local language will also help”, says Hans Wiebum, Managing Director Global at Salesupply.

Across all markets in these European countries, consumers want fast and free deliveries. They also prefer returning products to be free as well. Cross-border sellers should provide a local return address to increase trust in the logistics procedure. Every market has its own preferences for the methods of delivery and the service that comes with it.

Different preferences in each market

To become successful internationally, cross-border sellers should be aware of consumer preferences in each market. For Italian consumers the first impression is extremely important, Norwegian consumers are loyal to brands and products and for Swedish consumers sustainability is very important.

Cross-border sellers should be aware of local consumer preferences.

Marketing is also growing and developing in each of these countries. “Knowing what the trends in marketing are in each market, can help cross-border sellers set up more effective marketing strategies.”

In Sweden and Norway influencers are becoming increasingly important. Yet, in Norway the newspaper is still a frequently used place to advertise and in Italy there is still an enormous reach for advertising via television.