Italy

Amazon has expanded its distribution centre in Italy. In Castel San Giovanni, placed in the province of Piacenza, one of Europe's most innovative distribution centers arises. It's 70,000 square meters big and by opening this new distribution center there will be about 1,000 new jobs.

MasterCard has launched its digital payment solution MasterPass in Italy. The Southern European country is one of the first in Europe where this solution is launched, as it's now only active in the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. But more European countries will follow soon.

It may not have been all moonlight and roses for Southern Europe with the financial crises countries like Spain, Italy and Greece had to face, but in terms of ecommerce this European region is doing well. It’s expected that the total online economy of sold goods and service in Southern Europe in 2013 amounted to 39,5 billion euros.

The mobile retail audience in Europe grew by 43 percent over the past year, with 20 percent of smartphone users visiting online retail sites and apps using their mobile phone. Also 1 in 7 smartphone users from the five leading European markets (the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain)have completed a retail transaction on their phone in a month.

Trusted Shops, an European trustmark for online shops with buyer protection, has expanded its services to Italy and the Netherlands. An expansion to Belgium is planned to go live at the end of this month. In the Netherlands it will face serious competition with Thuiswinkel.org, who is also one of the founders of Ecommerce Europe. And that organization also wants to have a pan-European trustmark for consumers. Is this a first sign of the start of a battle for the trust of the European shop owner?

Zalando is trying to gain some more ground in Italy. The German e-retailer is trying to do so by opening several pop-up stores, which should attract high street customers to the online shop. Recently they opened a pop-up store in Milan and now this initiative will be repeated in Rome.