Is the market really online?

Boom in online sales, but then why? Italy is still behind? The growth of online sales in Italy reaches 18%, but if we look at other European countries the beautiful country remains behind. In Great Britain, online spending per inhabitant is of 1,660 €, in France it is of 900 € and in Germany 850 €; if compared with the expenditure of Italians, of only 300 € per year, the difference is obvious. Another interesting data, detected by the School of Management Observatory of the Polytechnic of Milan, is that those who buy online do so on a recurring basis: 90% of purchases via eCommerce come from 41% of online users. The research allows us to reflect on the reasons for this trend. Both immaturity and of demand (web shoppers are half as many as in the other countries examined), which the peculiarities of the offer. The sectors that record the highest turnover are related to services (45 million orders) with tourism in the lead, followed by products such as consumer electronics, clothing and home and living.

The sector that is growing the most, compared to previous years, is food and grocery. This 30% increase is due to greater consumer demand and an optimization of the offer which, the launch of fast delivery services and other initiatives have made it possible to satisfy the demands of the ready-to-home meals market. This is an example of success because to an increase in demand have been able to optimize the offer. The increases are there, but they must be related to the penetration rate which stops at 0.35%. To understand how much our country needs a boost, just look at the penetration rates of the most developed countries. mature which ranges from 15 to 20%.

Ultimately we see the devices that are most used to make online purchases. As already we had the opportunity to document in this article, one in four buyers accesses eCommerce via a mobile device. The Observatory also highlights the presence of the cross-device phenomenon, a purchase process that begins on a device, for example a smartphone, to gather information and compare prices, and ends with the actual transaction from a PC.

This was just an excursus of the reasons that lead the eCommerce market in Italy to grow so much. slowly. It is also necessary to consider everything regarding exports and the laws that bind the markets which, obviously, also apply when making purchases online. The only thing we professionals can do is encourage online users to become buyers by ensuring interfaces optimized for the user experience, offering simple and secure payment methods and fast and reliable shipping. If the application is slow, it is by working on the offer we can really grow.