E-commerce: the trends in Italy
Before understanding which the e-commerce trends in Italy are it is necessary to analyse some data about the e-commerce in the world. According to the data of 2018, 4.3 billion people have the access to internet and this number will increase exponentially over the next few years. In 2020 about 2.05 billion of people should be an online buyer, which mean that at least 1 person out of 4 will use e-commerce.
The area where e-commerce is more popular is that of Asia-Pacific and afterwards the area of Usa thanks to the colossus Amazon. About Italy, e-commerce entered in late compared with the most of the European States but it is anyway in net growth; the customers are about 38 millions, namely 62% of the population and this figure is expected to grow considerably reaching 41 million until 2023. In addition, the e-commerce turnover is equal to a total of 41.5 billion of euro and this data is also constantly growing.
The sectors more interested to E-commerce in Italy
The sector that surely we can associate mostly at the e-commerce is “free time” with a turnover of 41.3% compared with the total of the online sales. This data is particularly dependent on the purchase of online video games and additional content within them, but the purchase of event tickets is also increasing.
Then, the sectors in which e-commerce is more widespread are “tourism”; “health and beauty” thanks to the arrival of online pharmacies; “fashion”; “electronics”; “home and furniture” and finally “food”.
The sectors that, however, will grow most in the next years are certainly the “shopping centres” sector because it is developing more and more by offering more and more products and services. In addition, there will be an unexpected growth in the home furnishing sector and in third place there will be an increase in online sales in the food sector thanks in particular to the development of “food delivery”.
The elements that most influence online sales in Italy
There are some elements that Italians give a lot of weight when shopping online. In particular, 37% of Italians are willing to pay for faster delivery and 59% consider it important to be able to change the delivery date and time, which means that the consumer’s buying experience can be influenced from the moment of delivery.
Up to 90% of purchasing decisions are made unconsciously; online customers prefer the most personalized experience possible in order to have maximum satisfaction.
72% of Millennials buyers do not care about Retargeting, a form of online advertising that targets users based on their previous actions on the Internet, in situations where such actions do not translate into sale or conversion.
In addition, many consumers prefer to buy sustainable products to help protect the environment.
About visual elements, 92% of buyers are influenced by them, in fact the e-commerce site can increase the conversion rate only by changing the checkout design, i.e. improving the payment process; in fact, almost all online buyers do not make purchases unless they are dealing with a secure website. In addition, the use of videos on the landing page significantly increases the conversion rate.
Surely the purchasing behaviour of a good percentage of Italians is influenced by social media and therefore by reviews or comments regarding the product or service. Therefore, consumer feedback is very important and is what the user goes to look at before the purchase.
Stores with a social media presence have on average 32% more sales than stores that do not. Finally, it is important to say that the mobile brand’s customers buy much more and often than desktop customers and spend much more on an annual basis.
If we look at everything that has been analysed so far, it is clear that the use of e-commerce is beneficial in many ways regarding the development of a company, we have seen how this is in continuous development in most areas of business.
However, certain precautions must be taken in order to improve the conversion rate, the customer experience and finally consumer satisfaction.