[Latest overseas EC news] The rapidly expanding Italian EC market

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In 2020, the COVID-19 lockdown in Europe brought about major changes in consumer behavior.
As in Japan, the COVID-19 pandemic has expanded the EC market in Europe, and one of the major changes has been the expansion of food EC in Europe.
During the lockdown, 28% of consumers living in European cities used online shopping as their primary channel for purchasing groceries.


The most popular countries were France, Spain, and Italy, where 70% of consumers purchased groceries online. Perhaps as
a result of these trends, "Amazon Fresh," a service that delivers fresh groceries, was launched in Milan, Italy in February of this year.
This time, we have compiled information on Italy's e-commerce market, which is currently growing rapidly in the European e-commerce market, with reference to "Digital 2021: Italy" and "Ecommerce News Europe."


Italy's Internet is centered on mobile
Italy is a peninsula located in the south of Europe, jutting chile whatsapp data out into the Mediterranean Sea, with a total area of ​​301,338 km2 (4/5 the size of Japan, about 80%) and a population of 60.41 million (2021). Italy
is the third largest economy in Europe and is a founding member of the European Union (EU), OECD, G7, and G8.
Italy has some of the world's leading luxury brands, such
as fashion brands Armani, Versace, Prada, and Gucci, that women would want to own. There are also famous manufacturers and big companies for automobiles, such as Alfa Romeo, Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Fiat, and men would probably want to drive these models at least once.
In addition, 71.2% of the population of Italy lives in urban centers and 28.8% live in rural areas, so there seems to be an economic disparity.
Internet-related issues are also developing like in other countries, and currently smartphone users are overwhelmingly more prevalent.
Below is a summary of Italy's internet penetration rate in 2021 from DataReportal's "Digital2021: Italy."

Figure 01

The latest in e-commerce in Italy
Italy is one of the fastest growing e-commerce markets in Western Europe,
with 60% of internet users using online shops and the e-commerce market size estimated at 31.5 billion euros in 2019.
average growth rate of the e-commerce market from 2015 to 2019 was 10-19%, and in 2020, food e-commerce has grown significantly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The most common category of e-commerce in Italy is tourism-related e-commerce. Tourism e-commerce, including travel and accommodation, totaled $9.8 billion (approximately 1 trillion yen) in 2020.
However, this also fell sharply in 2020, down 53.9% from the previous year, due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
On the other hand, food-related e-commerce saw a large increase, reaching $2.91 billion (approximately 310 billion yen), an increase of 38.7% from the previous year.


In addition, furniture and interior goods increased by 27.5% year-on-year to $2.96 billion (approximately JPY 310 billion),
while fashion and beauty-related e-commerce increased by 24.4% year-on-year to $5.74 billion (approximately JPY 620 billion). It appears that the Italian e-commerce market expanded significantly in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The figure below was created using data from DataReportal's "Digital 2021: Italy."

Figure 02

According to IcePay, credit cards are the most frequently used method of payment for online purchases in Italy, with a market share of 40%, followed by PayPal (12%) and cash on delivery (11%).
preferences, 47 percent of online shoppers prefer to pay with PayPal.