Ecommerce Facts and Figures in Italy

Read below more about ecommerce growth, Ecommerce sales and cross-border ecommerce in Italy

The ecommerce market in Italy is still finding its feet. With under 60% internet penetration rate, and a relatively low urban population compared to other European countries, the landscape is still underdeveloped. Yet, ecommerce is taking form, driven largely by huge mobile, particularly smartphone, penetration. Over a fifth of the population is purchasing via their mobile or tablet. Cross-border activity is also prominent, with almost a third of Italian consumers having purchased from a non-Italian website, largely driven by lack of availability in their domestic market.

• Total Population
- 60 million
• Age Breakdown
- 43% of the population in Italy are between 25 and 54.
• Religion
Italy is mostly a Christian country, with 80% observance. The majority of this figure is Roman Catholic, but there are small numbers of Jehovah's Witnesses and Protestants.
• Urban Population
- 69%
• Internet Penetration
- 58.5%
- 36 million users.
• Mobile Penetration
- 159%, one of the highest penetration rates in Europe.
• Tablet Penetration
- 19.6%
- Up almost 5% from 2012.
• Smartphone Penetration
- 38.4 million smartphone users, 64.1% penetration.
- Increase of 23.5% from 2012.
• Online Shoppers
- 15.8 million
• Ecommerce Sales
- EUR 11 billion
• Ecommerce Penetration
- 44.1%
• Ecommerce CAGR (2008 – 2013)
- 18.2%

 

Cross-border Ecommerce Opportunities
• Driven by lack of availability in their domestic market, about 30% of the Italian population, 16.8 million people, bought goods or services from non-Italian websites.
• Italian consumers mostly purchase from the UK and Germany.
• There are also 4.2 million Italians buying from US websites and 2.8 million buying from China.
• Export does not match ecommerce import as only one in four Italian merchants sell abroad, but those who do mostly sell to Germany, Spain and the UK.
• Fashion, food and tourism were Italy’s leading ecommerce exports in 2013.

 

Language as a Key Driver
• The official language in Italy is Italian, spoken by 93% of the population.
• Other languages spoken in Italy include German, spoken by approximately 300 thousand people, Slovene spoken by approximately 80 thousand people and Albanian, spoken by 80 to 100 thousand people.
• Italian is one of the official languages of Switzerland, together with French and German, with 0.5 million speakers.