Introduction
Like a pot on the stove about to boil, just needing a tap on its side to start, the lockdown was the tipping point of Italian ecommerce that in 2020 had a turnover of EUR 48,2 billion. Many sectors have suffered, mainly tourism, which was always the driver of Italian online commerce. 2020 has been a transition year - those who were able to seize the moment have seen significant growth in turnover (e.g., food, because of closed restaurants) or profits (e.g., car insurance, because of the absence of accidents). For others, it was a moment of survival (e.g., tourism).
The ecommerce sector’s end of year result has remained, for the first time ever in Italian history, basically the same as the previous year. But 2020 really brought a maturation of ecommerce, becoming truly mainstream. Millions of Italians have discovered the possibility of buying online and they will not forget it, even for the sectors that have suffered in recent months. That is why today ecommerce has become fundamental to the strategy of every production or distribution group in Italy. When a sector goes through a maturation change there are many side effects. One of these is the takeovers made by companies that want to consolidate their position or that want to make up for lost time. Another changing factor is infrastructures that are becoming critical to excel in the sector. For this reason, pressures are also emerging to define the game table. For example, for some years now, network neutrality is being discussed: equal access for all companies to the same quality and speed of Network (e.g., especially for streaming companies in the US).
Today, in Italy, we must also question other infrastructures such as shipping neutrality. The presence of large operators is in fact shifting attention and quality of service towards those who contract very challenging SLAs (Service Level Agreements) to the detriment of small Italian ecommerce operators with much less contractual force. For this and other reasons linked to the economies of scale of the large international giants, new forms of aggregations are being created between companies which, through federations of micro-enterprises, are increasingly positioning as valid competitors (at least in perspective).
Digital payments in ecommerce in Italy
After the approval of the cashless plan in 2019 and aided by the lockdown, there has been an evolution in the payment methods in Italy. E-payments have become the preferred method for 6 people out of 10 (5 out of 10 in 2019) – 47% of Italians declared they would use credit/debit cards or other cards to pay any amount, no matter how small, versus 40% of 2019.
The lockdown determined a growth in online payments that between offline and online are more than a third of total Italian transactions. In 2020, credit cards were the preferred payment method for Italians (44%), followed by prepaid cards and vouchers (40%). Digital wallets are in third place with 34%. Among payment processors, PayPal maintains the lead (65% of the shares), followed by Stripe (23%), while Amazon Pay lags behind (2.5%).
The big news OD 2020 in Italy was the category of instalment payments that follow the global trend of Buy now, Pay later. This online payment method, even if it sometimes has higher commissions for companies, gives several advantages that justify its diffusion, including: an increase in the average cart, a growth in conversions because it is easy to use for the customer, a higher frequency of orders, and the approach to a younger consumer target who can thus access purchases, even for small amounts (it is in fact not unusual that amounts of around EUR 15 are split).
In addition to Soisy, Scalapay and Amazon, there are many operators that have entered the Italian market of instalments for online shopping. Among these, the Clearpay solution has recently launched in Italy. It allows the customer to pay in 4 instalments, without any additional fee (with payments every 15 days). Klarna, the Swedish online shopping start-up has taken hold in Italy with the ‘pay in 3 instalments’ solution (with a payment every thirty days). The company, leader in Buy Now, Pay later payments, with 250,000 retailers and 90 million customers worldwide, is also having great success in Italy. The fintech company has established its third technological hub in Milan and last year acquired Moneymour, a payment startup that provides immediate loans for online purchases.
Klarna is creating customised partnerships with the aim of creating services to support the consumer, such as the one with Samsung Italia which introduced the possibility for the customer to pay in instalments even after-sales services (such as out of warranty repairs): a service that meets the needs of consumers, in a time of financial difficulty due to the pandemic.
Among alternative solutions, last year the payment app Satispay (with over 1.4 million users and around 140,000 retailers in Italy) saw an increase in the use of payment services linked to the health emergency, such as the online payment of car tax that grew by 110% compared to last year, precisely because of the need to avoid going to physical locations to pay. More importantly, it activated the service ‘Order and Collect’ that allowed the retailers lacking an ecommerce system to receive the payment for the order and collect it at the store in a cashless mode.
About Davide Casaleggio
Davide Casaleggio is CEO and partner of Casaleggio Associati and president and founder of the Rousseau Association, the direct democracy platform used by the 5 Star Movement. Passionate about chess since he was a child, after graduating in Bocconi in economics with a specialization in E-Business, he devoted himself to teaching, to the publication of books dedicated to the web and to collaborations with internet consultancy companies. In 2004 he joined Casaleggio Associati and became president in 2016 after the death of his father Gianroberto. He is specialized in strategic consultancy for digital innovation, in the definition of online business models and in research in the field of exponential technologies. He has developed sectoral researches and he constantly holds lectures and seminars. In particular, he deals with Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and issues related to the fourth industrial revolution in relation to the effects on the economy. He is the curator of E-commerce research in Italy and author of the books “E-business models” and 'You are Net'.
About Casaleggio Associati
Casaleggio Associati has been operating back from 2004 with the aim to analyze the phenomenon of the web applied to organizations and to develop a culture of the Internet. We offer strategic consulting services for online positioning for our clients and digital transformation programs, also involving the most innovative technologies, e.g., AI and Cognitive Computing. Within this field of strategy advisory activities, Casaleggio Associati has gained experience in creating Cognitive Roadmaps, with the aim of steering business choices in the digital environment and defining measurable objectives in terms of economic return. Currently, the company is pursuing strategic consulting, research and experimentation in all areas of application of the Internet and new digital technologies.
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