eCommerce market in Italy

Italy is the 13th largest market for eCommerce with a predicted revenue of US$41,531.3 million by 2024, placing it ahead of Brazil. Revenue is expected to show a compound annual growth rate (CAGR 2024-2028) of 8.0%, resulting in a projected market volume of US$56,495.0 million by 2028. With an expected increase of 10.3% in 2024, the Italian eCommerce market contributed to the worldwide growth rate of 10.4% in 2024. Like in Italy, global eCommerce sales are expected to increase over the next years. Seven markets are considered by ECDB within the Italian eCommerce market. Hobby & Leisure is the largest market and accounts for 25.8% of the Italian eCommerce revenue. It is followed by Electronics with 21.2%, Fashion with 17.7%, Furniture & Homeware with 11.6%, Care Products with 9.2%, DIY with 8.8%, and Grocery with the remaining 5.7%.

The online share refers to the proportion of the retail volume that is transacted via the Internet. It includes purchases via desktop PC, tablet or smartphone, both via website or app. Only retail of physical goods is taken into account. In the Italian retail market, the online share is 12.3% and will increase by an average of 8.5% to 17.0% by 2028.

The biggest player in the Italian eCommerce market is amazon.it. The store had a revenue of US$5,658.1 million in 2023. Store rankings include every store that generates revenue in Italy. These stores can either have a national focus and only sell in their main country or operate on a global scale. For this evaluation, only revenue created in Italy was considered.

The Italian eCommerce market in 2023 in terms of offered payment methods is fragmented and dominated by a few providers with VISA (Cards) covering the largest share with 95.2% of all online stores checked. Other offered payment methods in the Italian eCommerce market in 2023 are Mastercard (Cards) with 94.5%, PayPal (E-wallets) with 90.7%, and Bank transfer/cash in advance (Bank transfer) with 64.7%. With 51.8% Cash on delivery (Cash on delivery) has already a significantly smaller coverage compared to VISA (Cards).

Despite Bartolini (BRT)'s dominant position with 45.5% of online stores opting for its services, the Italian eCommerce market in 2023 remains diverse and competitive. Several other shipping service providers, including GLS, DHL, SDA (Poste Italiane), and UPS (United Parcel Service), hold smaller but significant shares, contributing to a dynamic and fragmented market.