The number of Italians visiting online consumer goods sites to purchase food, home and personal care products, has grown by 6% to over 2 million in June 2017.
According to data from Nielsen, this figure accounts for 8% of active internet users.
The group notes that different types of players active in this field make the market highly competitive. Manufacturers who use the internet as a direct channel for their products see the highest amount of traffic, with around 700,000 unique users in June.
Next up are the e-commerce sites of traditional retailers and those of pure online players, such as Amazon, which see between 500,000 and 600,000 unique users each. The biggest growth in this area, however, has been achieved by the pure players.
This is followed by retailers who offer high quality products (such as Eataly) or market locally-sourced products (like Cortilia), with around 400,000 users.
Online Motivation
According to Nielsen, the main motivations for visiting these sites are savings and the affinity of the channel to the lifestyle of consumers.
However, the barriers that are preventing Italians from doing more shopping online are the need to see products, the enjoyment of the shopping experience, and delivery costs.
Around 5.6 million Italian households use the online channel every year, for a value of €755 million. The average bill is €34.30, compared to €17 in the offline channel.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
