Italy and ecommerce: fashion leads the trend and ecommerce becomes fashionable
Ecommerce is a fast-growing sector worldwide, and this phenomenon is affecting Italy as well.
In 2016online sales increased by 18 percent, approaching 20 billion euros spent.
Among the leading sectors we find in first place information technology and electronics, tourism and fashion, which in 2016 recorded growth of 22 percent, 11 percent and 35 percent, respectively, according to the B2c eCommerce Observatory Netcomm Politecnico di Milano at the 11th edition of the Netcomm eCommerce Forum.
Apparel e commerce grows 35 percent driving online sales sector
The fashion industry is of particular interest, since in 2016 it experienceda growth rate almost double that oftotal ecommerce, where sales, compared to 2015, increased by 19 percent. For the fashion industry, we are talking about exactly 35 percent growth.
There is no doubt that in the field of fashion, Italy remains a global excellence and the numbers bear this out.
In 2015, the Bel Paese reached52.4 billion in production, employing as many as 402,700 with a total of 47,079 companies and a trade balance of more than 8.5 billion.
Exports, compared to previous years, grew by 2.1 percent to 29 million euros, with growth of 0.8 percent in 2016, showing that the Made in Italy continues to have strong appeal abroad. Italy is the world’s third-largest exporter in the textile-clothing sector.
Buying habits in the fashion industry
For fashion buyers, both physical and online outlets play a crucial role.
While on the one hand online sales have increased, at the same time there has been an increase in offline transactions understood as purchases made in stores.
In the latter case, the digital world continues to play a key role, as offline purchases often occur as a result of information gathered online.
This phenomenon, called reverse showrooming, occurs in Italy in 37 percent of cases according to a study conducted by Forrester Research.
This tendency to inquire online but decide to make a purchase in the physical store has as main reasons:
- Collect information about the product before purchase (54%);
- Have immediate access to the product produced after purchase (16 percent);
- Lack of confidence in online marketing (12%);
- product availability (11%)
Why buy online
There is, however, a clear trend, growing rapidly by the way, to make purchases online, so much so that the ecommerce clothing in Italy weighs in at 9% with 1.8 billion euros spent by users.
The reasons why Italians buy online are varied, but among all of them surely affect:
- the possibility of savings (52% of online purchases are made for discounted products or subject to special promotions);
- access to a very wide range of products offered by e-commerce sites;
- the shopping experience facilitated by the advice made available to users by e-commerce sites, such as the list of related products;
- The ability to access feedback from other users.
Online purchases are made 67% of the time via desktop, while transactions made with mobile devices which reached a value of 33 percent in 2016.
The protagonists are clearly Smartphone and Tablet, with a greater incidence of the former, through which 26 percent of purchases are made.
What Italians buy online
Most of the fashion industry’s online purchases involve thewomen’s clothing (50 percent), but also themen’s clothing recorded a high percentage (40 percent) and seems to be growing. Thechildren’s clothing on the other hand, has a weight of 10 percent in the online Fashion market.
Also according to the findings of the research conducted by the eCommerce B2C Observatory Netcomm Politecnico di Milano, online purchases are divided by type, and in particular the following was found:
- 46% mass market purchases;
- 36% luxury purchases;
- 18% purchases of sports clothing and accessories.
Among the main products purchased online are items of clothing (shirts, dresses, jeans, pants) and accessories (mainly shoes and bags or leather accessories).
Where Italian fashion companies sell
In 2016, the value of online purchases of the fashion industry generated by Italian sites came close to 3 billion euros.
Consumers tend to be of various nationalities with a particular incidence of domestic consumers. Also the foreign market is beginning to have a bearing on the online sales of Italian fashion companies, in fact these have reached a value of 45 percent. The main markets are:
- Europe (primarily UK, France and Germany);
- USA;
- Russia
Based on the data collected, we can say with certainty that fashion is one of the leading sectors of e-commerce.
This, because the sector has been able to seize the potential offered by the network by adapting to theevolution of consumption behavior.
More and more Italian companies in the fashion industry are investing in the new technologies, so much so that apparel ecommerce in Italy is growing much faster than other sectors, registering in the last five years an average annual growth rate of online sales by about 30 percent.
It was from this realization that Neikos Web Agency began to move toward marketing and business solutions increasingly cutting-edge to offer its customers, signing agreements with technology partners such as Google, AdWords, Facebook, Apple, Android, Paypal, Magento, Koomo, Zend.
Thanks to the collaboration with the agency Lab81, Neikos Web Agency is able to offer companies first-class digital projects, designed and implemented according to specific communication and sales needs, particularly in the Fashion & Luxury sector.
For more information, contact us.
Also read our research:
