e-Commerce, continues record in Italy

The record growth of e-commerce continues in Italy where, in the first six months of 2021, 5 out of 6 Italians shop on the web once a month, equal to 5% more digital buyers compared to 2020. According to the latest idealo detection that Adnkronos is able to anticipate, the Italian digital market is clearly “dominated by regular buyers” who represent 61.1% of the sample, to which must be added the percentage of 23.9% representing those who they buy “at least once a week, that is, intensive buyers”. In addition, 15.0% of respondents said they shop online once every quarter or less, thus falling into the segment of sporadic digital shoppers. One of the leading sectors of Italian e-commerce is electronics. According to what was found by the analysts of the platform, more than half of Italian digital consumers make a price comparison and buy an electronic product online and, based on the trend of purchase intentions (score from 0 to 100) registered on the Italian portal of idealo, in 2020 the Electronics articles were the most searched (score 100.0). Followed by Fashion & Accessories (44.9), Furniture & Garden (37.8), Sport & Outdoor (28.2), Health, Beauty & Grocery (27.9), Kids & Babies (17.3), Cars & Motorcycles (16.7), Toys & Gaming (15.0), Food & Drinks (3.8) and Pet Products (1.5). Going into more detail, the ten most searched online products in Italy in 2020 were: Smartphones (100.0), Sneakers (53.0), TVs (28.7), Smartwatches (23.2), Running shoes (21.1), Notebooks (19.6), Game consoles (15.8), Headphones (15.4), Tablets (15.4) and Refrigerators (14.1). In 2020, the products on which, by purchasing in the most convenient period, it was possible to save the most in the space of a year were: Disinfectants (-49.7%), Tablets (-40.4%), Multifunction printers (- 32.2%), Notebook (-21.7%), TVs (-21.5%), Vacuum Cleaner (-21.3%), Smartwatch (-18.5%), Game Consoles (-16.8 %), Refrigerators (-16.4%) and Screwdrivers (-14.8%) 3. 2020 was a very special year due to the Covid-19 pandemic which upset, among many others, our digital and online shopping habits. For this reason, the data relating to the growth of online interest for some categories on the Italian idealo portal compared to 2019 are very interesting. The macro-categories with the greatest growth in online interest were: Furniture & Garden (+ 190.5% ), Grocery & Health (+ 164.7%), Food & Drink (+ 159.2%), Pet Products (+ 116.5%), Electronics (+ 96.7%), Sport & Outdoor (+96 , 3%), Kids & Babies (+ 91.5%), Toys & Gaming (+ 88.7%), Cars & Motorcycles (+ 83.6%), Health & Beauty (+ 80.8%) and Fashion & Accessories (+ 72.7%) Although in 2020 Italian digital consumers mainly searched and compared the prices of smartphones and consumer electronics products, the Covid-19 pandemic made new ‘popular’ products such as disinfectant gels.