With transaction volumes of 48 billion euros, sales of 71 billion euros and 380,000 employees, e-commerce is a phenomenon of increasing importance in Italy and has proven to be a strategic means of development opportunity for companies. Masu. this is, new research The plan was implemented by the European Parliament Ambrosetti in cooperation with Amazon and was presented at the Cernobbio Forum 2023 called “Today and Tomorrow Scenarios for Competitive Strategy”.
According to the survey data, Italian companies selling online reported an average increase in sales of 8.8%, margins of 8.1% and exports of 8.1% due to the adoption of e-commerce. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the biggest beneficiaries, with sales reported to have increased by more than 9.3%, profit margins by more than 64%, and exports by more than 3%.
Online retailers also benefit from physical channels, especially in terms of increased brand awareness (7 out of 10 companies surveyed), innovating offers and improving after-sales service based on multichannel experiences (6 companies) I feel that there is. Expansion of domestic and international customer base (6 out of 10 companies).
If these effects were applied to all Italian companies able to integrate their operations with digital channels, they could give the Italian economy a flywheel boost of more than €110 billion (+6% of GDP in 2022).
The impact on businesses complements the positive impact that e-commerce generates in the fight against inflation, which is a major concern not only for businesses but also for many Italian households.
Two previous studies – A study focusing on an analysis of the Italian population and an econometric model based on ISTAT (Italian National Institute of Statistics) shows that e-commerce increases the availability of goods offered, with easier access to lower prices. , range, and diversity were shown to be improved. In Italy, online prices have been much more stable even during times of high inflation, with purchases amounting to around 40 billion euros in the past three years. Best of all, if it weren't for the impact of the spread of e-commerce, inflation over the past six years would have risen by 5% on average.
Maintaining affordable prices and ensuring a wide selection with fast shipping is a way to fight inflation, and this is exactly what Amazon has been doing from the beginning. According to research conducted by Ambrosetti, Amazon ranks #1 among major brands both in-store and online, in terms of purchasing power, affordability, variety, and breadth of offerings. This recognition rewards our efforts as Italians recognize the greater benefits. We put our customers at the center of every decision we make.
For Amazon, our customers are also third-party sellers and small businesses who choose our stores to deploy their products in an increasingly multi-channel and international approach, and who are increasingly interested in the products sold on Amazon. Almost 60% comes from those companies.
Specifically, in 2022 alone, Amazon invested more than €8 billion in logistics, services, tools, and training across Europe. Thanks to these important investments, in 2022 he will have more than 21,000 Italian SMEs choosing to use the Amazon store. More than half of these exported their own products, with total export sales of more than 950 million euros, an increase of 20% compared to the previous year.
Small businesses also increased the number of products sold on Amazon's stores to a total of more than 125 million items, an increase of about 20% from the previous year. Over 250 products per minute. Of these SMEs, 850 have a turnover of more than 1 million euros and more than 5,100 have a turnover of more than 100,000 euros. This figure demonstrates our continued commitment to supporting entrepreneurs in the communities in which we operate, in line with our broader goal of helping to achieve export sales of €1.2 billion per year by 2025. is showing.
Nevertheless, there is still significant potential for Italian companies to exploit. Today, e-commerce still accounts for only 12% of total retail sales (source: Politecnico di Milano), and only 13% of Italian SMEs sell online; Suffice it to say that it is lower than the European average of 18% (Digital Economy and Society). Index 2022).
We develop tools that support the growth of small and medium-sized businesses, made in Italy.These include Amazon made in Italy Showcase, brings the excellence of over 5,500 Italian companies to Amazon's online store in 11 countries. or “Amazon acceleration” is a free training program launched at the end of 2020 that has supported over 35,000 Italian companies and start-ups on their path to digitalization and internationalization. This initiative was created in cooperation with several public and private entities, including the ITA Agency, Netcomm, MIP Politecnico di Milano School of Management, and the regions of Abruzzo, Marche, Liguria, Sicily and Umbria. SACE (Italian Export Credit Agency) has also joined this prestigious group. memorandumannounced with Amazon on August 2nd.n.d. .
Furthermore, on the occasion of the renewal of the contract with the ITA agency in 2022, we launched the pilot project “Amazon Incubator” for more than 100 Italian SMEs to internationalize through targeted and individual training. The purpose was to guide the way.
Public-private cooperation is the most effective way to enable e-commerce to play the role of a growth multiplier for the Italian economy, and it is also important to guide legislative interventions to facilitate this process through: is. Development of trade industry. Launch of a national plan to improve the knowledge and capabilities of digital workers. Enhanced digital export offerings through support for trademark registration and intellectual property protection. Legislative and regulatory harmonization between Italy and the EU.
We will continue to invest and innovate for Italian SMEs in cooperation with the ITA Agency, with whom we have been working since 2019. In the context of the Cernobbio Forum 2023, we affirm our common commitment to cooperation, made in Italy We provide great service to Amazon customers around the world.
