Exporting ecommerce

With an economy that experienced accelerated growth of 1.7% in 2017, Italy is a country full of potential for any UK online retailer looking to launch an ecommerce site there.

From Bottega Veneta to Gucci, Italy is well known for its premium brands – a third of the world’s luxury items originate from this European fashion hub.

Foreign tourists flock to its cities on the hunt for designer goods and the high street is lined with some of the world’s most expensive labels.

However, an exclusive Retail Week study of 1,000 online Italian consumers shows the mass market is very different and retailers should adjust their ecommerce strategies accordingly.

Big fans of a bargain, Italian shoppers want deals and Sales at the click of a mouse. They are looking for a compelling customer experience and a variety of payment options.

So how does a UK online retailer find success in Italy? How do you tailor your UK-facing proposition to suit this very different consumer? And what are the things you need to know before you start out?

This four-part Retail Week podcast, in partnership with Exporting is Great, will look at the key things you need to know about the Italian ecommerce market.

We’ll bring you the findings from our nationally representative survey of Italian consumers, speak to experts in the sector and discover retailers that have already been victorious there in order to help you prepare to enter Italy online yourself.

Learn how to grow your business internationally with our digital guide, which includes:

• An interactive map pinpointing Italy’s retail hotspots, making it easy to decide where and how to invest
• A four-part podcast series, including interviews with industry experts and real-life retailer case studies
• Exclusive consumer research, granting you unrivalled access into the mind of the Italian online shopper

Interactive map: top retail hotspots in Italy

When expanding internationally, you need to be conscious of a country’s regional characteristics. Using findings from exclusive Retail Week research, in partnership with Exporting is Great, we’ve plotted a map through Italy’s most economically exciting regions.

By examining the local economy and buyer behaviour, our interactive map provides a detailed overview of the 10 most interesting regions in Italy from a retailer’s perspective.

For best results, view this map on your desktop computer.

How do Italian consumers prefer to shop online?

To find out more about the online shopping habits of Italians, Retail Week conducted an exclusive survey of 1,000 consumers.

Our research provides a comprehensive analysis of what the consumer really wants in this part of the world, highlighting the most interesting takeaways and the crucial information needed by any UK retailer hoping to crack this online market.

Our research will show you:

• How often Italians shop online, how much they spend and what they are spending that money on
• What devices they use and in particular how they shop on their mobiles, one of the fastest growing payment methods in Italy
• How to market to Italians, including insight into what personal details they are prepared to share with you
• What experience Italians are looking for from retailers online, including payment preferences, the website features they need to make that final decision and what makes them abandon their basket.

Mobile vs desktop

While it’s true that 30% of Italian shoppers never shop via mobile, 29% are doing so once a week or more, while 40% are shopping once a week or more on their desktops.

How much are they spending?

When it comes to mcommerce, smaller purchases win, with 43% spending under £50 a month. On desktop, consumers are willing to fork out a little more: 49% say they spend an average of between £51 and £150 online each month.

In a country where designer goods line the high streets, these cash values are still small. This perhaps indicates that Italians prefer a bargain when it comes to online shopping – only 1% spend more than £500 on mobile, rising to only 2% on desktop.

What are they buying?

The clear winners here are electrical goods, with 86% of men and 71% of women saying they most frequently head to their computers or mobiles to shop for these. Home goods are popular too, with 51% of men and 49% of women citing these as most frequently bought online.

Perhaps surprisingly, given the trend for online grocery shopping in the UK, in Italy only 23% of men and women recognise food as something they spend money on online. However, with the launch of Amazon Prime Now in 2016 delivering food around Milan, perhaps this is set to change in the coming years.

How do Italian consumers prefer to shop on mobile?

When it comes to shopping online, 63% of Italians are using some form of portable device to make purchases, but what are their preferences when it comes to operating systems and digital stores?

Apple or Android?

Understanding which operating system Italian consumers are using is important for retailers to be able to offer a seamless customer experience.

Our research reveals that 79% of mobile users are on Android and only 16% use Apple mobile devices, with the remaining 5% saying they use other types of mobile phones.

This suggests apps and mobile optimisation should be developed with Android in mind over Apple.

App or website?

We asked consumers how exactly they most like to shop using their mobiles and received an almost even split of preference, with 54% saying via a retailer’s mobile website and 45% prefering to use a retailer’s app. Interestingly, only 1% say they would use social media for shopping online.

What do Italian consumers expect from an etail offering?

Though you might have some go-to marketing tactics that work in the UK, understanding the Italian customer is vital to hitting the right note in this online market.

Customers are most likely to be motivated by low prices and discounts, so making these integral to your marketing campaign can pay off. For example, many Italian retailers and brands use flash Sale sites to promote their goods.

Quality is also important to Italian consumers and marketing that highlights this is likely to succeed.

Getting the right data

As most digital marketers know, having customer data can be very useful when building a promotional campaign. Italians are split about sharing this with retailers – 49% say they would prefer not to give out information about themselves, however 51% are happy to do so.

Email address, name and postal address are the top three pieces of personal information Italian consumers are prepared to offer up. On the other hand, they’re not keen to share their financial status, income details or occupational information.

What motivates Italian consumers’ purchases?

Knowing what your customer expects from you can be the difference between a transaction made and a transaction lost – both off and online. So when it comes to crafting a website for a certain market it’s crucial that it offers the best experience possible.

Italians overwhelmingly expect clarity when they land on an ecommerce site, with clear pricing information, clear delivery information, clear payment and currency information and a clear returns policy being some of the top items on their wish lists.

Lots of choice is also important and they are likely to appreciate seeing reviews from other customers.

What puts them off a purchase?

When Italian customers were asked about abandoning baskets, added fees and lack of payment options were top of the list of things that put them off purchasing.

A considerable 38% say they would abandon their basket if a retailer doesn’t offer their preferred method of payment, 30% say they would do the same if a retailer adds extra fees for delivery and 22% state that extra fees for using a particular form of payment would make them leave.

Only 5% say getting redirected to a security filter would dissuade them from continuing their purchase, suggesting security is one thing they don’t mind getting in the way of a seamless customer journey.

Payments are important

So if the number one reason for leaving their transaction before paying is lack of preferred payment method, how exactly do Italians like to pay?

The answer is PayPal, with a huge 61% saying they like to pay this way. This is perhaps a reflection of the fact that Italians often pay for their utilities using this method and therefore it is both trusted and familiar to many.

Credit cards are the next most popular payment method, but perhaps the most interesting response was the third most cited – cash on delivery, which is almost unheard of in the UK, showing how different these two markets really are.

Thank you to our contributors

Exporting ecommerce
How to thrive online in Italy

Written by Jade O'Donoghue 
Produced by Dan Harder/ The Creativity Club 
and Emily Kearns
In partnership with Exporting is Great