A single sentence – and a short one at that – should be enough to convince even the most sceptical to invest in e-commerce.
And that sentence is this:
In 2020 alone, online purchases are expected to grow by 26% compared with 2019.
These figures were published by the B2C Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano.
In absolute terms, e-commerce purchases in Italy amounted to €18.04 billion in 2019. In 2020 they will reach €22.7 billion. That's €4.7 BILLION more. Not bad at all.
Is it a bubble that will soon burst?
Not a chance. In our view, growth will continue unstoppably (for a while yet). Because despite the numbers and the growth so far, e-commerce purchases are still a small – albeit considerable – share of total purchases.
And now is precisely the time to invest, in a growing market. A market that has grown steadily and continuously, at rates consistently above 20% since 2016.
Still asking whether it is worth investing in e-commerce is a waste of time. Take it from us.
Today e-commerce means business and money. And not a little, given the figures quoted at the start of this article.
So the important questions about e-commerce are of a different kind:
- What organisational changes will I need to make when I start selling online?
- Which new markets and market segments do I want to reach?
- What are the main e-commerce solutions?
- How do you run an e-commerce site?
- Which professionals will I need to run it?
- Who can build it…
E-commerce is increasingly the engine of growth and innovation in retail. And many sectors are recording considerable growth in online purchases:
- Clothing
- Food & grocery
- Electronics
- Publishing
- Furniture & home living
- Tourism and transport
In short, e-commerce is growing strongly, and when such a radical change in buying habits begins, those who stay stuck in the past are lost, in the sense that they will very probably turn over less than they could.
Above all, it is buyers' habits that are changing.
People who are used to buying online will keep doing so. And the number of people starting to buy online is also growing substantially. In 2020, around 2 million more people started shopping online, helped by Covid-19, which forced people to use e-commerce platforms for their purchases.
Conclusions
The growth of e-commerce means change. This change will lead the retail world to invest in innovation. It will be essential. It's a rule of the market, and the market doesn't stop: the ones who stop are those who give up on innovating and investing in digital and technology. As Valentina Pontiggia, Director of the Netcomm – Politecnico di Milano B2C eCommerce Observatory, explains:
"Compared with the past, there is now a definitive awareness of the need to develop an e-commerce channel fully integrated with the physical experience. An epoch-making change, demanded by consumers, which will require – especially for more traditional retail models – profound revisions of processes and organisation, investment, the ability to listen to customers and a great deal of creativity."
We will come back to this topic, also from a marketing and digital transformation perspective.
Would you like advice on e-commerce? Contact us
Source (in Italian):
la Repubblica, 11 July 2020
