No, e-commerce isn’t scary: the alliance between Amazon and SMEs explained in numbers

According to a recent study by Netcomm, developed in collaboration with The European House – Ambrosetti, the value of the e-commerce network in Italy is worth 71 billion euros and is the main driver of economic growth. In fact, the digital channel offers companies the opportunity to access international markets more easily because technology allows them to cope with supply difficulties. Furthermore, it is thanks to digital technology that companies are able to make more accurate forecasts of demand and optimize the management of products along the supply chain. Yet, Italy is still placed in eighteenth place among the 27 states of the European Union in the index of digitization of the economy and society. And this is because the level of skills in the sector are very low (58 percent of Italians between the ages of 16 and 74 do not have any basic digital skills).

In this cultural delay, a certain idea of ​​e-commerce resists as the cause of the closure of many shops or their failure to reopen after the pandemic. An idea not only denied by the numbers but which does not take into account how consumption models have evolved in recent years, as he explains to Il Foglio Mariangela Marseille, country manager of Amazon.it and Amazon.es. “This vision of the contrast between online and offline is simply not consistent with the way in which 9 out of 10 people in Italy make their purchases, i.e. in a hybrid way, both in physical stores and on the internet”, says the manager, citing data from the Multichannel Observatory of the Milan Polytechnic, according to which in 2022 there will be 46.3 million multichannel consumers, equal to 89 percent of the population. “What is interesting to observe is that it is the consumers themselves who ask the shops to adapt their services to the e-commerce model”. What services are these? A survey by Netcomm explains it: the ability to order products remotely and receive them at home quickly (46 percent); the possibility of picking up the products chosen and purchased remotely in the shop (41 percent); the possibility of paying only by card and smartphone (33 percent). “E-commerce and the physical store are, therefore, anything but two alternative channels – observes Marseglia – rather they are complementary, and a multi-channel strategy is desirable for companies, including shops, to diversify outlet and supply and be able to better face the moments of uncertainty that characterize the economic scenario”.

Pandemic, Russian-Ukrainian war and energy shock are the three factors that have changed the world from 2020 to today, affecting global value chains, the way of working, business models and consumption models. One of the effects in Italy has been the acceleration in digital. According to the latest data from the e-commerce Observatory of the Management School of the Milan Polytechnic and Netcomm, in 2022 online purchases increased by 20 percent compared to 2021. And, in any case, e-commerce represented only 11 percent of the retail sales segment in Italy in 2022. “Do you know what this means? That people continue to buy in physical stores and will continue to do so”, observes Marseglia”. Indeed, according to another research by the consulting firm Oliver Wyman, the retail trade has continued to create jobs in Europe over the last 10 years. Jobs in the sector increased by 1.3 million, of which approximately 300,000 in e-commerce and 1 million in physical commerce. And this study also shows that businesses that have adopted a multi-channel approach (physical and online) demonstrate a greater resilience and growth rate than those that limit themselves to physical commerce.

“In this context, Amazon can represent an opportunity for all small shops and small and medium-sized enterprises to approach online sales and potentially reach millions of customers all over the world. In fact, globally, more than half of the products on our portals come from independent sellers”. In moments of crisis, therefore, e-commerce can be an ally for companies that adopt a strategy of diversifying markets and sales channels. This is demonstrated by the fact that in 2021, the over 20,000 Italian SMEs present on Amazon.it recorded sales abroad of around 800 million eurosof which more than 60 million were registered outside the European Union.