How did some Italian companies respond to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic?
In early 2020 the COVID-19 epidemic has forced the Italian companies to face an unprecedented situation and they struggled (still struggling) to find a way to best adapt to its consequences. According to the annual research by the Casaleggio Associati , a well-known IT company, the previous year marked an impressive growth of the electronic commerce nationwide. However, there hasn’t been a corrisponding increase in sales. Later, we will find out why. Mainly, this data comes from two factors: a change in the way people purchase and the increasing number of Internet users. Not to mention the fact that many physical stores have close down.
Electronic commerce against the pandemic
As previously announced, 10.467 companies have started an electronic commerce in 2020, more than 50% last year. In addition, over 8,2% of those that already existed has now an online shop. The aforementioned research interestingly reported that 68% of e-commerce companies have observed an increase in sales while 20% has lost it and 12% has kept it stable. Unfortunately, it is a bittersweet figure since that 68% doesn’t carry weight on the overall turnover of the Italian e-commerce. In sum, Italy hasn’t recorded a real remarkable success of digital marketing, despite the latterly significant growth.
Which market sectors are involved in this fairly positive surge of the online sales? Which goals are the companies trying to meet as to make the best of the situation?
It is still interesting to notice the differences in sales of some market sectors analysed in the research since something has changed compared to the past. In fact, the Free Time sector won the first position with 48%, followed by the Online Shopping Mall sector with 21% and the Assurance sector with 5%. As expected, the Tourism sector recorded a loss of 58% while the Food one has extraordinarily improved (+63&).
Nevertheless, Italian companies are aware of how unpredictably the market can change and how the pandemic can still affect their business. That is why ,they are willing to implement a digital strategy capable of producing solid results such as expand the clientele, build customer loyalty, generate more awareness of the online sale and increase their competitiveness.
Source: Casaleggio Associati
