Country Deep-Dive: Italy

Italy Market Overview

Over the past five years, Italy’s GDP has steadily grown and 2021 represented a turning point.

Italy generated a GDP of 1.65 billion euros with an increase of 6.5% between 2020 and 2021. In addition, in the last quater of 2021 Italian economy grown more than the average of the the Eurozone (6.5% vs 4.6%). Such strong annual growth recorded by Italy, with a population of 59.3 million people, was not seen since 1975.

More information can be found in our analysis:

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With an increase of 18.2% of "Made in Italy" products exportation, in 2021 Italian export followed an important growth path. The export balance saw a +20.0% to European Union markets and +16.3% to extra-EU markets. The European Union remains the biggest trading partner for Italy representing 56% of total exports and 60% of total imports. In general, Germany (13%), France (10.2%) and the USA (9.6%) are the main Italian business partners, followed by Switzerland (5.3%), Spain (4.9%), UK (4.5%), Belgium (3.5%), Poland (3.1%) and China (3%).

E-Commerce Trends in Italy

Italy has a young but fast-growing e-commerce market with a strong potential. In particular between 2017 and 2020 there was an increase of B2C market value of almost 40% and a record growth by 21% between 2020 and 2021. Total B2C market revenues accounted in 2021 for 39.4 billion euros and forecasts for 2025 show a market potential growth equal to 100 billion euros.

Despite the pandemic seemed to give a strong boost to the e-commerce market, due to changes in consumer behavior, mindset and preferences towards online shopping, according to market studies the growth would have been even faster: in detail the value of the B2C e-commerce purchases would have potentially reached 42.9 billion euros in 2021.

The B2C sectors that grew the most between 2020 and 2021 are in detail: Cosmetics (+44%), Food & Beverage (+35%), Fashion (+21.5%) and Home Living (+21.5%).

Considering the overall B2C Italian market, Electronics & Media occupies a large share accounting for 29% of the total market, followed by Fashion with 13%, Food & Beverage with 9%, Home & Living with 8% and Beauty & Cosmetics with 5%.

Regarding the consumers, according to market’s data, they are becoming very demanding with high expectations in terms of efficiency: the quality and speed of the services are key factors in attracting, winning over and retaining customer’s loyalty. As a result logistics providers must be increasingly punctual, flexible and sustainable keeping up with market’s needs. In fact consumers increasingly require faster and faster delivery times, such as same-day delivery, and low environmental impact options.

More information can be found in our analysis.

3 logistics sites

+ 1 customer service site

2+ M

shipments annually

> 55,000 sqm

warehouse space

Arvato in Italy

We have been present in Italy since 2004. Our northern logistics facilities are located within Milan-Bergamo-Brescia area, meanwhile our center-Italy hub is sited in Anagni (FR). Thanks to our strategic position, with a combined solution, we are able to reach more than 85% of the population within 24 hours and the remaining part within 48 hours.

We are growing and we are not limited by our existing footprint of facilities. Our plan for the future is to increase our dimensions and guarantee strategic positioning to support the growth of our partners. Our fully integrated IT systems (WMS, TMS, OMS), global IT backbone and internal workforce allow for ease of expansion, seamless integration, easily scalable and flexible operations.

We are experts in e-commerce, retail and omnichannel solutions. B2C and B2B fulfillment, transport management, multi-language customer service (8+ languages), financial and digital solutions are just some of the services we provide in Italy. In addition, we also provide a vast range of value added services (VAS) such as security tagging, shrink wrapping, gift wrapping, bundling, kitting, handling of returns and more.

Our Solution for Your Growth

Multi-national team of experts
Access to all transportation systems
Experts in beauty, fashion and lifestyle, consumer electronics and healthcare
Embedded in a strong global network
1 global IT backbone & fully integrated IT systems
Flexible and scalable solutions