Until a few weeks ago, online sales were considered an "extra" for shops, a way to supplement and increase the revenues from the retail trade. In recent months though the Covid-19 emergency has made e-commerce the only means of survival to try to curb the collapse caused by the lockdown, but above all it has forcefully brought out the importance that the web can also have for small neighborhood shops.
The numbers, for many years already, demonstrate how betting on the web is a winning choice for everyone and there are many who decided to take advantage of it even before the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
In the last five years, according to data from Unioncamere, businesses that sell on the web have grown by 10 units against a drop of 45 thousand units in the entire retail trade sector. In this scenario, the entrepreneurs of the South are the most active. Indeed, in the South, perhaps to remedy the economic gap with the North, but also the lack of infrastructure, the "online shops" recorded a significant increase. Indeed, looking at the data, Lombardy, with 4.406 shops, remains the first Italian reality for the number of businesses that sell on the internet, but between 2015 and 2020 Campania and Basilicata were at the top of the ranking for growth rate compared to the rest of Italy (+25,4% against +14,5% annual average). "A sign of the change in consumer habits which, especially in the time of the coronavirus, allows entrepreneurs who trade on the "net" to be able to count on an extra gear", comments Unioncamere in a note.
The report compares the performance of the web sales segment with the entire commerce world over the past five years. The results are clear: between 2015 and 2020, internet retail businesses increased by 9.840 units, equal to ana average growth of 14,5% per year, bringing the total number of online "shops" to 23.386. In the same period, however, the retail trade sector as a whole lost 44.751 companies, equal to an average annual reduction of 1% over the five-year period (from 866.291 to 821.540 units).
From a regional point of view, Lombardy (+1.845 online businesses) excels, followed by Campania (+1.725) and Lazio (+1.150), while in relative terms those that in addition to Campania and Basilicata, they grew at a more sustained average annual rate, chased by Calabria (+22,6%) and Sicily (+16,8%).
For the legal form, joint-stock companies are the ones to record a surge, having more than doubled in 5 years. There was a considerable increase, albeit less marked, in sole proprietorships which, in the same period, totaled a growth of 61,4%.
