Campania, Marche and Puglia at the top in Italy for “digital density”, or the presence of small online businesses by Region based on a weighted average of two categories: eBay “Commercial Sellers” per 100.000 inhabitants and sales by these sellers. This is certified by a report drawn up by eBay's Public Policy Lab and based on research conducted by a team of economists from Sidley Austin LLP.
The study, which analyzed i eBay data for 2010-2014, therefore, reveals a small and silent revolution involving small online businesses that are taking hold in different regions and not just in the urban centers that traditionally stimulate growth.
The scenario of small online businesses in each Italian region, in fact, shows an unexpected dynamism, especially as regards regions such as Campania, which leads the ranking despite being the region with the lowest per capita GDP in Italy, followed by Marche and Puglia in second and third place. Lhe autonomous province of Bolzano, which has the highest GDP per capita in Italy, is only 18th in terms of digital density.
Technology is allowing entrepreneurs to build and expand their companies even outside the Italian borders: in this sense it is significant that the number of small online businesses on eBay selling in 15 or more countries has increased by 132% between 2010 and 2014, a higher percentage than in the UK, France and Germany.
Therefore, Italian entrepreneurs are seizing the opportunity afforded by the medium of cross-border trade, aiming at other markets in a difficult period for Italy. According to the World Bank Enterprise Survey, 92% of small online businesses in Italy sell to consumers in foreign countries, while only 74% of traditional companies export.
Circa 35% of small Italian online businesses on eBay export to at least four continents and, in 2014, small online businesses in Italy reached an average of 15 different foreign destinations. Online is providing businesses that seize the opportunity with a significant edge over traditional vendors.
Furthermore, the report shows that small Italian businesses are more effective in building and maintaining market share online. According to the World Bank Exporter Dynamics Database, new small online businesses on eBay are capable of capturing 18% of the export market in just one year, while – in the traditional market – newcomers constitute only 3% of European exports.
Finally, online small businesses in Europe are more resilient than offline ones to adverse trading conditions. Data from the World Bank indicate that only 16% of traditional companies on an average across six EU countries still export after three years of operation, while 70% of small online businesses on eBay exported continuously in the period 2011-2014.
eBay's technology, through the online marketplace, has made small businesses more competitive, which can now be located anywhere and export globally: “Small online businesses in Italy are growing everywhere – says Paul Todd, Senior Vice President eBay Marketplaces Europe –, exporting to more countries than ever before, are becoming more competitive against large companies and are proving more resilient against adverse economic conditions than smaller offline companies”.
A positive picture, certainly, but which does not lack some critical issues that should be addressed with the institutions to allow small Italian companies to further internationalize. According to eBay, there are basically three policies that should be implemented: the improvement of the postal delivery sector, considered too obsolete; the improvement of Internet broadband access, which in Italy remains much lower than in the large European countries; and finally, the protection ofintermediaries against the liability of third parties.
