Share of mobile e-commerce turnover on total e-commerce in Italy 2014-2019

Mobile e-commerce has grown in popularity in recent years in Italy. Data provided by Casaleggio Associati show that the share of turnover generated by mobile e-commerce increased steadily since 2014, and accounted for 43.5 percent of the total e-commerce turnover in Italy in 2019. In that year, the turnover of the e-commerce sector in the country amounted to 48.5 billion euros.

Mobile e-commerce in Italy

Mobile e-commerce has become more and more popular. The compound annual growth (CAGR) of online purchases via smartphone was 58 percent within the period 2015 to 2019. By comparison, the CAGR for desktop devices was only seven percent. Surveys also showed that one in two users preferred mobile shopping over desktop purchases because perceived as faster and easier.

Desktop still the preferred device

Despite this dramatic growth in purchases via smartphone, desktop devices appear to still remain the most common medium for online shopping. In fact, online purchases via desktop accounted for 56 percent of the total online purchases in 2019 in Italy. When looking more into detail, it can be observed that some product categories are more popular than others when shopping online on a mobile device. For instance, the penetration rate of mobile e-commerce reached 45 percent for products like clothing and apparel, according to a survey conducted in 2018. On the other hand, the category where the penetration rate was the lowest was insurance, a sector that registered a mobile penetration rate of nine percent.