E-commerce in the world
4.95 billion users access the Internet worldwide, more than 62 percent of the world’s total population. Most Internet users use mobile devices to connect, and for the first year, global mobile purchases surpassed desktop purchases. Mobile accounts for an average of 54.79% of global traffic, while 42.73% comes from desktops and 2.48% from tablets. Does this mean that if your website is not optimized for mobile browsing you need to run for cover?
How? Through restyling: your site is repurposed according to the new demands of your market, the needs of your users and new business goals. A website must satisfy the browsing experience but also the eye of the potential customer, capturing their attention through layouts that are as beautiful as they are functional.
Retail sales from e-commerce in the world
The year 2022 will see global e-commerce cross the $5 trillion revenue threshold with one in five euros spent on online retail. This growth will increase further as at least for the next three years global e-commerce sales will grow in double digits. Global shoppers have now surpassed 3.78 billion increasing in 2021 alone by about 10 percent with 344 million new online shoppers.
Penetration rate of major sectors
Which sectors have the largest increases in revenue globally?
- Electronics (12.5 percent)
- Fashion (17.5%)
- Beauty and Health (21%)
- Food (37.8%)
- Furniture (12.5%)
- Media (10.5%)
E-commerce in Italy
The more than 3.5 million new Italian customers who have come online in the last two years thanks to lockdowns affect the turnover, which has grown in a single year by 33 percent, reaching more than 64 billion euros in 2021. The main problem remains that there is still not enough investment in e-commerce in Italy.
The average spending per Italian e-shopper is now significant at 1,608 euros in the year [Ecommerce in Europe 2021, Postnord, 2022]. But it is abroad that is the important component: 67 percent of users have purchased online from foreign sites and virtually all have purchased through marketplaces: 95 percent on Amazon, 46 percent on eBay and 45 percent on Zalando. European states, including Italy, have begun to move to protect local companies (and the taxman) through boycott activities and fines.
At the moment in Italy we are feeling the problems of the change in sales methods, but taking advantage of this are companies across the Alps that also sell to Italian customers.
In Italy, online penetration among the population (2 years and older) in January 2022 reached 76.3% (+1.4% from the previous year) with 45 million unique monthly users and an increase of 300 thousand.
There are 38.9 million users accessing from smartphones (90% of the adult population). On the average day, 33.6 million people are connected and 77.9% do so from smartphones, for an average time of 2 hours and 16 minutes.
In 2022, Italians’ online purchases will increase by 14 percent compared to 2021 and reach 45.9 billion.
E-commerce trends in 2022
The integration of physical and online store
More and more stores are designing their physical spaces with an integrated online business model. Ikea has opened its first small-format store in London, where customers will only be able to physically purchase half of the approximately 4,000 products on display: the remaining items can be ordered online through multimedia kiosks.
The use of totems within its store is the solution to provide information about the products sold to visitors interactively, quickly directing them to purchase the desired item through easy reference.
Augmented reality
Augmented reality allows you to see the product in its ultimate environment or worn while you are choosing. Some examples:
- Ikea Place App allows us to virtually place a piece of furniture in our room
- Dulux Visualizer App creates photos and videos of one’s room with repainted wall colors
- Warby Parker to choose glasses and see how they look on.
Social Shopping Turns into Live Video Shopping
Social media outlets that did not yet have shopping features, such as Twitter, are incorporating them. Live video shopping is the phenomenon of selling products live online: it is an evolution of social shopping and infomercials with the big difference of direct relationship with viewers in real time.
The sustainability of e-commerce
The issue of sustainability has become central to various aspects of e-commerce not only because of customer demand, but also because of a general convenience that can be built. This is a hot topic among Italian companies. In fact, eight out of ten companies say they have ongoing activities with respect to sustainability goals. The main ones are related to reducing the material used by encouraging in-house recycling and using sustainable and recyclable packaging and product.
Stay up-to-date to grow your business
To be successful in this new world, businesses must be ready to continuously adapt: only then can they ensure that they are visible at all crucial moments of people’s searches. All this can translate into building an e-commerce site with a good user interface and optimized for mobile devices.
If you want to get the best results for your business, rely on web professionals to help your business be resilient and grow in the long run.
Alessandra FoxMarketing Specialist
@ Starsystem IT
Pubblicato il 8 July 2022
Starsystem IT srl Business Center “Ponte Regio”, Loc. Fratte, 49 – 38057 Pergine Valsugana, Trentino, Italy