The possible evolution of e-commerce
From an analysis conducted by Digital Fashion Advisory of over thirty Italian fashion companies, it emerged that only a couple have a directly managed, e-commerce penetration rate in double figures. The highest figure of the analyzed Brands, however, is still below 1.1%. Calculating the average, it turns out that only 2% achieves part of its turnover through online sales. An extremely low e-commerce performance if one considers that the international average is around 8.6% and many Brands even exceed 20%.
Digital Fashion Advisory forecasts that, for the companies taken into consideration, digitalization will rise to 5.4% by 2020 and the organizations with more growth opportunities will be those managed on cloud platforms, which allow them to take advantage of all the software updates in real time. In another survey by Altagamma Worldwide Market Monitor 2017, presented in Milan last October, the situation seems more positive and Bain&Company hypothesizes that, by the end of 2017, 9% of personal asset purchases in the luxury segment will be made online. This share, according to the forecast, should rise to 25% by 2025.
The Digital Luxury Experience report published by the Fondazione Altagamma with McKinsey&Company, shows that affordable luxury penetration currently stands at 12%, aspirational is at 10.6% and absolute is 5.1%. At a merchandise level, the e-commerce of beauty products counts 9.2%, followed by ready-to-wear with 8.7%, accessories with 8.2% and then watches and jewellery with 5.3%.
The McKinsey experts have identified three periods for e-commerce affirmation. The first, where the rate is below 5%, refers to the moment in which brands are assessing whether to sell on the web through partners or through their own virtual stores. They usually propose a non-too-advertised discount offer. In the second period, with a rate of 6%-7%, companies find themselves at a critical point, beyond which they usually extend their business, open a real digital store, invest in IT and renew their web sites to increase both online and offline visibility. These changes are usually followed by a boom in online sales, which, within five years, reach 18%-20% of total revenues. E-commerce is growing in Italy and showing signs of life but there is still much that can and must be done to digitalize Italian companies
