During the pandemic it was a real boom. And in the new normal, the growth of Digital Food & Grocery in Italy continues: the Food segment is up 4.2%, with peaks of 8.8% for grocery food, and penetration has reached 42.4% (up 8 points from pre-Covid) equal to 10.8 million online shoppers (up 2.4 million from pre-Covid). In particular, the performance of the top 30 producers, which together are worth more than 31% of the assortments, and private label (17%) were good. But there is also room for SMEs, so numerous in agribusiness: there are nearly 900 of them and they offer more than 5,800 brands. These are just some of the data from Netcomm's latest Digital FMCG Observatory in collaboration with NielsenIQ, presented at Netcomm Focus Food in Milan on Oct. 27.

On the international side, the European E-commerce Report 2022 by Eurocommerce and Ecommerce Europe, the European digital commerce association of which Netcomm is a co-founder, records that in 2021 digital commerce in Europe grew by 13 percent to €718 billion, and is expected to continue growing in 2022. Southern Europe counts for 16% of total sales, amounting to 118 billion euros. Increases that are owed to a steadily growing pool of e-shoppers: Internet surfers who shop online were 65% in 2017, then jumped to 74% in 2020-the year of lockdowns-and further increased to 75% this year: three out of four. The analysis of buying habits also reveals some surprises that may direct the search for new markets: for example, among those with the most frequent purchases (more than 6 times in the last three months) are, in addition to the usual Nordics, countries such as Malta (54%), Cyprus (48%) or Ireland (48%).

Digital commerce among the key themes of TUTTOFOOD 2023

For TUTTOFOOD, the event, of which it was a partner, was also an opportunity to present the work in progress toward the next edition-the leading agribusiness hub in Italy and among the top three in Europe, at fieramilano from May 8 to 11, 2023 – as a path that now goes well beyond the exhibition moment to accompany all year round operators toward generating business by enhancing innovation, as in the case of digital commerce.