Amazon boosts Italian SMEs' exports, sales grow 25 per cent by 2024

The number of Italian SMEs reaching distant markets with Amazon is growing. In 2024 their number increased by 10% to over 21 thousand companies and altogether they sold over 150 million items. The turnover thus amounted to EUR 1.2 billion with a jump of 25% compared to last year. This is what emerges from the Report 2024 on the Economic Impact of Italian SMEs Selling on Amazon.

The main markets are Germany, France, Spain, the United States and Austria, while Lombardy, Campania, Tuscany, Lazio and Veneto are the regions with the highest export value and the highest number of local SMEs on the platform. Those that are successful have also increased employment by creating more than 60,000 jobs. SMEs that produce or sell products for the home, beauty, personal care, electronics and cooking are the product categories most sold abroad by Italian SMEs on Amazon.

"The impact report is a snapshot of our continuous support to the entrepreneurial fabric of the country and further confirmation of how digital represents a strategic ally to support business growth," comments Mariangela Marseglia, VP and Country Manager of Amazon in Italy and Spain. "In 2023, more than 21,000 businesses chose to use our online shop to gain greater visibility and increase their sales, in Italy and abroad. In just one year, more than 65% of them recorded more than EUR 1.2 billion in sales abroad, an achievement of which we are very proud, in line with the ambitious goal announced at the launch of the last edition of Made in Italy Days: to help Italian companies selling on our digital shop to reach EUR 4 billion in sales abroad by 2025'.

"Perle d'Arte was born in 2002 out of my passion for glass decoration. A hobby that I decided to turn into a full-time activity, opening a small workshop in Monastier di Treviso,' says Chiara Tumiotto, owner of the Veneto-based company. 'We sell both on behalf of third parties, to distributors, wholesalers and shops in the area, and online, reaching the end customer thanks to our e-commerce and some online stores we rely on, including Amazon, where, on the proposal of the ICE Agency, we will be present from 2019. Here, 90 per cent of our clientele is international, with the United States, Germany and Great Britain as our reference countries. Since we have been present on the online shop, we have doubled the number of sales'.

"Cuore Lavico is a small Sicilian company specialising in the production of Etnean lava stone items such as tables, pizza plates and barbecue plates,' says Francesco Cunsolo, partner and administrator of Cuore Lavico. 'Landing on Amazon in 2013 was a turning point, which opened us up to an international audience: today, 90% of our turnover comes from online sales. On Amazon, through the Made in Italy showcase, we successfully reach Germany, France, the UK, Spain, the Netherlands and Sweden, which alone account for 60% of our turnover. The other 40% comes from Italy. All our products are 100% made in Italy, the result of the work of craftsmen who every day strive to keep alive the tradition of ancient lava stone processing, which today, also thanks to digital technology, has become international.