E-commerce, fast fashion runs faster than second-hand fashion in Europe. Boom in Italy for Amazon

We are in the midst of Black Friday, a great opportunity (being very careful about what and where you buy) to complete some good online shopping. And to e-commerce and the understanding of its dynamics on a global scale is dedicated the "Marketplace Map 2024" elaborated by Yocabè, a digital platform that helps brands sell on the Net reaching over 300 million customers. Well, among the many indicators that emerge from this study, one that stands out is that of Italy, the only Central European market to record a growth in Amazon sales, which instead is in decline almost everywhere in the Old Continent due to competition from local e-shops (totally absent in our country), i.e. realities such as El Corte Inglés in Spain, Otto and AboutYou in Germany, Leroy Merlin and Decathlon in France, Argos in the UK, Bol in the Netherlands and Blocket in Scandinavia.

Generally speaking, B2C e-commerce in Europe continues to grow, albeit unevenly, touching EUR 887 billion this year, but with an uneven increase across regions and with operators losing appeal such as eBay (down almost everywhere) and others such as Vinted that instead continue to run hand in hand with the growing focus on sustainability and circular economy models by many companies. Second-hand goods are, however, less attractive to e-shoppers than fast fashion, and this is confirmed by the results of Temu (which rightfully enters the top 5 of many countries) and Shein. Finally, in the background, one of the most relevant trends is related to artificial intelligence and augmented reality, technologies that are revolutionising the retail sector, significantly impacting supply chain management, the shopping experience (increasing the level of personalisation) and customer service activities.

That the North American e-commerce giant has a 'special' relationship with our country is nothing new, precisely because of the imprint that the marketplace conceived by Jeff Bezos was able to give to the development of e-commerce in Italy in the early 2000s. And this race forward has not stopped: Amazon is in fact growing by 6% compared to 2023, touching an online transacted value of 58.8 billion euros. Among the numbers that characterise its supremacy among the large virtual shops, we would like to highlight the most interesting: 47% of the site's users between 16 and 64 years of age have completed purchases every week, fashion commands the ranking of sales with more than 15 billion dollars and an increase of around 26% (followed by electronics with 10.7 billion and a growth of 11%) and 188 million average monthly visits in 2024, a leap forward of 18%. Behind Amazon, in terms of the number of visits, come names well known to online shoppers, namely eBay (with 39 million visits), Temu and Zalando. Looking beyond our borders, among the countries of northern and central Europe, the case of the United Kingdom is emblematic, where the drop in visits to marketplaces is generalised and massive. Amazon and eBay complain of drops in affection in the order of 50% and the other marketplaces in the top 5, namely Argos, Etsy and Temu, are also down.

The blame probably lies, as Vito Perrone, CEO and co-founder of Yocabè, explains, 'with Brexit, which has accentuated the difficulties in managing customs operations and led to an increase in shipping costs both from Europe to the UK and vice versa, reducing the number of products available on marketplaces and causing several international operators to give up working in this market'.

Having said Europe, and explained how the southern and eastern part of the continent registers double-digit growth rates reflecting the post-pandemic evolution of consumer behaviour, what is the behaviour of the other regions of the world? The answer can only start from the United States, the home par excellence of e-commerce: the stars and stripes market confirms itself as the third largest online market in the world, after China and India (the data are from Statista) and rewards in order, in terms of product categories, fashion, electronics and beverages (which exceed 90 billion dollars by virtue of a year-on-year increase of almost 30%). Very interesting, according to Yocabè's experts, is what is happening in Russia, where Ozon has overtaken Wildberries in the rankings and where, above all, the marketplace dedicated to fashion, Farfetch, has recorded a real boom in monthly visits.