Italian small and medium enterprises have a new ally in digital export thanks to the partnership recently signed between Italian Trade Agency and Amazon. The two players have announced an agreement aimed at developing and promoting Italian entrepreneurship in Italy, in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, and the United States.
THE COMMITMENT OF ITALIAN TRADE AGENCY
“The new guidelines of the Italian Trade Agency – underlined by President Carlo Ferro – have as their priority both SMEs and services to accelerate the adoption of digital processes to support exports. This agreement is a first step to reduce the gap in access to online exports for Italian SMEs. We expect to involve at least 600 SMEs by offering them traffic, visibility and sales in five of the most important markets of Western e-commerce.”
A ‘SALES-MACHINE’
Amazon has often proven to be an accelerator for the growth of SMEs. More than half of all products sold on its sites worldwide come from millions of small and medium enterprises, including more than 12,000 Italian SMEs. These have reached a record of more than 500 million euros export sales in 2018, with a steady growth of more than 50% yoy. “Since we launched Amazon in Italy – said Mariangela Marseglia, Country Manager of Amazon in Italy and Spain – we have invested in Italian entrepreneurship by creating a series of support tools and services to help SMEs start their business online through the 18 Amazon websites, in 12 languages, to reach millions of potential new customers.”
THE AGREEMENT
The collaboration will help Italian SMEs to have visibility on thousands of new products available on the different Amazon’s websites (including Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es and Amazon.com). Sellers will receive support through offline (events, roadshows) and online (webinars) training events led by Amazon experts. Moreover, Amazon will provide access to online materials on how to best develop the e-commerce sales path and Italian Trade Agency will fund digital advertising campaigns on Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es and Amazon.com. Companies will have the opportunity to sell their products in the Amazon showcase launched in 2015 dedicated exclusively to Made in Italy, which today can count on more than 750 small and medium enterprises and more than 94,000 products available. About 75% of these companies are already exporting: over 45 per cent of their products are bought by Amazon customers in France, Germany, Spain, UK, and the United States.