Italy: average time spent when shopping for clothes online 2017, by gender

In 2017, Italian women dedicated on average approximately two hours to online shopping, when undertaking this activity. On the other hand, men seemed to be quicker, or less patient, committing for about 1.4 hours. Moreover, male consumers were more likely to follow their impulse and finalize purchases online in just a few minutes compared to female consumers.

E-commerce sector in Italy

Italy is one of the fastest growing e-commerce markets in Western Europe. The turnover of the sector reached a value of 41.2 billion euros in 2018, increasing almost threefold since 2010. However, not all product categories are regarded equally. When looking more into detail at the e-commerce market in Italy, the leisure sector, together with tourism accounted for approximately 70 percent of the total turnover.

Italians still prefer in-store shopping

Despite the growth of the e-commerce sector, when compared to other Western European countries, Italian consumers seemed to lag behind, at least when it comes to shopping online for fashion goods and sportswear. In fact, in 2017, only 13 percent of Italian consumers purchased this type of products online, which means Italians still prefer physical stores to online shopping. In general, they appeared to prefer being able see and touch the products as well as try them on before finalizing the purchase.