The elephant in the room
Amazon is the unchallenged leader of generalist B2C marketplaces, counting over 30 million unique visitors as of September 2021. The Italian platform accounted for over two-thirds of desktop traffic of all e-commerce sites in Italy. The partnership between Italian small and medium enterprises and the e-commerce giant doesn’t come as a surprise. In 2020, the almost three thousand third-party suppliers based in the Lombardy region generated over 115 million euros in revenue abroad through Amazon.Beyond Amazon
In the B2C sector, marketplaces became popular in several verticals, although with some differences. In the consumer electronics segment, the physical distribution network seems the most relevant factor. Online shops of brick-and-mortar retailers like Mediaworld or UniEuro compete with big hardware and software groups, leaving limited space to pure marketplaces like the local ePrice. Among the non-food online platforms, Zalando is the most popular fashion marketplace, doubling Shein’s unique visitors.The world of food marketplaces sees established grocery retailers but also the lively presence of successful newcomers. In the wine niche, the marketplace Tannico generated about 40 million euros revenue in 2020, an over 80-percent increase on the previous year.
