Online sales in Italy are taking off, slowly, says a report in Il Sole-24 Ore. Italia Online’s Cybermercato two-year-old on-line shopping mall saw its sales triple in the last year, says Marco Barbuti, Italia Online chief executive. By the end of this year, he said, Cybermercato should hit approximately $560m in revenue. The amount is still modest, Barbuti acknowledged, but added that the growth forecasts are quite reassuring, considering that they expect we’ll get to $955m in 2001. The average Italian cyber- consumer is a male credit card holder, probably between the ages of 25 and 45, who probably works in the service sector. Furthermore, says Marina Bonomi, Italia Online’s Cybermercato manager, 50% of the buy requests do not come from Italy’s large cities, making the on-line mall a means for consumers to get goods that might not be available locally.
