According to research by the Netcomm – School of Management B2C e-commerce Observatory at the Politecnico di Milano, presented last May during the conference “E-commerce in the main product sectors”, online product purchases will be worth approximately €42.6 billion in 2026, a 6% increase compared to 2025, whilst the total value (products + services) of B2C e-commerce purchases in Italy is set to reach €66.6 billion in 2026 (a 6% increase compared to 2025) . The Beauty & Pharma sector is recording above-average growth (with a growth rate of +8%), whilst IT and Consumer Electronics, Clothing, Publishing, Furniture & Home Living, and Food & Grocery are showing growth in line with that of the sector (with rates ranging from +5% to +6%).
The penetration rate of products is set to rise by almost half a percentage point compared to 2025: in 2026, online spending will account for 11.5% of total spending.
The IT and Consumer Electronics sector is expected to have the highest proportion of online sales in 2026, accounting for 45% of total spending in the sector. The Clothing sector, by contrast, is projected to account for 20%.
Clothing (garments, shoes and accessories) will grow by +5% compared to 2025, reaching a value of €6.6 billion, with an average receipt value of €115.
“Retail is currently going through a delicate phase, the result of pressures acting on multiple fronts. On the one hand, there are geopolitical tensions, rising costs and an economic landscape marked by falling consumption and the growing polarisation of purchases, increasingly skewed between the luxury segment and low-cost options. On the other, rapid transformations across the entire value chain and an evolution in consumption patterns that sees seemingly conflicting needs coexisting: there are those seeking efficiency, speed and time savings, and those who instead prioritise quality, relationships and a focus on the experience,” says Valentina Pontiggia, Director of the Netcomm B2C e-commerce Observatory – School of Management at the Politecnico di Milano.
“In this context, the meaning attributed to the product is also changing: in fashion, lifestyle and food, consumers are no longer satisfied with the product itself, but demand an experience surrounding it. Retail and e-commerce must therefore become enablers of this experience, investing in technological innovation and fundamentally rethinking the role of the physical shop and its integration with the online channel. The direction is towards an ecosystem-based retail model, built on multiple touchpoints — e-commerce, physical stores, social media, marketplaces — capable of responding flexibly to the growing subjectivity of consumer behaviour. All this requires broader collaboration between supply chain players and an increasingly agile value chain, ready to adapt to changes occurring at an unprecedented speed.
“Italian e-commerce is entering a new phase of maturity: it is no longer growing simply through an expansion of the product range, but through its ability to create value via the quality of the customer experience, integration and customer relationships,” comments Roberto Liscia, President of Netcomm. “The data presented today reveal a dynamic and resilient market: Italian e-commerce businesses, in the Netcomm survey conducted across four European countries, express a level of optimism above the European average, and almost 70% anticipate growth by 2026. However, consumers are also undergoing profound changes, with increasingly varied behaviours across the food, fashion, beauty, home furnishings and IT sectors. Today, people are looking for less complexity, more guidance, simplicity and trust. In this context, data, Artificial Intelligence and omnichannel integration are becoming key drivers for creating higher-value shopping experiences. The results of the Netcomm Award Consumers’ Choice 2026 also confirm this trend: consumers are increasingly rewarding service quality, trust, relationship-building and the ability to integrate physical, digital and AI elements into the customer experience.”
