Online large-scale distribution – as Longo points out – is growing with a good trend: the increase in visits from January 2020 to March 2022 was in fact + 78%. However, the results could be better, especially if we consider the starting point of visits and the speed of growth of other sectors. For example: in March 2022 the estimated visits to the Carrefour store recorded 1 million visits in Italy and 12, million visits to France, in March 2022 the estimated total visits of the top ten stores of the Italian large-scale distribution (Bennet, Carrefour, Conad, Coop, CosiComodo, EasyCoop, Esselunga, Everli, Pam Panorama, Tigros) records 5.7 million visits against 182.7 million by Amazon; since January 2020 the beauty sector has grown by + 118%. Considering the extent of visits to Amazon and the profile of the Italian consumer online, it seems difficult to justify this limit with a backward socio-demographic scenario, not very used to online purchases.
Access channels
The access channels to the online stores are many: direct (users who have directly entered the URL of the site in the search bar), referrals (users who come from links external to the store), search organic (users who come from search engines ), search paid (users who arrive from sponsored ads on search engines), social (users who arrive from links on social networks), mail (users who arrive from links on newsletters), display (users who arrive from advertising banners external to the store).
Analyzing the channels of origin of the traffic of the main five large-scale retail stores, a limited advertising investment immediately emerges, with the average sum of paid search, social media and display at 16% (that of the beauty sector is 38% – or more than double) . Analyzing consumers’ browsing on the main five large-scale retail stores, a disinterest in classic promotional tools – such as mega banners on the home page – emerges in favor of browsing by categories and via search engines. Limited promotional budgets and uninnovative instore promotional tools seem to be the main causes of the slow and limited growth of online large-scale distribution in Italy.
The quick factor