Milan, 7th May 2019 –ITA (Italian Trade Agency) and Amazon today announced a partnership to help Italian small and medium enterprises grow their businesses and promote Italian culture and entrepreneurship throughout Italy, France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. The agreement includes a development plan for onboarding new businesses and products into Amazon’s Made in Italy store, offering trainings and support to help these companies grow their businesses, and marketing activities to promote their products and increase their sales abroad.

“The new guidelines of the ITA - underlined Carlo Ferro, President of the ITA – put both SMEs and services among the priorities to develop the adoption of digital processes to support export sales. This agreement is a first step in the direction of reducing the access gap to online exports for Italian SMEs. It is a project that we have balanced on small and medium-size enterprises with a specific focus on companies that have not exported yet. We hope to engage at least 600 SMEs by offering them traffic, visibility and sales in 5 of the most important Western e-commerce geographies. Other initiatives will follow to offer a ‘menu’ of customized solutions to companies to boost online sales on all major geographies”.

Since opening its stores to third-party sellers in 2000, Amazon has become a growth engine for small businesses around the world. More than half of the items sold in Amazon’s stores worldwide are from millions of small and medium enterprises, including more than 12,000 Italian-based SMEs that achieved export sales of over €500 million in 2018 – growth of more than 50% year-on-year. Over 70% of the Italian businesses on Amazon export, and their success has helped them create more than 10,000 additional jobs in Italy.

“Since the day we launched in Italy, we have invested in Italian entrepreneurship. We’ve built a suite of tools and services to help Italian SMEs run their digital business and to easily sell around the world on Amazon's 18 websites, in 12 languages, reaching millions of potential new customers,” said Mariangela Marseglia, Italy and Spain Country Manager. “E-commerce is a big opportunity for small and medium-sized producers in Italy. And thanks to this agreement with ITA and Amazon’s continued investment in tools and infrastructure for SMEs, those SMEs will be able to sell to millions of customers around the world as easily as selling in their home towns.”

ITA – Amazon memorandum

This agreement between ITA and Amazon is based on three pillars: onboarding of new businesses and products in Amazon’s Made in Italy store, training and support for Italian SMEs, and development of marketing activities to promote online sales.
ITA and Amazon will help hundreds of new companies, mainly small and medium-sized enterprises with registered offices in Italy and unique Italian products, onboard to Amazon’s Made in Italy store. This will help those companies gain visibility for their thousands of products across multiple global Amazon sites, including Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es and Amazon.com sites.

These sellers will receive support through training events run by Amazon experts both offline (events, roadshows) and online (webinars), as well as access to online material on how to best grow their online businesses.

In addition, ITA will fund digital advertising campaigns to support Italian businesses on the Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es and Amazon.com sites.

Interested companies should complete the form available at http://bit.do/icemodulo, or consult the 2019 calendar of the ITA’s Italian Roadshow, which is available at https://www.roadshow.ice.it.

Amazon Made in Italy showcase

Artisan businesses, small and medium-sized enterprises, and other Italy-based companies who produce excellent Italian products have the opportunity to sell in an exclusive Made in Italy store available on Amazon.it, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es and Amazon.com. There are currently over 750 small and medium-sized businesses and more than 94,000 products available, and 75% of these companies sell abroad. Over 45% of their products are bought by Amazon customers in France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Beginning on Monday, May 13, a new shopping experience will be available to Amazon’s customers on Made in Italy. In addition to a renewed landing page, sellers will benefit from improved sections for “Kitchen and canteen” (Food), “Home and furniture” (Design), “Clothes and accessories” (Fashion), “Beauty and wellness” (Beauty), and for the regions of Sicily, Piedmont, Calabria, Campania, Sardinia, Tuscany, Bergamo, and Vicenza and its surroundings.

The Amazon Made in Italy showcase is available at the link https://www.amazon.it/madeinitaly