ROME, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Small- and medium-sized businesses, long seen as one of the biggest strengths for the Italian economy, are facing a growing threat from Internet rivals, according to new statistics on Italy's use of online services.
According to research from the B2C Observatory, a digital marketing group run by Milan's Polytechnic University and Netcomm, a digital industry group, Italians spent 27.4 billion euros (31.4 billion U.S. dollars) via online commerce so far this year, a dramatic 16-percent increase compared to the same period in 2017.
The name B2C is shorthand for "Business to Consumer," a reference to online commerce.
Italy has traditionally been a laggard in terms of electronic commerce among the most developed economies in the European Union (EU). According to EU statistics, the country's per-capita online penetration rate has consistently been near the bottom of the list of EU states, with electronic commerce growth rates usually trailing those for the EU as a whole.
But that may be starting to change. The 16-percent growth rate reported by the B2C Observatory represents the first time in at least five years that online commerce in Italy outpaced that of the EU as a whole, where it grew 12.6 percent over the same period.
The news, however, is not positive for all parts of the Italian economy.
"Examining electronic commerce is a complex issue," Francesco Saviozzi, director of the master's program strategy and entrepreneurship at Milan's SDA Bocconi School of Management, said in an interview.
"It provides more information for consumers and drives prices lower, helping consumers save money and it also helps spark innovation and entrepreneurship," Saviozzi went on. "But the online economy also represents a big challenge for traditional businesses."
Traditional business -- often referred to as small- and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs -- are a more central part of the economy in Italy than in most other countries. According to statistics from the European Commission, around 79 percent of Italian workers are employed by SMEs, the fifth highest among the 28 EU states and by far the largest among large economies. For the EU as a whole, the figure is 66 percent.
According to the EU, an SME is defined as a company with no more than 250 employees and revenue worth less than 50 million euros.
Eurostat, the European Commission's statistics entity, estimates that about 93 percent of businesses in Italy qualify as SMEs.
Germany, the United Kingdom, and France -- the three largest European economies, have the three lowest ratios of employment by SMEs, according to EU statistics.
But while Italian SMEs have a reputation of being slow to adapt to changes in the marketplace, Valentina Pontiggia, director of the B2C Observatory, said there are rewards for those that manage to change.
She said the online economy can help open up new, distant markets for those companies, and they can develop new business models based on acting as pickup points for products bought online. She said lower prices online can mean those companies can end up paying less for the products they sell.
"The government can take some steps to help the digital development of the Italian economy," Pontiggia told Xinhua. "The government could prioritize the spread of broadband Internet access, and focus on digital education in school. Business owners also have to decide they want to develop a different business model."
