Subscription and online shopping: the new frontiers of e-commerce
The epochal transition is from a transaction economy to a flow economy. The analysis by Casaleggio Associati is clear and paints a scenario in which e-commerce becomes a key factor in the country’s economic system. In fact, Italy is closing the gap in this regard compared to other countries and the complex many people have about buying online, a mixture of diffidence and little practicality with virtual shopping, is definitely disappearing.
Before long, we will be buying everything online, as is already the case in neighbouring Great Britain. In this sense, Coronavirus has given real impetus to e-commerce and toentrepreneurs who, for the most part, have immediately adapted to the new trend. And it is unlikely that this trend will give way to the status quo that existed prior to Covid.
Indeed, those who work in retail are already organizing for orders to be stored in what are now closed physical stores, converting them into warehouses with notable cost containment for traders.
But not only. This new dimension of online sales (only relatively new and only for some) has determined the exponential development of many who have been able to reorganize themselves. Even if the spread of the pandemic and the forced closures it imposed have led others to leave their business and not reopen in Phase 2.
Many bookstores and small shops have found themselves faced with the impossibility of reconciling the small space at their disposition with the measures of compulsory social distancing. And so the race for virtual commerce is on. However, those who try their hand will have to reckon with the initial costs, including those of warehousing, logistics and distribution, which may not result in an outstanding trend in the early days. Yet that will soon be amortized on revenues, if the commercial company manages to survive in the medium to long term.
These are new models seeking to take hold in new spaces where demand is high and the offer is struggling to keep up. A change is underway from an economy of transition to one of flows, in which purchases are regular and planned, perhaps through a subscription. Andit is strictly online.
