Recent figures from Istat (the Italian Institute of Statistics) show that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) still represent the central pillars Italian economic system. In fact, Italian SMEs constitute 95% of total productive units.
Given that SMEs play a pivotal role in Italy, it was essential to know better the actual degree of digitalization they experience in their daily business routine. On this topic, a new study from Groupon provided a picture of the current situation in Italy.
With regard to digital marketing, the percentage of companies involved has doubled compared to 2013: from 28% to 58% in 2017. Furthermore, the number of companies not using digital tools has remarkably diminished (from 44% to 24%) accompanied by the decrease of SMEs not having a marketing strategy (from 26 to 17%).
Italian companies have stressed their conviction of the web as crucial tool determining the success of their business: 81% of Italian SMEs consider the web essential and there was a 20% raise of SMEs adopting new digital means.
Although, Italy still needs to work on the SMEs attitude towards their website. The percentage of companies without a website has remained the same in the last 4 years: 63%. This fact might be connected to the idea – common to 50% of Italian companies – that the web greatly influences the consumers in the purchase process.
Among the Italian SMEs familiar with digital tools, 81% is willing to optimize their website for mobile phones and tables while 79% consider geo-localization essential. Social networks have also started to be considered as great tools for marketing, especially Facebook. Furthermore, the online active companies acknowledge the key role played by e-commerce websites and apps devoted to online shopping.
Certainly, digitalization has a number of positive effects for companies, such as the acquisition of new clients and a significant raise of the annual turnover Italian SMEs will not want to neglect.
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