The Maze: Italy is Europe’s marketplace stress test. Marketplace-classified retailers generated 71.4% of the country’s ecommerce GMV in 2025, leaving stores with only 28.6%. That is the widest platform tilt among the five large markets compared. The interesting part is not simply where Italians click “buy.” Social media is gaining influence earlier in the journey, while marketplaces dominate the transaction. Discovery is fragmenting. Conversion is concentrating. Brands can reach shoppers in more places, but they control fewer of the places where money changes hands.
Italy sits 4 to 13 points above its peers. Marketplace share reached 71.4%, compared with 67.8% in Spain, 66.6% in France, 62.5% in Germany and 58.8% in the UK. The spread is 3.6 percentage points versus Spain and 12.6 points versus the UK. Put differently, marketplaces carry roughly two and a half times as much Italian ecommerce GMV as store-classified retailers. The country ranking makes platform dependence a structural feature of the market, not a small channel preference.
The label measures platform type, not third-party seller share. The source assigns all revenue from a marketplace retailer to the marketplace side, including first-party inventory and third-party merchants. Amazon’s retail and merchant sales therefore sit together. ECDB’s measurement logic puts net sales and GMV on a comparable gross basis. The number must not be read as “71.4% sold by third-party sellers.” It says most online spending runs through businesses classified as marketplaces.
Social media increasingly starts the sale without finishing it. Only 19% of Italian adults have bought directly through a social platform, even as social media’s share of ecommerce traffic rose from 8% to 13% in less than two years. That creates a split journey: content inspires, comparison narrows the choice and marketplaces close the order. Reviews, communities and content shape demand before shoppers evaluate price and information elsewhere.
That split gives comparison and marketplace ranking more leverage. If shoppers discover a product on Instagram or Facebook but transact on Amazon, Temu, Shein or AliExpress, the brand’s social reach does not guarantee control of conversion. Search position, ratings, delivery promise and price become the final gatekeepers. A campaign can create demand that a marketplace captures—and a competitor can intercept—at the last step. Italy’s price sensitivity sharpens the effect because the winning product must survive comparison, not merely generate attention.
Owned commerce becomes the relationship layer, not the default volume engine. ECDB estimates Italy’s 2025 ecommerce market at about US$43.4 billion. The public data does not support an exact marketplace dollar figure, but the scale makes channel design a board-level issue. Marketplaces offer reach, trust and convenience. An owned store offers customer data, loyalty mechanics and a cheaper path to the next purchase. Each channel needs a different job.
Why it matters: Italy shows what happens when discovery becomes more distributed but transaction power becomes more concentrated. A marketplace-free strategy ignores where most GMV sits. A marketplace-only strategy rents the customer relationship and exposes every sale to comparison. The stronger model uses platforms to win the first order, then gives shoppers a reason to return directly through service, loyalty, exclusive assortment or better economics. Reach belongs on marketplaces. Memory must stay with the brand.
