Retailers in Italy have observed a significant increase in consumers shopping on the web and via their mobile phones. Despite lagging behind several Western European countries in terms of economic recovery, ecommerce and mobile commerce have improved by 20 percent and 210 percent, respectively, in 2011, recent research from Netcomm found.

"In a stagnant economic scenario, the ecommerce market in 2011 had a value in excess of 8 billion euros (US$10.5 billion)," explains Netcomm president Roberto Liscia. "The Italian ecommerce market is still atypical, with service sales surpassing product sales but the gap closed last year with 14 percent and 29 percent rises respectively in the sale of services and products."

The top four major retail sectors were: Clothing, computers and consumer electronics, publishing, music and audiovisual, as well as groceries and healthcare products. Italians are making the switch to mobile and online commerce due to the convenience factor – they like to be able to shop without having to leave the comfort of their own homes.

Merchants should be sure to use retail software that enables them take advantage of this growing online audience abroad.