Italy

Supermarkets remains a larger modern grocery format in Italy, and like hypermarkets, some consumers moved towards smaller formats of retailers during the pandemic as they prioritised price and convenience. Many local consumers found smaller outlets…

Demand for home care products continued to fall in 2022, following a return to pre-pandemic cleaning and sanitisation regimes, which were less rigorous than during the height of the COVID-19 outbreaks in 2020 and the first half of 2021. Overall,…

Consumers continued to make less use of their dishwashers in 2022, given that they spent an increasing amount of time outside the home. During the COVID-19 pandemic, extended periods of home seclusion, enforced by lockdown restrictions, meant that…

When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Italy in 2020, it brought about radical shifts in consumer behaviour and forced manufacturers to respond to these changes. In 2021, particularly in the second half of the year, as the success of Italy’s…

All areas of sportswear posted double-digit retail volume and current value sales growth in 2021, following double-digit declines in 2020 due to the exigencies of the COVID-19 pandemic. The category rebounded after contracting for the first time…

Menswear showed strong double-digit growth in value terms in 2022 and convincing positive growth in terms of value sales. The category had suffered deep declines during the pandemic as demand slumped throughout lockdowns and home seclusion, with…

Footwear’s double-digit growth in retail volume and current value terms in 2021 signalled a recovery from the sharp declines recorded in 2020 due to the pandemic. The slump in demand for footwear was mainly informed by lockdown and home seclusion…

Italy has seen growth in the use of reusable sanitary protection products, especially among younger generations, with these consumers keen to reduce the amount of waste going into landfills. More pragmatically, however, even older generations have…

Hypermarkets as a grocery retail format in Italy was already losing ground to competitors such as supermarkets and discounters prior to the pandemic, but in 2020, the channel recorded a notable decline in value sales as local consumers avoided…

Demand for laundry care products fell in 2022, as consumers returned to pre-pandemic washing and sanitation regimes, which were less rigorous than during the height of the COVID-19 crisis Overall, Italians felt less anxious about contacting the…

The impact of the public health emergency on childrenswear in the wake of the outbreak of COVID-19 was less severe at the height of the pandemic than it was on menswear and womenswear. As in other periods of economic downturns, demand for…

Retail in Italy in 2022 continued to perform positively with value sales increasing in both retail offline and retail e-commerce. At the same time, the industry recorded another decline in terms of outlet numbers and selling space, as players looked…

Following a dip in value sales in 2020 as a result of the pandemic and social distancing measures in Italy, which made it challenging for sales consultants to meet with clients in their homes, direct selling fully recovered in 2021 with further…

Consumer foodservice continued to reassert its importance as an industry in Italy at the end of the review period as the Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation eased further in the country. The long-established tradition and deep-rooted food culture and…

Jeans sales were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. In general, consumers limited their spend on apparel, focusing on intimate clothing and home wear. Fewer social occasions, compared with the pre-pandemic period, and remote working for most of the…

Double-digit retail volume and current value growth in 2021 saw hosiery partially recover from the steep decline in sales at the height of the pandemic, when restrictions kept consumers in their homes for long periods. As consumers started to resume…

The increasing frequency of high temperatures and periods of prolonged drought, followed by heavy showers, is believed to have encouraged the spread of insect infestations in Italy during the review period. In addition to the usual infestations in…

Italian consumers tend to place great emphasis on maintaining a pleasant aroma in their homes, a trend that continued to be the case during the pandemic, when people spent more time indoors under lockdown. However, with cleaning sessions becoming…

Vending sales continued to rebound in 2022 following the drastic declines of 2020, when the channel was significantly impacted by the pandemic and subsequent restrictions in Italy, including lockdowns, lack of footfall in busy areas due to remote…

Discounters was a particularly strong performer in Italy over the pandemic, recording higher current value sales growth than other grocery retailers in 2020, a trend that continued into 2021 and 2022. The success of discounters owed much to the…