Rome/Luxembourg - May 30, 2022—Amazon has announced its pledge to support the 18,000+ Italian SMBs selling on Amazon to reach €1.2 billion annual export sales by 2025 - doubling the 2020 export value - in a move that will contribute to the objectives of the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) while offering a wider availability of Italian original products to customers all over the world.
The commitment was kicked off at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome - Farnesina, with the presence of Luigi di Maio, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlo Ferro, President of the Italian Trade Agency, and Mariangela Marseglia, VP Country Manager Amazon.it and Amazon.es. During the event a group of selected Italian SMBs shared their own experience and how selling on Amazon has opened new growth opportunities in Italy and abroad, accelerating their digital capabilities, sales and need to increase their workforce to sustain their businesses online.
To further strengthen the bond between public and private sectors for supporting the Italian entrepreneurial fabric, Amazon joins Be IT, the national branding campaign in support of Made in Italy, promoted by the Farnesina in collaboration with the ICE Agency.
As first milestone of the pledge, Amazon has announced the “Made in Italy Days”, from May 30 to June 2: the first international event of this kind, aimed at turning a spotlight on Made in Italy artisanal products helping international customers to discover original and high-quality offers, including a selection of deals.
With the “Made in Italy Days”, Amazon joins the celebrations of Italian Republic Day promoting Italian culture worldwide through an event that promotes more than 1 million original Made in Italy products globally.
"Today we are excited to publicly announce our further commitment to Italian small and medium-sized businesses. We are aware that, through our nationwide impact, we can contribute to achieve the NRRP’s goals, I thank all those who have embraced the initiative. This is an important signal: it is only thanks to the synergy and constant collaboration between public and private entities that we will be able to build together a future of opportunities for the entire Italian economy, for the benefit of the whole society," commented Mariangela Marseglia, VP and Country Manager Amazon.it and Amazon.es.
For Amazon, highlighting the value of the Made in Italy worldwide is a key asset for the internationalization of Italian artisans and SMBs. In just one year, the number of SMBs and artisans on Amazon's Made in Italy Showcase has almost doubled, from 3,500 to over 4,500, with more than 1 million products available worldwide. These figures confirm that we are on the right path. We will continue in this direction and the Made in Italy Days event represents a concrete action to reach our commitment.
Amazon customers in the United States, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Spain and Italy will be able to shop from a wide selection of offers across iconic Made in Italy categories, including food, design, furniture, and fashion. Customers will have the opportunity to live an all-round experience of Italianness through a selection of the most well-known Italian songs and authors from Amazon Music and Books/KDP, and all Amazon Italian movies and series from Prime Video, further highlighting how much Amazon cares about promoting local productions and creativity.
This kick-off represents a first moment of visibility of the Made in Italy Days event that Amazon will extend to the United States, with a special appointment at the Italian Embassy in Washington. As part of the activities for the celebration of the Italy Republic Day, next June 2nd, Amazon will bring to Washington a few small and medium-sized Italian companies that sell Made in Italy products - from food to fashion to design - to exhibit their most iconic products to an international audience and to tell their business stories and values, in a meaningful moment for the Country.
Amazon created the Made in Italy Showcase in 2015 and today Amazon’s customers may choose among 1 million+ products from artisans and small and medium-sized businesses and discover the local original selection of 14 regions which have a dedicated showcase on the website; besides, they may discover Made in Italy products in Amazon’s online stores in France, Spain, Germany, United Kingdom, United States, Japan and United Arab Emirates. These important results have been achieved thanks to the collaboration with ITA Agency, jointly committed to promoting Made in Italy products in support of Italian small and medium-sized businesses: since 2019, the agreement has engaged over 2,000 Italian SMBs and made 250,000+ new products available for Amazon’s customers.
To support SMBs is at the heart of everything Amazon does. In Italy there are more than 18,000 Italian small and medium-sized businesses selling on the Amazon website. In 2020, over 200 Italian businesses exceeded €1 million revenues on Amazon for the first time. In total, our Italian selling partners received over €600 million revenues abroad, and to support their digital growth contributed to the creation of 50,000+ jobs in Italy to date.
“As a multichannel approach is needed today, we are an ally for Italian and European SMBs and startups, and we want to take part in their digitization process: this is why we are always committed to supporting them to compete both in Italy and abroad”, said Xavier Flamand, VP, EU Seller Services at Amazon. “We will continue to invest in logistics, tools, services, programs, training and people in our team to help SMBs to sell successfully on Amazon and to express their full potential through the digital channels,” he adds.
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