Palermo, May 29, 2018 – Today Amazon announced it is expanding the selection of quality products available on its Made in Italy store, showcasing a new section dedicated to the best traditional products from the region of Sicily. Amazon’s customer can enjoy original and exclusive Sicilian items manufactured by artisans and local businesses on Amazon.it, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es and Amazon.co.uk.
Sicily is now the new eighth regional section in the Made in Italy store, that has been launched in 2015 and saw a 300% increase in year on year sales, mostly abroad. Made in Italy store showcases over 72,000 Italian products made by over 700 local artisans and small Italian companies. Workshops from Florence, Tuscany, Piedmont, Sardinia, Calabria, Campania and the provinces of Bergamo and Vicenza have already opened their international online showcase to the over 300 million worldwide active Amazon’s customer accounts.
Sara Caleffi, Marketplace Director of Amazon in Italy, said: “We’re excited to further expand our selection of the best Italian products with this new section on Amazon's Made in Italy store. Sicilian sellers can now offer their products to Amazon’s millions of customers across Europe and export their products to customers they could never reach before so easily. At the same time, Amazon’s customers will have the opportunity to discover and buy with a click a selection of high quality products from the finest craft workshops in Sicily.”
Amazon.it has launched this new regional section, with the endorsement of the Sicilian Region, to support local Sicilian small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) and help them creating their online offer to sell Sicilian products across Italy and abroad.
Mimmo Turano, Regional Councilor for Productive Activities, Sicilian Region, said: “E-commerce is an extraordinary opportunity, but also a compulsory path for a region like Sicily that boasts local excellences around the world in sectors like food and crafts increasingly envied. The landing of Sicilian products on Amazon’s Made in Italy store is the first important step of an ambitious project to relaunch Sicily brand and to promote the territory, a project that would combine tradition, innovation and development".
Amazon Made in Italy – Sicily
The Sicilian selection, which includes more than 2,000 typical products, features a variety of different specialties including wines and gourmet food as well as home goods and jewelry. All Sicilian products will be available on Amazon.it, with the vast majority of the new Sicilian selection also available on Amazon’s European stores, helping drive export growth.
Customers can find specific information on each product on amazon.it/madeinitaly, including images, description of the workshops where products are created and the techniques used to make them. They can find the typical Sicilian items as the Etna’s pistachio nut limoncello, the emblematic Modica’s chocolate and the almond paste sweets. Sicilian hand-decorated pottery and home-ornament from Caltagirone, as the Moorish Heads, are included in the wide selection of products available in the new Made in Italy store as well.
Sicilian artisans have responded positively to this new opening and are around 6% of all Made in Italy sellers. 25% of those Sicilian sellers are from Catania province, 18% from Palermo, 10% as from Trapani as from Siracusa, 8% from Messina and the remaining divided between the provinces of Caltanissetta, Ragusa, Agrigento and Enna.
Leonardo Grippi, who leads Cannoli.online.it, a company born to please the most demanding palates offering authentic Sicilian pastry online, said: “Our business started some years ago with a precise objective: to bring tastes from Sicily and Palermo city throughout Italy and Europe in just 24 hours. We closely cooperate with top pastry chefs from Scimone’s patisserie, who guarantee unique quality and freshness of the ingredients, thanks to their 50-years experience. Amazon’s Made in Italy store represents the perfect completion of our ambitious project, which allows us to offer a high-end, fresh product delivery appreciated by customers. We already aim at broadening our items’ choice on Amazon with some typical products as Sicilian wines, liquors and sours.”
Francesco Morici from Rarezze, which aims for quality and excellence in gourmet, said: “We Sicilians are proud of our roots and have a strong will to bring the tastes of our tradition beyond the borders of our beautiful isle. Amazon allows us to easily reach not only the rest of Italy, but also customers across Europe, giving us the chance to let more and more customers taste our almond paste made by an ancient artisan pastry workshop.”
Giovanni Previti of NelsonSicily has been offering a wide selection of local artisan food for many years: “We choose to start selling our products on Amazon as we truly believe in digitalization and in the chance to expand our food culture across Italy and Europe. We would like to see our products delivered to all parts of the world. High qualitative standards are really important for those who aim at growing and excelling: clients who will buy our products from the Amazon’s Made in Italy store will receive products in packaging made with a great attention to details.”
Companies interested in being included in the Sicily showcase of the Made in Italy store can register as Sellers on Amazon.it and send a submission email to artigiani@amazon.com.
Selling on Amazon
Over 10,000 Italian-based businesses are selling on Amazon including Made in Italy, and one third of them export their products in Europe and around the world, reaching €350 million in export sales in 2017 alone. According to the independent research by Keystone Strategy Research, independent Italian businesses employ more than 10,000 people in Italy to run their sales activities on Amazon (with over 900 jobs in Sicily and Sardinia). More than a third of all stock in Italian fulfillment centers is dedicated to third party businesses selling on Amazon.
Note to editors: Active customer accounts, which are unique e-mail addresses, represent accounts that have placed an order during the preceding twelve month period.
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