Italy has a diverse, industrial economy, the seventh largest in the world and fourth largest in the European Union. With a population of 58.1 million, and a GDP of $2.1 trillion, Italy represents a market comparable in size and wealth to that of the United Kingdom and France, while ranking larger in GDP than Brazil, India, and Mexico.

Italy is a major U.S. trading partner. According to U.S. Commercial Services, in 2007, U.S. exports to Italy totaled $14.1 billion, an increase of 12.8 percent over the previous year, and U.S. imports from Italy reached $35.0 billion. U.S. exports to Italy through November 2008 totaled $14.5 billion, an increase of 12.6 percent over the same period in 2007. The U.S. is Italy's 11th largest supplier.

Italy is a member of the European Union (EU), and as such, business conducted in Italy must follow the laws, directives, and policies of the EU. If you want a source of comprehensive information, visit Baker & McKenzie's website which provides information about EU directives related to e-commerce. Some of the topics covered include copyrights, data protection, electronic signatures, privacy protection, distance consumer contracts, and software protection. You can also sign up for its weekly Global E-Law Alert Newsletter.

A LOOK AT ECOMMERCE IN ITALY

Google is the most popular search engine utilized in Italy, mostly in its Italian version (www.google.it), but also in its .com version in English. Other popular search engines are www.yahoo.it, www.libero.it, and www.msn.it. Companies can contact each search engine to submit their sites for listing free of charge, but can also subscribe to special advertising services for a fee. Although not required, it is advisable for any company that wishes to rank high on a local search engines (e.g. google.it) to translate into Italian at least keywords and some text.

In the B2C marketplace, Ebay is king. Ebay has a large office in Italy and www.ebay.it is Italy's number one ecommerce site, with over 6.5 million visitors each month and 3,500 product categories offered. It is also being utilized by an increasing number of small and medium-sized Italian companies for their e-commerce activities. Other popular marketplaces, offering a large range of products, include www.dmail.it, www.comproedono.it, www.costameno.it.

In addition, there are a range of online marketplaces specialized by sector. In the travel and tourism sector, there are sites such as www.edreams.it, www.expedia.it, www.it.lastminute.com, www.octopustravel.it, www.opodo.it, www.venere.com, www.volagratis.it. In the information technology and consumer electronics area there are www.bow.it, www.chl.it, www.eprice.it, www.mallteam.it, www.mediamarket.com, www.monclick.it, www.mrprice.it. In addition to these mostly B2C marketplaces, there are many B2B marketplaces and virtual malls specialized by industrial sector.

Find out more
If your company is thinking of setting up a local subsidiary, establishing a new business in Italy, or buying an Italian-based company, then you should visit the Italian Trade Commission website for guidelines covering Italian business entities and the taxes they are expected to pay.

Contact us if you're in need of professional translation services or website localization services for Italian speakers.

Sources
www.export.gov
www.consorzionetcomm.it/