As reported in the first edition of the Export Observatory, conducted by the Polytechnic of Milan, the overseas markets are increasingly important for the Italian economy, given the decline of the domestic demand. Made-in-Italy is a key factor for the success of exports towards the emerging countries, although the European countries are still the main sales markets. The Export Observatory has analyzed the Italian macroeconomic scenario showing that the so-called “propensity to export” – the ratio between the total value of exports and GDP – is on average more than 25% and exceeded 29% in 2014. More than 20% of the manufacturing companies operating in Italy, about 89,000, is an exporter. In recent years, the importance of the foreign markets has grown: the average turnover of the Italian companies abroad in 2015 grew by 18% compared to 2010, while in the domestic market there was a fall of about 10%. “This dichotomy is due both to economic factors such as the differing speed of the recovery in demand after the international financial crisis, and to structural factors due to the increasing weight of the emerging non-European markets, even in presence of some slowdowns – explains Lucia Tajoli, scientific responsible of the Export Observatory -. Of course, the exports play an increasingly central role in the Italian economy and for the development of the Italian companies. The Italian enterprises should take full advantage of the competition on the international level, by reviewing – if it is necessary – their export strategies and by exploiting the opportunities offered by the digital channels. Today, the search for the foreign markets, the optimal sectors and the appropriate export models plays a key role for the Italian economy”. According to the study, which examined the relationship between export and digital channels, currently the e-commerce is not used very much to support exports. The Italian exports passing through digital channels are worth about 6 billion euro and are still a marginal share of the total exports of consumer goods (about 4%).
