Selling in Italy from Abroad: What You Need to Start

Online purchases in Italy are expected to exceed €66.6 billion in 2026, including €42.6 billion in products, with 6% growth forecast over 2025 (Osservatorio eCommerce B2c of Netcomm, the Italian ecommerce consortium, and the Politecnico di Milano university), and about 35 million Italians buy online (Netcomm NetRetail 2026). For European brands looking to expand, Italy represents a massive opportunity. But it is also a market with its own rules, one that punishes those who improvise.

TL;DR: Selling in Italy from abroad requires a local warehouse, cash on delivery management if your customers ask for it (1.6% of Italians' online purchases, more in stores that offer it), Italian-language customer service, fast local carriers, and fiscal compliance (VAT, electronic invoicing). The most efficient path is handing your logistics to a 3PL partner in Italy.

This guide covers everything a European brand needs to know before entering the Italian market: why to do it, what the real barriers are, what you need operationally, how to structure your entry step by step, and what the costs depend on.

Why Italy: a large and growing online market

The 2026 figures from the Osservatorio eCommerce B2c and Netcomm:

B2C ecommerce value in 2026: over €66.6 billion across products and services, €42.6 billion of it in products (forecast)
Italians who buy online: about 35 million, 24.3 million of them regular shoppers (NetRetail 2026)
Growth: +6% over 2025, both overall and for products (forecast)
Online share: 11.5% of product purchases (forecast)
Sectors: beauty and pharma +8%; electronics, clothing, and food grow in line with the market (forecasts)

Besides Amazon.it, a brand can sell through its own website, vertical marketplaces, and social commerce channels.

Italian consumers still associate strong value with international brands, especially in beauty, wellness, fashion, and food. A French, German, Dutch, or Scandinavian brand that communicates its positioning well can make it count in Italy too.

But that advantage dissolves rapidly if the post-purchase experience falls short.

E-commerce logistics for Italian brands growing online

Warehouse in Campania, shipping across Italy

See how it works

Entry barriers: what makes Italy different

Cash on delivery: how much it really matters

Cash on delivery (COD) is often described as the big difference in Italy. The data say something more precise. According to Netcomm's NetRetail 2026 survey, 94% of Italians' online purchases are paid at the time of ordering, and cash paid on delivery accounts for 1.6%. In stores that offer COD, however, its share is higher. In an analysis published in 2023 by an Italian shipping platform, based on 2022 data from its client stores that offered it, almost one in five orders was paid on delivery, with wide differences between sectors and regions.

For a foreign brand, online payment remains the foundation, and COD is a choice to make based on your own audience. If you decide to offer it, managing it from abroad is virtually impossible without a local partner who collects cash from carriers, manages financial reconciliation, and, most importantly, handles delivery refusals. There is no published, measured figure for COD refusals in Italy, so the number that matters is the one in your own orders.

Italian addresses and postal codes

The Italian postal system has peculiarities that create problems for foreign shippers. Postal codes are not always logical (large municipalities with multiple codes, hamlets with codes different from their reference municipality), addresses contain local abbreviations, and smaller islands have significantly longer delivery times. An address validation system that works perfectly in Germany or the Netherlands generates errors in Italy.

Returns and consumer expectations

Italian consumers expect free returns (or at least easy ones), a customer service line reachable by phone in Italian, and fast delivery. A brand that offers only an online return form in English will rapidly lose market trust. Refund times are also set by law. Under Article 56 of the Italian Consumer Code (Codice del consumo), the refund is due within 14 days of the day the customer notifies you of the withdrawal, and you can wait until the product comes back or until the customer proves it has been sent.

Tax and administrative compliance

For VAT, what matters is where the goods ship from. If you ship from your own country to Italian consumers, you are making distance sales of goods, and once your distance sales to other EU countries exceed €10,000 a year, Italian VAT applies, and you can declare it from your own country through the optional One Stop Shop (OSS). If your goods instead sit in a warehouse in Italy and ship from there, the sale to an Italian customer is a domestic sale, which the OSS does not cover, and moving your goods from your country into the Italian warehouse also counts for VAT purposes in Italy. You therefore need an Italian VAT number, through direct identification or a fiscal representative (Presidential Decree 633/1972, Articles 17 and 35-ter, and Decree-Law 331/1993, Article 38; from January 1, 2027, the VAT Consolidation Act, Legislative Decree 10/2026, Articles 8, 64, and 70).

Electronic invoicing through the Sistema di Interscambio (SdI), Italy's exchange system for electronic invoices, is mandatory for transactions between parties resident or established in Italy (Legislative Decree 127/2015, Article 1), and whether it applies to you depends on how you are present in the country. This guide is not legal or tax advice, and before moving your stock it is worth having a tax advisor check your case.

What you need to sell in Italy: the 5 pillars

1. Local warehouse in Italy

Shipping from Germany, France, or the Netherlands to Italy is possible, but every order becomes an international shipment, with the delivery times and costs that come with it. From a warehouse in Italy, national carriers state delivery times of one or two days. GLS states 24/48 hours across Italy and Amazon Shipping 24-48 hours, 7 days a week, while Poste Italiane, Italy's postal service, states 1-2 business days with its Express service.

There is no single right place for the warehouse. It depends on where your customers are and on how the carriers you will use organize their networks, from hubs and branches to pickup times. Before choosing, look at where your orders go and ask each carrier for delivery times from the warehouse to your main areas.

You do not need to open your own warehouse. A 3PL partner based in Italy provides storage, picking, packing, and shipping at variable costs based on your actual volume.

2. COD management

Cash on delivery in Italy is not just a payment method, it is a complex system that requires:

Pre-shipment phone confirmation: an operator calls the customer to verify the order before shipping. Practitioners in Italy recommend it especially for high-value orders; no public source measures its effect, which you can see only in your own orders
Checks on risky orders: before shipping, the address, amount, and customer history are checked, and stores with many orders can use a risk score to choose which ones to confirm
Financial reconciliation: carriers collect the cash and transfer it to the 3PL, which in turn transfers it to the brand. Remittance times depend on the carrier and the contract, so ask about them when you request a quote
Refusal management: when the customer refuses the parcel at delivery, it returns to the warehouse with storage and re-shipping costs

Without a structured system, COD erodes margins. With the right system, it is a growth accelerator because it opens the market to segments that would otherwise not buy.

3. Local carriers with Italian contracts

For deliveries within Italy you work with the national carriers, each with its own network and services.

Amazon Shipping: stated delivery in 24-48 hours, 7 days a week, in the areas it serves; cash on delivery does not appear among the services listed in its FAQ
BRT (Bartolini): national network, strong in B2B and COD
GLS: states delivery in 24/48 hours across Italy
SDA/Poste Italiane: national network, including minor islands

A brand that ships every order from abroad with an express carrier pays the price of an international express service on every parcel. With a local warehouse, shipments become domestic, and you choose the Italian carrier best suited to each area and to cash on delivery.

4. Italian-language customer service

Italian consumers want to be able to call. An English-language contact form or a chatbot that does not speak Italian is enough to generate negative reviews and impulsive returns. Italian-language customer service, including by phone, serves to:

Confirm COD orders before shipping, to catch those at risk of refusal
Handle inquiries about shipping and delivery
Manage returns proactively (the customer calls before returning, this is an opportunity to save the sale)
Collect feedback that improves the service

It does not need to be large. How many people you need depends on volumes, on your share of COD orders, and on the hours you want to cover, and you can size the team based on the actual contact volume of the first few months. Your own team, a customer service provider or, for confirming COD orders, your logistics partner can handle it, and it is worth asking each one what it covers and at what hours.

5. Fiscal and legal compliance

Minimum requirements for selling in Italy:

Italian VAT number, through direct identification or a fiscal representative, if your goods ship from a warehouse in Italy. If you ship from your own country, once your distance sales in the EU exceed €10,000 a year, you charge Italian VAT and can declare it through the OSS
Electronic invoicing: through the SdI, mandatory between parties resident or established in Italy
Privacy and GDPR: privacy policy in Italian, compliant cookie banner
Right of withdrawal: 14 days (Consumer Code, Article 52), refund within 14 days of the withdrawal notice (Article 56) and, for contracts concluded from June 19, 2026, an online withdrawal function labeled "recedere dal contratto qui" (withdraw from the contract here) or equivalent wording (Article 54-bis). Explain it clearly in Italian
Labels and instructions: the minimum information on products sold to consumers, from the product name to the instructions, must be given at least in Italian (Consumer Code, Articles 6 and 9); cosmetics, food, and supplements follow the EU rules for their sector

How to enter the Italian market: step by step

Step 1: Market analysis and validation

Before investing in logistics, verify that your product has a market in Italy:

Keyword analysis: search volume for your product in Italian
Competitor analysis: who sells similar products in Italy, at what price, with what positioning
Marketplace analysis: is your product already on Amazon.it? At what price?
Ad testing: a small test budget in Meta or Google ads to validate demand

Step 2: Choose your logistics partner

The 3PL partner is the most important decision. Selection criteria:

Warehouse in a location that suits where your customers are and the networks of the carriers you will use
Integration with your ecommerce platform (Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop)
COD management with checks on risky orders before shipping, such as address verification and phone confirmation
Contracts with several national carriers, so you have alternatives for different areas, for COD, and for peak season
Phone confirmation of COD orders in Italian, and who handles your customers' questions
Data on the service (orders shipped, returns, COD collections), asking which ones you see and how often they update
Experience with international brands

Step 3: Operational setup

Once you have chosen your partner:

Technical integration: connecting your store to the 3PL's warehouse system, in the way you agree with it
Stock transfer: shipment of initial inventory to the Italian warehouse
Carrier configuration: activation of shipping contracts with selected carriers
Customer service setup: if the partner confirms orders by phone, agree on the script and the product information with it
Test orders: 10-20 end-to-end test orders to verify the complete flow

Step 4: Go-live and optimization (ongoing)

After launch:

Monitor logistics KPIs: first-attempt delivery rate, average delivery time, return rate, COD refusal rate
Optimize packaging based on carrier and customer feedback
Expand your assortment: start with best-sellers and progressively add SKUs
Test new channels: Amazon.it, TikTok Shop Italy, vertical marketplaces

Cost overview

The costs of a 3PL partner in Italy break down into a few items, and each depends on factors you can measure before asking for a quote:

Cost item	What it depends on
Initial setup (integration, onboarding)	number of channels to connect and customizations
Storage	space used and how long the goods are stored
Picking + packing	items per order, packaging type
National shipping	weight and volume, destination, carrier, extra services
COD management	share of COD orders and amounts collected
COD phone confirmation	number of orders to confirm
Returns management	number of returns and checks required
Customer service, if you hand it to the partner	contact volume, channels, and hours covered

Total logistics cost per order: to compare different offers, look at the all-in cost per shipped order, calculated on your volumes, your average weight, and your share of COD orders.

The rates of individual items are not enough to compare two quotes, so ask for a simulation based on a typical month of your orders. As volume grows, the cost per order usually decreases through economies of scale.

How Tissquad can help

Tissquad runs logistics for brands selling online in Italy from a warehouse in Campania, in the Naples area. We work with Shopify, WooCommerce, and PrestaShop stores and also handle the orders you receive on Amazon and TikTok Shop, with the connection to the warehouse that we set up together at onboarding.

In Italy we ship with GLS, BRT, Poste Italiane, and Amazon Shipping, and abroad with GLS, FedEx, DHL, and UPS. We ship cash on delivery orders with carriers such as GLS and Poste Italiane, check the address before shipping, confirm orders by phone in Italian on request, and normally pay out the collections every week.

We start with an onboarding call and ship as soon as your goods arrive. Request a call with our team, or see why brands choose Tissquad.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an Italian VAT number to sell online in Italy?

It depends on where your goods ship from. If you are an EU company shipping from your own country, you can declare Italian VAT through the One Stop Shop (OSS) without getting an Italian VAT number. If you keep stock in a warehouse in Italy and ship from there, sales to Italian customers are domestic sales, which the OSS does not cover, and you need an Italian VAT number, through direct identification or a fiscal representative. Consult a tax advisor specializing in cross-border sales.

How long does it take to start selling in Italy?

It depends on the integration with your store, on when your goods reach the warehouse, and on testing the full flow. With a 3PL partner already operating in Italy, you do not have to build a warehouse and carrier contracts from scratch. You agree on the start-up timeline with them before you begin, along with the arrival date of your initial stock.

Is COD really necessary, or can I skip it?

You can sell without it. According to NetRetail 2026, cash paid on delivery accounts for 1.6% of Italians' online purchases, but its share is higher in stores that offer it, almost one in five orders in 2022 data from an Italian shipping platform, with wide differences between sectors and regions. If your customers ask for it, activate it with phone confirmation and checks on risky orders, and track orders, refusals, and costs in your own numbers.

Can I ship directly from my warehouse abroad?

You can, but every order becomes an international shipment, with the delivery times and costs that come with it, and returns and COD get more complicated. From a warehouse in Italy, national carriers state delivery in one or two days. Once volumes become regular, a local warehouse is usually the simpler choice; for your first market tests, shipping from abroad can be enough.

Which product categories sell best in Italy for foreign brands?

There is no public data on foreign brands' sales in Italy by category. The closest reference is the 2026 forecast of the Osservatorio eCommerce B2c for online product purchases, with beauty and pharma at +8% and electronics, clothing, and food growing in line with the market. For your product, what matters is search demand in Italian, competitors' prices, and presence on Amazon.it, as in Step 1.