Discusses the prevalence and reliability of express delivery firms within the country, time from large U.S. cities, and relevant customs procedures, including de minimis amounts.
Last Published: 8/15/2019

Italian consumers have grown accustomed to a fairly slow and at times unreliable domestic postal service. However, the rise of e-commerce is raising demands and expectations on speed and quality of service. While the range of delivery options available to online shoppers is expanding (including lockers and collection/return points across major cities), these are still in their infancy. As the e-commerce market develops, the options for alternative delivery points or timed slots will increase.

A number of express delivery options exist for U.S. SMEs wishing to ship goods to Italy. These include services offered by global logistics companies such as Fedex, UPS, DHL, TNT and others which usually guarantee a second business day delivery to Europe from the U.S. To date the B2C delivery has been dominated by national postal service Poste Italiane and local couriers SDA and Bartolini.

Most logistics companies will offer a range of options for international delivery at different price points to meet customer needs. These usually feature different levels of tracking and insurance. Logistics companies can also help with bulk deliveries to help cut costs and provide advice on packaging, address formats and labelling.

Italian consumers will search for the lowest possible price. Therefore, when domestic retailers offer speedy delivery, it may be worth exploring domestic fulfilment options in order to compete. Logistics companies either run their own fulfilment centers or can recommend reliable local fulfilment partners.
 

Prepared by our U.S. Embassies abroad. With its network of 108 offices across the United States and in more than 75 countries, the U.S. Commercial Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce utilizes its global presence and international marketing expertise to help U.S. companies sell their products and services worldwide. Locate the U.S. Commercial Service trade specialist in the U.S. nearest you by visiting http://export.gov/usoffices.