A massacre, sometimes silent, sometimes not. First the financial crisis, then the pandemic, and finally inflation, engulfed tens of thousands of small businesses. Frequent and voluntary activities of a lifetime, passed from generation to generation and now, ended up in the drawer of the memory of businessmen, workers, clerks. Between 2012 and 2022, a total of more than 99,000 retail businesses and 16,000 mobile businesses disappeared. These are the unforgiving data of Confcommercio, the largest Italian association of small businesses, which has updated the annals of Italian business demography. In the 120 medium-large cities of the boot, the reduction in commercial activity is more pronounced in the historic centers than in the rest of the municipality, with the South being characterized by a greater commercial liveliness than the Centre-North. And for those who haven’t dropped the blinds yet, there was certainly an amble skin, also dictated by the explosion and the systematic use of e-commerce by consumers.
According to Confcommercio, in fact, the commercial fabric of the historic centers has also changed with less and less stores selling traditional goods (books and toys -31.5%, furniture and hardware -30.5%, clothing -21.8% ) and more and more services and technology (pharmacies +12.6%, IT and telephony +10.8%), accommodation (+43.3%) and restaurants (+4%). «The modification and reduction of the levels of service offered by stores in fixed locations threatens the risk of commercial desertification in our cities where, in the last 10 years, the commercial density increased from 9 to 7.3 stores per thousand inhabitants, with a drop of almost 20%)”, explains the association led by Carlo Sangalli. In order to avoid the most serious effects of this phenomenon, there is no other way out for local retailers than to focus on efficiency and productivity also through greater innovation and a redefinition of the offer. And the omnichannel remains fundamental, that is, the use of the online channel as well, which has seen exponential growth in recent years, with sales rising from 16.6 billion in 2015 to 48.1 billion in 2022. This is an element that has contributed the most to commercial desertification, but it continues to be an opportunity for traditional physical commerce.
On the same day that the commercial map is being rewritten, the same association launches an alarm, which responds by the name of superbonus. Yes, because “the tax incentive decree launched by the government will have a strong impact on the sector and may cause a systemic liquidity crisis that jeopardizes the perspectives of companies and the level of employment”, said the president of Fipe-Confcommercio, Lino Enrico Stoppani, during a hearing before the House Finance Committee on the measure. “It would have been much better if the decree had been preceded by a control phase with the production chain, with the creation of a permanent and structured forum for discussions with the government for the management of credit emergencies”.
Source: IL Tempo
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
