Preserve local commerce in the global e-commerce era: The case of CiShoppo

Abstract

The digitalization of commercial transactions has a great influence on the global market. E-commerce became very important in the dynamics of producer-consumer and supply-chain interactions, leading to the transformation of consuming processes. Also, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the rules of consumption, especially encouraging online purchasing methods. Small suppliers have felt the impact of global ecommerce. They have consistently faced challenges from industry giants. The dominant presence of these large companies puts the survival of smaller suppliers in the market at risk, prompting them to adapt through digitization to remain competitive. The influence of this market’s digitization, combined with the global competition of big e-commerce companies, has unfortunately led to the permanent shutdown of many local enterprises. To avoid this problem, we propose the case of a web design solution CiShoppo, owned by ITSvil s.r.l.. The aim is to promote local commerce and mitigate the impact of these market dynamics on small suppliers, preserving the concepts of ‘local production’ and ‘km 0’, ultimately contributing to the valorisation and support of local production.