Copacker private label seminar: online purchases and opening to international markets

The Marca Training Workshop held on 15 September discussed the potential development of the Italian Private Label sector against a backdrop of major changes in behaviour and strategies of both end consumers and retail chains. In particular, it focused on the potential impact of the following:

• the development of online purchases, whether managed directly by the retailers or outsourced to third-party portals;

• the increasing openness to international markets and players in the private label sector.

Platforms such as Amazon and Alibaba offer concrete opportunities for developing on-line purchases, especially for international markets, although they require not just an adequate production capacity but also a significant level of internal efficiency in the management of all complementary processes (certification, packaging, communication, logistic systems for linking up with partner digital platforms, and optimising the potential of one-to-one communication).

As for internationalisation, we have noted that a number of retailers operating in Italy have pursued policies aimed at promoting private label offerings in the high-quality, high-value Italian food categories. These actions are already in progress and may bring significant results in terms of turnover in coming years.