Edited 3 March, updated 7 March 2026
Food eCommerce today as a result of an evolution not entirely foreseen
At the eCommerce Food Conference Giuseppe Caprotti and Mario Gasbarrino reviewed the last 20 years of digital spending: from online to Ai
Perhaps things have not gone as expected but it is just a matter of speed. Today,food & grocery eCommerce is, in some of its expressions, profitable even though it represents a small percentage of the overall food retail turnover. The topic was discussed at theeCommerce Food Conference by Giuseppe Caprotti and Mario Gasbarrino, two historical figures of the Italian large-scale retail trade, in a round table moderated by Cristina Lazzati, director of Mark Up and Gdoweek.
Mario Gasbarrino, the doyen of retail in Italy and one of the leading figures in the management of large-scale distribution, brought some relevant reflections by retracing the history of eCommerce in Italy. Initially, physical retailers did not consider grocery and food eCommerce a threat to the physical shop, but, especially in the 1910s, it was quickly realised that it was impossible to ignore the phenomenon. For Gasbarrino, ‘online was like carbon monoxide, deadly in silence. That is why I was the first in Italy to sign an agreement with Amazon based on three considerations that always apply: the future cannot be fought because the future always wins. Second consideration is that you understand the future much better if you experience it from the inside and the third consideration is that if you don’t seize the opportunity… someone else will.For Gasbarrino, eCommerce exists in two variants like cholesterol: the good cholesterol and the bad cholesterol. The former starts at the point of sale and allows you to expand your customer base. the latter replaces the shop’s sales activity by lowering turnover.
Giuseppe Caprotti can be considered the founder of the eCommerce food & grocery concept in Italy until 2000 with Esselunga. Retracing the history one can understand some dynamics that are still valid today. The project was conceived as early as 1998 and became a reality in 2001. “Esselunga at home did not make a profit for quite some time before going into profit, but it has to be said that we are still talking about much lower figures than physical retail. Today, things are very different and the investments that large players have made over the years have led online to reach significant slices of turnover. There are players that are able to reach customers every day with billions of personalised offers. The right investments play a central role.
At Esselunga, the physical fresh food departments have never made a marked profit. But as core departments they have always received investment and have been continuously prepared for the future. The same approach is needed with eCommerce.”
For Mario Gasbarrino, the comparison of the Italian food & grocery eCommerce with that of some big countries like China cannot be made. However, eCommerce in Italy will become more and more important because the population is ageing and delivery service will be more and more in demand, as Cristina Lazzati observed. For Gasbarrino, each retailer will have to find its own model. In fact, it can be said that future retailers will have to be much better than those of the past because the market will become more difficult although with more opportunities.
After an important logistical evolution and the experimentation of diversified eCommerce models (from omni channel to quick commerce), we have arrived at Ai, in particular the agent-based model that is expected to disintermediate retailers from their customers.
Giuseppe Caprotti sees this frontier now reached: “49% of young people now consult ChatGpt for eCommerce and soon this trend will also reach Europe. Walmart has made an agreement with OpenAi because it wants to control the flow of information: lists, prices and more‘. The future of eCommerce has arrived.
There has also been a lot of talk about the Silver Economy and there should be a lot of talk about subscriptions. I hope to take up this topic again in Parma.
