ROMA (ITALPRESS) – More and more showcases turned off in the Italian cities: between 2012 and 2025, in Italy there have disappeared 156 thousand retail and outpatient stores, over a quarter of the total. Only businesses in the housing and catering sector grew (+19 thousand) and increased the number of business premises. The phenomenon of commercial desertification, therefore, accelerates (at an average annual rate of 3.1% in 2025 against 2.2% observed in previous analyses), with the risk that from here to 2035 we will have less enlightened cities, some districts-dormitory, elderly people with difficulty in shopping and also the hypothesis of a greater degradation of the cities. The municipalities of the North highlight the major losses of retail stores (among the first 10, Belluno, Vercelli, Trieste, Alessandria, Savona, Gorizia with losses of more than 33%), while in the South there is a greater hold: these are the main results that emerge from the analysis “City and business demography” realized by the Office of Confcommercio Studies and presented today during a briefing with the press from the director, Mariano Bella. The analysis covers 122 Italian cities (107 provincial capitals and 15 non-capitalist municipalities) and “photograph” the trend of 18 categories of economic activity, distinguishing between historical centers and the rest of the urban territory.
Change in consumption patterns continues to affect the commercial structure of cities. In 2025 online sales accounted for 11.3% of total consumption of online goods and 18.4% of services, helping to reduce the number of physical shops and changing the organization of the commercial offer. But above all, in the face of a variation of the total retail sales index, between 2015 and 2025, pairs to +14,4%, the small surfaces are completely firm (0.0%) while the online is almost tripled (+187%). In 2019 the online sales value was 31.4 billion, in 2025 it reached 62.3 billion. This process, together with socio-economic and demographic changes, tends to trigger a vicious circle: the reduction of the number of shops reduces the commercial attractiveness of urban areas and further feeds the contraction of the offer.
In the trade and public exercises continues the contribution of enterprises to foreign ownership (+134 thousand, against a decrease of 290 thousand for those Italians in the period 2012-2025), which also play an important function of economic and employment integration (+194 thousand employed). At the same time, however, the average size of Italian companies grows, which passes from 2,4 employees per enterprise in 2012 to 3 employees in 2025, while those led by foreign entrepreneurs generally remain smaller and widespread (from 1,9 employees to 1,7 employees), representing a form of ‘supplementary – albeit disordered – in the most fragile urban contexts. Compared to the corporate form, capital companies grow (9% to 17% in retail trade and from 14.2% to 30.6% in housing and catering) and decrease all other forms (individual companies, people’s companies, cooperatives, consortia), highlighting a process of progressive structure of the tertiary companies, with a greater entrepreneurial organization and a growing search for efficiency and productivity.
In the cities – both nationally and in the 122 municipalities subject to the analysis – it continues to change the composition of economic activities: tourism activities grow, in particular housing for short rentals; catering with and without administration expand; instead, traditional commercial activities (shopping shops and shopping).
In many cases the growth of tourist accommodation takes place at the expense of traditional hotel facilities, while part of the bars reclassifies in catering. The result is a transformation of the economic offer of urban centres, with effetyou are still uncertain about the balance between tourism, residents and proximity services.
On a territorial level, in the 122 municipalities covered by the analysis, in the South there is a development of less-ordered activities within a greater vitality: the most significant figure is, in particular, that of the B&Bs that are almost quadrupled in historical centers from 2012 to today.
By concentrating the analysis on the 18 categories covered by this study, the percentage changes in the number of enterprises active in the historical centers between 2012 and 2025 highlight a strong restructuring of the urban commercial fabric characterized by less proximity trade and more activities oriented to tourism and catering, with a progressive change of the economic and social function of urban spaces.
The most obvious is the widespread decline in traditional business activities, particularly in non-food goods, such as edicole (-51.9%), clothing and footwear (-36.9%), furniture and hardware (-35.9%), books and toys (-32.6%). Bars and street trade are also declining, a sign of a contraction of traditional trade in urban centres. On the other hand, there are some activities related to services and tourist demand: restaurants (+35%), aggregate rosticcerie, ice-creams, pastries (+14.4%) and above all other accommodation (+184.4%), category in which short rentals fall, which record the most marked increase.
Positive dynamics, but more moderate, also concern pharmacies and computers and telephones.
At the territorial level, the northern areas highlight the biggest losses of retail stores and outpatient activities, while in the Mezzogiorno there is a greater estate: of the 122 municipalities examined by the analysis, the first 10 municipalities with the greatest losses of enterprises turn out Agrigento (-37.5%), Ancona (- 35.9%), Belluno (-35.8%), Pesaro and Vercelli (-34.9%), Trieste (-34.1%), Alessandria (-33 Crotone (-1.8%), Olbia (-10.1%), Latina (-13.8%), Frascati (-13.9%), Cagliari (- 14.4%), Cinisello Balsamo (-14.5%), Iglesias (-15.3%), Imperia (-15.7%), Cuneo (-16.3%), Vibo Valentia (-16.5%).
“Commercial desertification has become an emergency that penalizes urban areas, with less services and less security – says Confcommercio’s president, Carlo Sangalli –. We must start our project Cities with the mayors on three priorities: disciplinary the commercial offer in the historical centers; immediate reuse of the local outlets and combine economic and urban development”.
– photo Ipa Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
