How do people in Italy pay online?
Italy buys online less often than most of the EU, but spends a lot when it does. Eurostat puts the share of people who bought something online in the previous 12 months at 56.22% in 2025, against an EU average of 73.56%. The Osservatorio eCommerce B2c of Netcomm and the Politecnico di Milano expects online purchases of products to reach EUR 42.6 billion in 2026, up 6%, or 11.5% of retail spending. With services included, online purchases come to EUR 66.6 billion.
Cards carry most digital spending. The Politecnico’s Osservatorio Innovative Payments counted EUR 518 billion of digital payments in 2025, up 7%, of which EUR 406 billion were card payments. Digital payments made up 45% of consumer spending, ahead of cash at 38%, and 96% of consumers surveyed held at least one payment card. The European Central Bank’s 2024 consumer study found prepaid cards to be a relevant payment choice in Italy.
Payment apps and instalments are growing. Satispay, an Italian payment app, reported 6.5 million users and 450,000 affiliated merchants in June 2026. BANCOMAT Pay lets shoppers pay online from their bank account: the payment is debited from the account and authenticated on their smartphone, with no card details to type. The Politecnico measured EUR 9.9 billion of buy now, pay later transactions in 2025, up 45%, with use in e-commerce up 50%.
What rules shape online payments in Italy?
VAT is 22%, with reduced rates of 4%, 5% and 10% for listed goods and services. A seller established in another EU country whose cross-border sales to consumers across the EU pass EUR 10,000 a year charges Italian VAT on sales to Italian customers, and can declare it through the One Stop Shop instead of registering in Italy. Italy also levies a 3% digital services tax on in-scope digital revenue linked to Italy, for groups with worldwide revenue of EUR 750 million or more; the EUR 5.5 million Italian threshold was removed from 1 January 2025. Invoices between businesses established in Italy go through the national e-invoicing system, SDI.
Shoppers have 14 days to withdraw. As across the EU, a consumer who buys online can cancel within 14 days of delivery without giving a reason. Since 19 June 2026, under article 54-bis of the Consumer Code, which brings EU Directive 2023/2673 into Italian law, a web shop must offer a clearly labelled online withdrawal function, ask the consumer to confirm, and send a receipt showing the date and time.
Payments follow EU rules. Online card payments over EUR 30 generally need strong customer authentication with two separate factors, and traders cannot charge a fee for paying with a consumer debit or credit card issued in the EU.
How would Omno route payments in Italy?
A merchant would connect once and set routing rules per method, currency, amount and customer group. In Italy:
- Card pay-ins would be routed by rules on card type, issuing country and amount, and if a provider is unavailable or rejects the request, the payment would move to the next provider in the rule until one accepts.
- Satispay and BANCOMAT Pay would go to providers that support them, with the hosted checkout showing them next to cards and the order pending until the shopper approves in the app.
- Apple Pay and Google Pay could sit on the same hosted checkout, with saved cards handled through the card route.
Webhooks would report the final status of every payment, the record a back office should trust before shipping an order, and the routing-decision log would show which provider handled each payment and why.
What should merchants plan for?
Plan for cards first, including prepaid cards, and keep the authentication step short, because most online card payments over EUR 30 need it.
Plan for local apps. Satispay and BANCOMAT Pay let shoppers pay without typing card details, and buy now, pay later is growing fast in e-commerce.
Plan for the withdrawal button. Since 19 June 2026 every Italian checkout that sells under the 14-day withdrawal right needs a visible online withdrawal function and a timed receipt.
Plan for VAT. Check whether your EU sales pass the EUR 10,000 threshold, and whether the digital services tax applies to your group.