Cross-border Shopping in Cross-Border and Online Areas: The Italian Case

Cross-border shopping is an increasingly widespread phenomenon, which involves crossing national borders to buy products/use services abroad. This practice has become a daily activity, especially for consumers who live in border areas. The study of cross-border shopping began in the mid-90s, focusing on the areas of North America, China-Hong Kong and Europe. In most cases, outshopping satisfies the needs of consumers, bringing mainly economic benefits, but this practise is also often accompanied by travel, gastronomy, and vacation activities. To facilitate understanding the aspects of cross-border shopping, an analysis of the most interesting cases found in the West was carried out. Among the studied cases, a few examples can be mentioned: the Mexico-USA case, which shows how Mexican cross-shoppers usually spend an average of three nights away when they go to the USA to shop and the Germany-Dutch Bank case, which highlights how market exchanges and customer loyalty depend on transnational, social and economic exchange mechanisms and the Croatia-Serbia case, which focuses on the influence of psychological factors on consumer purchasing behavior (helping behavior, ethnocentrism and perceived quality of products. Other cases of relevance analysed in the study are those of Germany and Switzerland and Poland and Ukraine. Following these studies, the empirical research conducted on the Italian case is presented. Two methods of cross-border shopping are specified: in physical mode in the cross-border areas of Northern Italy and on the border with San Marino, and in online mode, reserved for consumers who live in the areas of central and southern Italy. As a research methodology, the online questionnaire was used, customized according to the area of residence; it investigated economic and psychological aspects, through semi-structured questions. After an initial part aimed at collecting demographic data, it proceeded to analyse consumer behavior: cross-shoppers in physical mode usually cross the border to buy clothing, personal care products and food and the main destinations are San Marino, Italy and Switzerland; cross-shoppers in online mode mainly buy clothing, electronics and personal care products from Asian and European websites. With reference to the economic and psychological motivations analysed, it is evident that people who practice cross-border shopping have more confused ideas than those who practice it in online mode, at least on an economic level. On the psychological level, however, the results underline how the economic patriotism of Italians is superficial and limited to morality, which declines when the possibility of saving arises.