Between 2012 and 2022, more than 99,000 retail businesses and 16,000 itinerant trade businesses closed; hotels, bars, and restaurants increased (+10,275); at the same time, the foreign presence in trade increased, both in terms of the number of companies (+44 thousand) and the number of employees (+107 thousand), while Italian activities and employees decreased (respectively -138 thousand and -148 thousand). These are some of the findings of the Confcommercio Research Office's "Business Demography in Italian Cities" study. When the analysis is limited to the 120 medium-large cities, the reduction of commercial activities and the expansion of the tourist offer are more pronounced in the historic centers than in the rest of the municipality, with the South characterized by greater commercial activity than the Center-North. According to Confcommercio, the modification and reduction of service levels offered by fixed stores threatens the commercial desertification of our cities, where commercial density has decreased from 9 to 7.3 shops per thousand inhabitants (a decrease of nearly 20%) in the last ten years. To avoid the most serious consequences of this phenomenon, local commerce must focus on efficiency and productivity, as well as greater innovation and supply redefinition. And omnichannel remains critical, referring to the use of the online channel, which has experienced exponential growth in recent years, with sales increasing from 16.6 billion in 2015 to 48.1 billion in 2022.