MILAN, Italy - Italian online fashion retailer Yoox sees Italian shoppers buying more clothes and accessories online than their counterparts in other countries, the company said on Wednesday.

Yoox said revenue grew 18.5 percent in Italy in the second quarter of 2013 despite a prolonged recession which has seen Italians outside main cities avoid the summer sales.

Chief Executive Federico Marchetti said Italian customers make more transactions via smartphones on Yoox's own sites and those it manages for other brands than shoppers in other countries.

"In Italy purchases made on mobiles contribute 15 percent more to total sales than they do internationally," Marchetti said on a conference call, adding that the average value of an order made through a smartphone in Italy is 7 percent higher than orders made through desktop computers.

Shoppers using smartphones make up around 27 percent of the traffic to websites Yoox manages for clients including luxury group Kering, as well as its own pages yoox.com, thecorner.com and shoescribe.com.

The company expects that figure to rise to roughly 50 percent in the next three years.

"Definitely Italy is the market where using smartphones to buy on the Internet - especially on yoox.com - is working pretty well and we expect a very bright future in that," Marchetti said.