The Olympic Games 2024 has resulted in a 21% increase in retail spending in Paris, according to new data from Visa. The upcoming RetailX France 360° report highlights that while physical stores still dominate the French market, the intersections between real world and ecommerce are growing.
According to Statista, ecommerce accounted for 12.5% of all retail sales in France in 2022. Yet these kinds of percentage breakdowns only ever tell part of the story. Sales on the high street, in out-of-town supermarkets, in shopping malls and in corner stores don’t take place in a separate retail universe but are part of a multichannel ecosystem.
That’s as true in France as elsewhere, so that it’s difficult to tell how to classify some sales. A click-and-collect purchase, for example, may never happen if a retailer doesn’t have a specific neighbourhood store.
Nevertheless, it’s intriguing to notice just how keen French consumers are on going to stores, to the extent that 16% of respondents in ConsumerX research say they expect to decrease the number of online purchases versus purchases out in the real world (against 12% who expect to increase the percentage of online purchases). In the UK, this trend is reversed, with 8% saying they expect to decrease physical purchases versus online, against 19% expecting their online purchases to increase.
As to where French consumers choose to shop instore, they are especially keen on buying food in person, with 64% of respondents saying they regularly buy groceries from shops. The equivalent figure from all the countries ConsumerX has surveyed globally is 44%. Also, for all that cosmetics and beauty subscriptions are popular with French consumers, 34% of respondents say they buy these mostly in person, compared to a global figure of 26%.
Reflecting digitally driven shifts in the retail sector, French retailers are increasingly offering omnichannel services. For example, of Top100 retailers that have stores in France, 48% enable their consumers to return their web purchases to stores. To offer this kind of service sounds straightforward, yet it’s often logistically difficult. 27% offer collection. It’s worth noting that Top100 retailers in the UK broadly perform more strongly here, although French retailers outperform their counterparts in Germany, where, for example, 35% offer instore return of web purchases.
The final graphic shows what’s happening today in terms of consumer behaviour. 20% of French consumers surveyed by ConsumerX say they ordered instore for delivery between five and 20 times over the previous year. In contrast, 26% say they ordered online for collection from store between five and 20 times over the previous year. As ever with this kind of question, there are some intriguing outliers. 4% of respondents ordered online for instore collection more than 20 times over the year, while 5% ordered instore for delivery more than 20 times over the previous year.
The RetailX France 360° report, which is available to pre-register for now, was discussed as part of Ecommerce World Review.
The webinar is available to view on demand, see the panel discuss market trends, consumer preferences, and emerging innovations shaping the industry. Gain insights into navigating regulatory frameworks, optimising logistics, and leveraging digital marketing strategies for success in one of Europe’s largest ecommerce markets.
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