Just days after we reported UK ecommerce sales passing the £100 billion barrier for the first time, European online shopping is about to hit another milestone.
The French Ecommerce Federation (FEVAD) has predicted that France’s ecommerce sales will hit €62.4 billion by the end of the year – marking a 10% growth in the industry during the space of 12 months.
France now has the 6th largest ecommerce market globally, with only the UK and Germany demonstrating greater maturity in Europe.
What’s causing the rise of French ecommerce?
This growth is driven partly by retailers, partly by consumers. Rising competition is spurring on businesses with an online presence to fight for market share, which is increasing the number of ecommerce promotions available to shoppers. This in turn is attracting new consumers to digital outlets, and is also enhancing spend among existing online shoppers.
Won’t economic instability impact this growth?
It’s true that France hasn’t had the greatest year in terms of economic performance; although far from the recession of 2009, its GDP grew at a slower rate than the Eurozone average in 2014. This impacted consumer confidence levels during the mid-part of the year, but it didn’t hit online spending: transactions increased by 15% over the course of the year.
In fact, ecommerce as a channel grew 11% during 2014. However, economic influence did have some knock on effects on French retailers: average basket sizes declined, although this can be down to consumers buying from a greater number of outlets without increasing their budget, than spending less altogether.
What’s in store for French ecommerce retailers in 2015?
The good news is that economic conditions are more supportive of ecommerce success this year. For starters, low inflation levels will generate lower prices, which in turn create greater consumer confidence and spending.
In addition, ecommerce maturity is leading to falling shipping costs, enabling online retailers to pass better deals onto their customers.
Retailers can also expect the number of digital interactions per consumer to go up, as French consumers embrace multi-channel capabilities – through their mobile devices in particular. The challenge will be to convert these engagements into sales; last year there were 20 transactions per buyer on average.
The opportunity to nurture this growth will come through cross-channel fulfilment; offering shoppers the chance to pick up their purchases from a store instead of being delivered to home. This will have the bonus impact of increasing customer value, as studies have shown that 6 in 10 consumers will purchase an additional item when they head into a store to collect an online order.
It seems that, despite recent terrorist atrocities in Paris shaking up retail’s start to the year, the lookout is bright for ecommerce companies looking to trade in France in 2015.