E-commerce in France continued to grow during the third quarter of 2011 with revenues up by 2%on the second quarter and 23% higher than last year while upcoming Christmas sales are expected to
rise 20% year-on-year, according to a survey released by Fevad, the French distance-sellingassociation.The study is based on information from 40 leading commercial websites participating in the Fevad/iCE panel and on information provided by the main payment services providers acting on behalf ofover 93,000 websites in France.
Growth was driven by the increasing number of French citizens buying on the internet. Accordingto Médiamétrie, a French audience measurement company, the number of cyber-buyers jumped by 3.2million in one year. France now has 30.4 million online shoppers.
Even though the economic situation seems to have affected the average value of online purchases,which dropped slightly from €92 to €91, it has not affected the volume of transactions which rose24% reaching almost 100 million during July-September 2011.
With the growing online offering, the new record number of commercial websites across Francemeanwhile amounts to 93,300. More than 20,000 new commercial sites have emerged over the last 12months proving that e-commerce continues to attract those who wish to start their own business butalso the ones seeking to expand their existing activities. If the creation of online shopscontinues at the same pace, the Frence e-commerce sector should count more than 100,000 sites in2012.
During the third quarter, the 40 iCE panel sites, which enable measurement of growth of theleading sites on a constant basis, recorded a 10% sales increase compared to the same period lastyear. Over the first nine months of 2011, their revenues increased by 12%. Clothing sales were up13% while sales from technical products recorded an increase of 7%. E-tourism showed good growthwith 16% from January to September this year.
For the upcoming holiday season, Fevad expects Christmas sales to surpass the €7 billion markcompared to the €6.2 billion that internet shoppers spent during the same period last year whichwould equal a 20% increase year-on-year.
In cooperation with Médiamétrie / NetRatings, Fevad published the results of its annual surveyregarding the purchasing plans of internet shoppers for this year’s Christmas period. The study wasconducted from 14-20 October 2011 with 2,134 individuals older than 15 and living in France.
The survey revealed that 80% of French online shoppers intend to carry out their end-of-the-yearpurchases on the internet while 64% of internet users plan to buy their Christmas gifts online.
Bertrand Krug, Director of efficiency measures for Mediametrie / NetRatings, said that onlineshopping is a mature market with 46% of online shoppers planning to spend more than 46% of theirChristmas budget online (vs 39% in 2010). “The amount of the average shopping basket alsoincreased: 22% of the online shoppers plan to spend over €250 online compared to 18% in 2010.”
Fevad CEO Marc Lolivier commented: “In the current crisis, the internet is increasingly regardedamong internet users as a way to optimise their purchases: 60% of those intend to change theirpurchasing behaviour and of these, 93% will turn to the internet to look for the best price. Thisis in line with the satisfaction rate of over 98% among the online shoppers, as measured byMédiamétrie / NetRatings.”
The products to be puchased by the French online shoppers during this year’s Christmas periodare, above all, cultural products and toys. Books account for 55% of the planned purchases, closelyfollowed by toys and games with 50%. Other popular Christmas items include DVDs and CDs (44%),clothing (43%) and high-tech products (42%). These gifts are usually bought as new products.However, 11% of cyber-buyers intend to buy used items on the internet with 26% not excludingit.
During the current economic climate, consumers go to shop online for Christmas primarily forconvenience reasons (66%) and cheaper prices than in regular stores (64%). Other important reasonsfor internet shopping are speed (51%), larger product portfolio compared to regular stores (49%)and saving the costs of car driving (37%).
As far as delivery is concerned, 84% of the respondents prefer home delivery and 53% intend toget their goods delivered to service points while 17% plan to collect them themselves fromstores.
As the representative federation of e-commerce and distance selling in France, Fevad was foundedin 1957 and brings together over 550 companies and nearly 800 websites including the leadinge-commerce sites in the country. As a leader in media studies, Médiamétrie observes, measures andanalyses public behaviour and market trends.
