E-commerce sales in France soared by 19 per cent to €45 billion last year and further double-digitgrowth is likely this year, according to figures presented yesterday by the country’s e-commerce
association Fevad to the French commerce minister.Online purchases of physical goods and digital products totalled €13.1 billion in theOctober-December 2012 fourth quarter, while Christmas sales (November-December), which represent 20per cent of overall annual sales, surged by 19 per cent to €9 billion, Fevad announced at a pressconference.
French commerce minster Sylvia Pinel told journalists that online retailers “are at the heartof the evolution of our way of life and of consumption, with the internet and also with apps,tablets and smartphones”, and were creating new jobs.
But e-retailers also faced challenges such as secure shopping and payment and achievingprofitability, she stressed. At the same time, e-commerce could be positive for rural areas byoffering products and services that were not available in local shops, she pointed out.
Fevad said the continued dynamic growth of the e-commerce sector proved its resilience at atime when overall French retail sales were dropping. According to the Banque de France, householdconsumption declined by 2.9 per cent in 2012.
According to the Fevad figures, the average spend per purchase in France dropped slightly inQ4, 2012, to a record low of €85 per item but this was mostly due to the large number of purchasesof lower-value Christmas presents, the association explained.
But this decline was more than offset by the overall rise in the number of online purchasesand total spending. French consumers spent an average of €500 per person on an average of sixonline purchases from October to December, and €1,400 during the year as a whole.
E-retail growth was driven by an increase in both supply and demand, the associationexplained. The number of listed French webshops increased by 17 per cent to 117,500 last year whilethere was a five per cent rise in the number of online shoppers.
Fevad’s market figures are based on information from major commercial sites and the aggregateamount of transactions by major companies providing payment on behalf of more than 117,000websites.
France’s leading e-retailers, however, saw slower growth of just 7 per cent last year,according to the ‘iCE sites Fevad panel 40’, which measures the sales of the 40 top websites,accounting for about 30 per cent of the overall market. Their sales of clothes/fashion rose by 8per cent and of hi-tech products by 7 per cent.
Like in many countries in Europe and around the world, mobile commerce is also a dynamicgrowth factor in France. Sales via smartphone, tablets and other mobile devices soared to anestimated €1 billion last year from €400 million in 2011, now representing 2 per cent of totalonline sales.
Looking ahead to 2013 prospects, Fevad predicted that internet shopping would continue togrow strongly again this year.
A high 73 per cent of consumers plan to spend as much on the internet as last year while 19per cent plan to spend more, according to a separate representative survey of 1,000 adultsconducted from December 26 – January 2. Significantly, 56 per cent said the economic crisis wouldnot impact on their online consumption while 20 per cent said it would even encourage them to spendmore online.
Attractive prices and convenience will remain the overwhelming reasons for French consumersto shop online while 25 per cent highlighted the additional saving on fuel and transport costs. Ahigh 59 per cent said they would be willing to buy products or services on the internet that theyhad not purchased online before.
Shopping via mobile devices will continue to grow, the Fevad survey found. Nearly 20 per centof French consumers expect to use their smartphone and one in seven a tablet PC to buy online thisyear, although mostly only occasionally.
