E-commerce in France grew by 14.3% to spending of €64.9 billion last year and is predicted to break through the €70 billion barrier with 10% growth this year, according to new figures from the country’s e-commerce association Fevad.
In 2015, French online sales grew faster than in 2014 (+11%), especially due to the higher than expected growth during the first nine months of the last year and a 12% increase in Christmas sales during November and December 2015, compared to 2014, reaching €12.8 billion, the association’s annual market study released last week showed.
The association said the number of online transactions went up by 19% from 700 million in 2014 to 835 million in 2015.
In the last quarter of 2015, the average ‘basket’ per transaction registered its strongest annual decline of 6% equaling a loss of €5 compared to Q4 2014. The annual transaction value thus dropped to an average of €78 which is the lowest amount recorded so far since the launch of the study.
Fevad said this decline in the average basket value confirms that online shopping has become normal with the average purchase amount getting closer every year to the average spending via other sales channels.
“Furthermore, this decline continues to be compensated by new shoppers (2.3 million more in one year) and the increase in purchasing frequency. Shoppers make on average 23 purchases in one year (almost two purchases per month) for a sum of € 1,780 (€1,640 in 2014). This represents a 13% increase in the annual number of orders per customer and an 8% increase in annual expenditure. Over the last four years, the purchasing frequency increased by 68% and the average spending by 45%. There are 20% more online shoppers in France now than it was the case four years ago,” the association revealed in its study.
The 2.3 million additional online shoppers in France during the fourth quarter of 2015 brought the total number of e-shoppers in the country to 36.3 million, compared to the same period in 2014. This represents an annual increase of 7%. Meanwhile, more than 8 out of 10 (82%) internet users shop online (a 4.6% increase in one year), according to the E-Commerce Barometer conducted by Médiamétrie, in cooperation with Fevad.
Bertrand Krug, Médiamétrie/NetRatings director, confirmed: “Since 2005, when we launched the E-Commerce Barometer with Fevad, the number of online shoppers has almost tripled (+171%) from 13.4 to 36.3 million. We are experiencing a mass phenomenon: today, 82% of the internet users have already made a purchase via internet compared to only 51.2% in 2005.”
The increases in purchasing frequency and the number of online shoppers also reflect expansion on the supply side, with the number of active websites in France increasing by 16% to 182,000, the Fevad survey showed. There exist 100,000 more websites today in the country than 5 years ago.
According to the iCE 40 index, which measures the top 40 e-commerce websites in France, the leading websites increased their combined sales by 10% in 2015 despite a slight slowdown during the fourth quarter of the year. Sales to professionals (B2B) within the iCE 40 index also recorded double-digit growth of 11%.
Marketplaces continue to play an important role for the activity of certain panel websites, of which the sales are not calculated in the iCE 40. The index measuring sales volumes of the marketplaces (iPM) continued its strong growth reaching 46% last year, with the transactions on the marketplaces currently representing 26% of the sales generated by the hosting websites (vs 20% in 2014). The market places are estimated to have generated nearly €3 billion in France in 2015, which accounts for 9% of the French online sales.
Mobile commerce also remains a dynamic growth factor in France. The iCM panel (mobile commerce index), which measures sales from mobile devices (smartphones and tablets), soared by 39% in one year and now represents 20% of revenues generated from the websites which make part of the iCM, compared to 15% in 2014. The mobile commerce market is estimated to more than €6 billion equaling 10% of the whole e-commerce market in France.
Looking ahead, Fevad predicted growth of about 10% for French e-commerce this year, which would take the market to more than €70 billion. This growth would be based on the increase in the number of online shoppers and the purchasing frequency with nearly 1 billion transactions expected in 2016 and new offers with the number of websites to exceed 200,000.
