Mobile consumers with smartphones and tablets drive French e-commerce growth

French e-commerce is getting increasingly digitalised thanks to new technologies such assmartphones and tablet computers giving an additional boost to online shopping growth, according to

This was one of the key findings of the eighth barometer of French online shopping behaviourpresented by Fevad and Médiamétrie/Netratings, a French audience measurement company, at theassociation’s recent e-commerce conference. 

The survey revealed that nine out of 10 internet users in France have made an online purchaseover the last six months, in contrast to 86% last year. The purchase process starts, first of all,with search engines (77%), commercial websites for product information (71%), as well as theopinions and ratings of internet users (64%).

While virtually all internet users research their purchases online before buying, they alsoincreasingly turn to the internet before buying goods at physical stores with 77% doing so in 2012compared to 68% in 2011.

This growth has been driven by the expansion of new technology such as tablets or smartphoneswhich make the internet accessible anytime and anywhere. The tablet is particularly well suited forthis purpose with 40% of customers using it before preparing their purchase “offline”. Smartphonesare not far behind with 22% of mobile phone users surfing the web via their phone before or whilegoing shopping.

Bertrand Krug, Médiamétrie/NetRatings director, commented: “The digitalisation of the purchasingprocess is extending into the store thanks to mobile devices. 40% of mobile phone users surf theweb while in shops compared to 35% in 2011.”

While smartphones and tablets are becoming increasingly important for the buying process at ashop, this is also the case when it comes to online shopping. But depending on the medium used,customers don’t necessarily buy the same things. Mobile phone users primarily buy digital servicessuch as tickets and downloadable applications with 21%. Other purchases made via mobile phonesinclude cultural products (11%), travel (10%), and especially train tickets. While 74% of mobilephone users prefer to make their purchases from home, 20% shop with their mobile devices while onthe move.

As for tablet users, they also buy cultural products and services but distinguish themselvesfrom mobile phone users with 13% of them also buying clothes. About 90% of consumers use thetablets at home but only 7% use them away from home.

Fevad CEO Marc Lolivier commented: “With the launch of the 4G, m-commerce and t-commerce aregaining pace and becoming adequate shopping channels.”

There are now more than 19 million French citizens equipped with smartphones and 3.2 milliontablet users, according to Médiamétrie’s recent survey on mobile services during the first quarterof 2012. “Thanks to their mobile connection, consumers have permanent and unlimited access to allstores. M-commerce adds total freedom of use to e-commerce for consumers,” the researchorganisation stated.

Overall, travel (56%) is at the top of products and services bought over the internet during thelast six months, followed by services (53%) and cultural products (49%). The average value ofonline purchases amounts to €88, with an average of €24 spent on cultural products and €398 ontravel. Internet users aged over 50 spend the most with the shopping value being 36% higher thanthe average.

According to the survey, as many as 48% of online shoppers pick up their online purchases from aparcel collection point (‘point relais’) while as many as 21% collect their goods from a store. Nofigure for the percentage of home deliveries was given, however.
 
Recommendations continue to play a major role for the purchasing decision with 61% ofinternet shoppers sharing their views/recommendations on products purchased, a 5% increase comparedto 2011. Moreover, 77% of online shoppers take recommendations left by other users into account intheir purchasing decisions.

Meanwhile, consultants McKinsey presented five major e-commerce trends at the Fevad e-commerceconference, analysing the changing consumption behaviour of over 100,000 internet users in 15countries, including France.

The first trend, labelled “The second big bang”, highlighted three major product categories withdifferent levels of online presence. Media and entertainment are featured and researched veryextensively on the internet. Personal and home equipment has a more mixed online presence with lessthan 30% of European shoppers searching for these goods online, equalling less than 20% of onlinespending, but with a high growth potential. Finally, some products such as food are hardly presentonline and are mainly researched and purchased at stores.

The second trend among online consumers is the expansion of mobile devices and the growingimpact of smartphones and tablets on e-commerce. According to McKinsey, 50% of cyber users researchonline before buying, and research via mobile phones surged 75% between 2010 and 2011.

The third trend identified by McKinsey is multi-channel shopping with more than half of onlineconsumers only or mainly looking at websites of shops where they buy regularly while the other halfis more receptive to pure players in the internet. The main reasons for continuing to buy in storesare trying on, touching and feeling the product.

Another global trend is social commerce with social networks becoming increasingly important forthe shopping process. For example, 34% of US consumers follow commercial links on Facebook while14% do so in France. Nearly 30% of the British consumers trust recommendations from socialnetworks, with 25% in France. For distributors and brands, optimising their presence in socialnetworks is getting crucial, the consultants commented.

The last important trend is “Big Data” meaning the analysis of the purchasing process of eachclient. For example, segmentation by age and income shows that online shoppers are older and moreaffluent than average internet users.

“For retailers, it is becoming crucial to understand the behaviour and expectations of onlineshoppers by category, as they do for their traditional customers. The players deploying bestpractices in customer knowledge show average annual growth rates that are significantly higher thanthe competitors’ average,” Eric Hazan, Associate Director McKinsey and head of iConsumer initiativein Europe, said.