E-commerce sales in France look set to surpass the €50 billion mark this year after continuedstrong business with 14% growth in the third quarter, the country’s e-commerce association
predicted.Online sales are also expected to increase 14% to €10.3 billion in the peak pre-Christmasseason, according to Fevad, which represents more than 580 distance-selling companies and 800e-commerce websites in France.
The 14% internet sales increase during the July – September third quarter of 2013 is comparablewith the two previous quarters of this year, the association’s quarterly survey of leadinge-commerce sites and payment platforms found.
Online sales growth in the third quarter was driven by a strong increase in the number of onlineshoppers in France with 863,000 new buyers in one year spending a total of €12.3 billion onlineduring this period and an increase in the average number of online transactions. The previousdecline in the average purchase price slowed down and remained stable at €87.
The iCE40 index, measuring sales of the 40 top French websites, showed that the market leadersincreased their sales by 5% in the third quarter, slightly ahead of their 4% sales growth in thesecond quarter. Web retailers selling consumer goods have seen their sales volumes grow 8% comparedto the same period last year. However, certain sectors registered slowing growth (e.g. +2% fortourism websites).
In this context, marketplaces play an increasingly important role for the activity of certainpanel websites, of which the sales are not calculated in the iCE 40. The index measuring salesvolumes of these marketplaces (iPM) continued strong growth of 60% during this year’s third quartercompared to the corresponding quarter of 2012. The transactions on the market places now represent16% of the sales generated by the hosting websites, compared to 10% during the corresponding periodlast year.
Online competition also continued to increase in France with the number of active e-commercewebsites surpassing 130,000 which equals an 18% increase in one year.
As in other countries around the world, sales via mobile devices such as smartphones and tabletscontinue to boom in France with annual growth of more than 98%, with marketplaces generating 11% oftheir sales through m-commerce, compared to only 6% during the third quarter of 2012.
In terms of product groups, clothes, fashion and shoes remain the best-selling product categorywith sales maintaining rapid growth of 12% during the third quarter while sales of hi-tech productsand consumer electronics show an increase of 4%.
In contrast, ‘cultural’ products have experienced a strong decline in revenues, according tocalculations by the market research firm GfK conducted on behalf of Fevad, with sales of booksdropping by 1.5%, video games by 10%, videos by 15% and music by 2% during the third quarter. It isimportant to note, however, that the consumption of cultural products has been constantlyprogressing over the last years.
In a separate pre-Christmas forecast survey interviewing 1,713 internet users aged 15 and olderduring 10-17 October 2013, Fevad revealed that 60% of cyber users will spend the majority of their ‘ presents budget’ on the internet, compared to 58% last year. 85% of internet users plan to surfthe internet for their pre-Christmas purchases while 69% aim to simply buy their presentsonline.
Fevad managing director Marc Lolivier said: “If the internet users surge in masses to theinternet when Christmas is approaching, it is mainly because the overwhelming majority of them(98%) who made a purchase during the last six months are satisfied with it. The e-tailers are alsopreparing for millions of customers who will choose or order their gifts via their computers,smartphones or tablets.”
Nearly 3 out of 4 internet users (73%) are planning to buy their gifts online between 15November and 15 December, with 7% of those waiting for 15 December to start their shopping whichproves their confidence in the timeliness of deliveries. The overwhelming majority of theseinternet users (80%) prefer home delivery.
Apart from Christmas gifts, half of the internet users surveyed will also purchase products orservices related to Christmas Eve and/or New Year’s Eve celebrations. Food and beverages areestimated to account for 25% of these purchases.
In terms of the most popular Christmas gifts, 54% of the internet users surveyed will purchasebooks online while 47% will buy music CDs or DVDs (7% up on the previous year) and 44% will opt forDVDs or Blu-Ray discs. Other favourite online purchases for Christmas include games and toys (48%)and fashion articles (40%).
Due to the difficult economic situation, however, internet users are expected to spend lessmoney than last year on Christmas gifts with a 7% drop to €303 spent either online or offline.However, this drop affects a little less the gifts to be purchased online, with cyber buyersplanning to spend €193 online on presents, which is only 3% less than last year. Interestingly,senior persons aged 65 and above are expected to spend 25% more than the average on their onlinepresents with a budget of €241.
In terms of devices, internet users are looking for Christmas presents on all possible displayswith more than 1 out of 2 tablet users searching on their tablets for Christmas presents while 19%buy their presents via this device. As for smartphone users, one third of those will choose theirgifts via their smartphone and 7% will directly buy them on their phones.
When choosing their preferred websites for buying gifts, 98% of internet users favour those withthe most attractive prices while 93% go for those including the postal charges (2% up compared to2012) or offering discounts (6% increase on 2012).
