Food and Drink E-Commerce in France

2020 IMPACT

Very strong sales growth as consumers seek to avoid shopping in stores

Food and drink e-commerce registered very strong sales growth during 2020 and this was mainly due to the general reluctance of consumers to shop in grocery stores throughout the year. While food and drink e-commerce represented the obvious option for consumers during the quarantine lockdown, demand remained strong for the category even after quarantine restrictions were eased as many consumers were fearful of shopping in crowded grocery stores due to the perceived risk of contagion.

Click-and-collect for those on foot emerges particularly strongly during 2020

While click-and-collect in France has traditionally focused on catering to the needs of those arriving by car to collect their online orders, as the colloquial name “drive” would suggest, the unique exigencies presented by the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020 saw some of leading names in food and drink e-commerce begin to offer click-and-collect services to those arriving on foot to collect the groceries that they ordered online. While click-and-collect for pedestrians has been available since at least 2016, when E Leclerc launched this service at a store in Lille, it was not until 2020 that click-and-collect for pedestrians was rolled out across the country.

E Leclerc maintains its leading position despite its rivals gaining ground

E Leclerc maintained its position as the leading player in food and drink e-commerce in France in 2020 and the retailer can attribute this position largely to its status as the most dynamic French grocery retailer. E Leclerc’s strong standing in e-commerce has been built on its leadership in hypermarkets, where it has been a frontrunner in terms of diversification and innovation in recent decades.

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