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.

RECOVERY AND OPPORTUNITIES

With drive already well-developed, the future of growth belongs to home delivery

The click-and-collect services known in France as drive were already well-developed and popular across the country prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, although the unprecedented situation that unfolded over the course of 2020 underlined the convenience and utility of drive services. However, the strongest growth in food and drink e-commerce during the year was seen in the offer of home delivery, with the added step of having groceries delivered, rather than collecting them from a store, becoming very appealing as many consumers sought to avoid leaving their homes for any reason at all.

Pedestrian drive slated for a very strong performance during the forecast period

With drive already well-developed in hypermarkets and larger supermarkets throughout France, the forecast period is expected to see the battle in click-and-collect move towards pedestrian drive. These services cater to the needs of important consumer bases such as senior citizens and millennials, who are more likely than other age groups French consumers to live in densely populated urban areas and thus less likely to own a car or to use their cars on a regular basis.

Innovation to become an increasingly important aspect of click-and-collect

The leading players in food and drink e-commerce cannot afford to rest on their laurels as this remains a highly dynamic and rapidly changing area of grocery retailing in France. As such, innovation is expected to remain an important aspect of food and drink e-commerce during the forecast period.