The cards are shuffled after each economic crisis. Some come out strengthened, others weakened. The Covid-19 storm is no exception. While the government expects an 11% recession in France this year, the most digitized companies and sectors seem to be holding up better. Among them, restaurateurs or florists have taken the shock thanks to take-away or delivery, via social networks or a mobile application.
Keeping up with the customer is one of the cornerstones of the digitalisation of local shops, hotels and other industrial subcontractors. "There is a gap between consumer behavior and the economic fabric of the country, analyzes Laurent Solly, the head of Facebook France, which this week is launching several initiatives aimed at very small businesses. Thus, 64% of French people aged 15 and over buy online, but only 15% of French SMEs do e-commerce. However, the Covid-19 crisis will accelerate digital transformation. "
A trend confirmed by McKinsey. The consulting firm ensures that the confinement made it possible to achieve in eight weeks what one would have done in five years in terms of digitalization of the tricolor companies…
France ranked 15th in Europe
Not enough to show off however. In 2019, the European Commission placed France in 15th place in its digital ranking. Only 71% of French SMEs had a website, compared to an average of 77% in the European Union and 94% in Denmark. They were half as equipped with CRM software (“customer relationship management”) to improve customer relations than their Dutch cousins (55%), champions in this area. Only positive point: the investment in integrated management software (ERP), allowing information to be shared between the departments of the company, with the objective of productivity and efficiency, is approaching the level of the Belgian leader (51% ).
"Uber would not exist in France if Taxi G7 had associated earlier the uses of its trade and advanced technologies such as collaboration, geolocation and payment by bank card, analyzes Philippe Weppe, CEO of Ready4Digital, consulting firm in business digitalization. Same for TomTom, leader in GPS before the arrival of Waze, also based on a community environment. "
Investments for more growth
To carry out these changes, business leaders must overcome their apprehensions and stop, in particular, “considering, on an accounting level, digital tools as expenses but rather as investments”, underlines Philippe Weppe. With gains which are measured, depending on the companies and sectors, on competitiveness, growth, innovation or profitability.
To stimulate the leaders of TPE-PME, the government must also play its role. “The Secretary of State for Digital thinks only of start-ups, regrets Philippe Weppe. He announced a plan of 4 billion euros for the latter (Editor's note: to which is added a new component of 1.2 billion announced Friday) . And TPE-PME? A financial boost towards them to accelerate their digitalization would be welcome. "
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However, you must not be located in a white zone, without access to mobile Internet. On this point, the government has erected in recent weeks the reduction of the digital divide as a priority site.