During the first confinement, France had won a million online consumers.
But for this second wave of purchases, their number could be much larger.
Because not only Amazon, Cdiscount, Rakuten and other AliExpress have learned the lessons of the first seal but, in addition, the approach of Christmas is more favorable to them.
“Our recruitments for the end of year celebrations took place in October.
The reinforcements are already there.
We are ready ”, assures Cdiscount.
Its giant warehouse in Cestas, near Bordeaux (Gironde), currently employs 2,000 people, compared to 400 in summer.
In April-May, the French e-merchant recorded a 40% breakthrough in its activity compared to the same period in 2019. This increase had been brought “to 60% by the marketplace”, namely VSE-SMEs who use the Internet platform and its traffic to market their own products.
Rakuten (ex-Price Minister) is also addressing them.
“On Thursday, we requisitioned a hundred people, or a third of our teams, to train physical merchants forced to close and who would like to open a digital store in online sales accelerated”, underlines Alison Boutoille, Marketing Director of Rakuten.
To seduce them, the Japanese company, which is remunerated by both commission and subscription, offers the subscription at 499 € until Christmas, as well as the “click and collect” option.
During the first containment, 1,500 new sellers had joined the platform, bringing the total to 6,000 in France.
Rakuten and Cdiscount ready to add to a solidarity fund
“This will be the great victory of digital commerce, worries Francis Palombi, president of the Confederation of Merchants of France.
During the spring confinement, they made more progress in three months than in three years!
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From November 1 and until the end of confinement, Rakuten undertakes "to pay back 50% of the commissions levied on sales in the categories of products particularly affected by the confinement: books, records, toys, alcohol, decoration of home and personal equipment (footwear, clothing, leather goods) ”.
Its president France, Fabien Versavau, proposed to the government that “this sum could be transferred to a support and solidarity fund intended to support independent traders”.
According to our information, the boss of Cdiscount, Emmanuel Grenier, is preparing to make the same announcement on Monday.
