Nicolas Ranninger, Bord Bia Paris

Ten years after the collapse of the dotcom bubble, a steady and growing e-market sector has been established. The food sector is following this trend but at a slower pace, gradually overcoming its own particularities such as a specialized logistics and short shelf life products.

France has one of Europe’s highest levels of broadband connections with 57% of households classed as having fast broadband. It is estimated that there are around 23 million French on-line buyers. Stimulated by the investments of large grocery retailers, commercial portals such as Carrefour group and Auchan group, a French online grocery market has developed.

The French specialised food sector, such as meat & seafood, is exploring this new segment that enables to shorten the supply chain and help improve margins.  The seafood sector is making strong efforts to utilise this market channel. An example of this development is La Houle, a company that owns 13 trawlers and a processing facility. They have announced a €7 million investment in 2009 & 2010 in search for turnover growth. Their objective is to capture a larger share of the value of its product through direct sales of its product to the end customer through the web.

On their website La Houle offers a range of 15 products prepared, packed and ready to cook that will be delivered within two days of ordering and products offer a shelf life of 3 days. The processor and fishmonger “Les pêcheries de la cotiniere”, delivers products purchased on its website within 24 hours.

In an article published by Les Marchés, the co director of boucherie, Francis Fouchère, summaries what he sees as the key success factors for online grocery.

• Product availability 
• Strong sales teams with telephone follow-up
• Adapted packaging
• Efficient transport
• Website life via promotions and direct marketing
• Efficient “Refer a friend“ scheme