Noreen Lanigan, Paris Office Manager, Bord Bia – Irish Food Board

The ‘Drive’ model is a true French exception and while it originally emerged in 2000 when Auchan piloted a number of trial outlets, it really didn’t take off until last year, and is now estimated by Points de Ventes to account for up to 5% of grocery retail sales. In essence the model allows consumers to shop online (generally on a different website to the online delivery sites) and choose a collection point in their locality. There are three variations on the Drive model (see table below for the breakdown by retailer):

1. ‘Drives’ located beside existing stores (retrait acceuil in the table below) – shopper drives up to a computerised interface, logs in and their shopping is loaded into their boot without the driver getting out of the car. This is the most common model, 62% of Drives follow this format, with Systeme U being the clear leader in this segment.
2. ‘Drives’ located in an existing store (accolé picking) – shopper parks his car and goes into the store to collect his shopping from the store receptionist. This has been the preferred model for Intermarché.
3. ‘Drives’ located on independent sites (déporté) – same functionality as the format 1 but they are located on standalone sites, hence increasing a retailer’s footprint in an area where they don’t have a store. Examples include: Auchan Chronodrive and Casino Express.

Today, according to LSA, there are 2,337 Drive collection points in France of which 1,483 opened in 2012 and further 222 have opened since the beginning of 2013. The concept is rapidly increasing penetration, with five million households (15% of French households) claiming to have already used a ‘Drive’ according to a recent Roland Berger study.

However, according to a Smart Shopping report only 4% of web users use a Drive concept for their primary shop, 83% still prefer to shop in bricks-and-mortar hyper and supermarkets.

While Drives appeal to shoppers due to time efficiencies and helps them avoid the temptation of impulse purchases in hypermarkets, the jury is still out as to whether it is a profitable model for retailers and to what extent it cannibalises sales in their existing stores.

From a supplier perspective there are pack format implications, including increased demand for fixed weight and fixed price fresh produce.