Traditional purchasing circuits are facing increasing competition from e-commerce for a number of reasons including better connections to tools such as ADSL, lower internet provider costs, growing confidence among cyber-consumers due to more secure payment methods, more user-friendly websites and greater reliability, and far lower risks than before. Depending on the products purchased on-line, there are profound differences between the profiles, motivations, selection criteria, and useful services found on the websites and even between the level of interest or the enthusiasm for shopping on the Internet. On this point, consumers who consider it a trial to have to go out shopping are tending to buy more and more on-line. Also, the Internet has become a vital tool for these on-line consumers when planning their purchases, and 47% admit to having studied an e-commerce site over the last six months before buying in a store. The opposite is also true when planning to buy over the Internet: 40% of consumers say they have looked at a printed catalogue while 22% went to a store. Moreover, note that 48% of cyber-surfers have already bought products at CtoC sites (consumer to consumer). The development of this type of exchange was behind the decision of Mr Renaud Dutreil, Minister for Trade and Commerce, to sign a charter of confidence with dedicated platforms...

E-commerce in France exceeded €7 billion in 2005 (against €2.3 billion in 2002) and is set to reach €12.6 billion in 2006, or even €17 billion in 2007 and €32.8 billion in 2010, according to the estimates by the FEVAD (Association of distance-selling businesses). Also, the number of on-line buyers in France is growing four-times faster than the number of cyber-surfers (from 11.5 million in the first half-year of 2005 to 16.1 million, i.e. 3 French people out of 10) for the same period in 2006. Furthermore, e-commerce has a vast potential for growth with a reservoir of over four million cyber-buyers. The confidence rate is also growing, from 55.1% to 57.4% between June 2005 and June 2006. Concerning on-line purchasing, women currently account for 6.3 million cyber-consumers, with their numbers growing faster than their male counterparts (from 35.7% in 2004 to 50.8% today). Taking cyber-buyers as a whole, half of them make a purchase within a month of their previous purchase. Indeed, the more a cyber-surfer buys the more they increase their purchasing frequency.

France is the European country with the fastest growing e-commerce trend both in terms of turnover (+53% over three years), and in the number of websites (+55.9%). This boom in the number of new trading sites demonstrates that businesses across all sectors are increasingly turning to e-commerce. The French e-commerce business is third in Europe, behind the United Kingdom and Germany and ahead of Spain and Italy. European e-commerce is booming with the €100 billion mark set to be exceeded in 2006, while growth is expected to continue apace until 2011. The 100 million on-line buyers spend on average €1,000 each. Over the next five years, on-line sales in Europe could even reach the €263 billion mark with an estimated potential of 174 million cyber-buyers. Demand will be stimulated by the growing diversity of the offer and the increase in price-comparison websites. Product categories likely to benefit from this situation include travel and tourist businesses, clothing, electronic equipment for the general public and foodstuffs, which are all set to break the €10 billion / year mark. Overall turnover for the French e-commerce sector should be around €39 billion in 2011.

While foodstuffs are still way behind sales of travel tours, cultural and technological products and clothing, they are nevertheless managing to make their mark. Wine represents about 10% of on-line sales in France and foodstuffs account for some 9% of Internet purchases in France. Even if e-businesses wish to sell their products all year round, Christmas is still the period with the highest sales volumes (+30% of turnover and from 25% to 100% of the visits compared with the annual average). Within five years, 5% of national food trade will be conducted on-line for a total turnover well below that of just the British group Tesco, the world leader with on-line turnover of €2 billion in 2007 (3% of its overall turnover, +30.5% against 2005/2006, 220,000 "drive" deliveries per week at 300 of its 700 sales outlets).

French consumers are increasingly turning to regional, organic and connoisseur foodstuffs which can now be found on e-commerce websites, with an average basket of €75, which rises to €140 at general food businesses (supermarket websites). While food businesses account for the highest number of websites, they mostly have a highly segmented offer (local, regional, organic, connoisseur products, etc.) and make an overall turnover that is still fairly low due to structural difficulties. Furthermore, they do not operate along the same lines (i.e. some use picking methods while opt for warehouses, own or external delivery fleet, order preparation methods, and so on). The main difficulty facing these operators lies in the complexity of the logistics (constraints in quality, preparation and order streamlining, transport, lead times, food safety standards, supply flows, inventory and incident management, "last mile" cost, etc.) which is a very different matter than the logistics involved in selling travel tours or books on-line... Today, e-commerce has rapidly become a major and essential business sector that is progressing strongly, and in particular, generating jobs (+61% for 2004 and 2005). (Source : ACSEL, Benchmark Group, Médiamétrie/NetRatings, Fevad, Forrester Research, Proxi-Business)

Average order amount (all products and services taken together): €90 in 2005.
Socioprofessional categories of e-consumers: 42.6% CSP+, 28.3% CSP, 23.1 retired people, 6% others.
Age category: 35-49 years (32.7%), 25-34 years (25.7%), -25 years (20.2%), 50 years and + (21.3%)
Geographic distribution: Paris and its region (76%), province (24%)
Delivery locations: Home (68%), Relay (28%), other (4%)
Payment methods : Credit card (80.6%), cheques (12%), private credit cards (5.3%), on delivery (0.3%), other (1.8%)

Natoora (Natoora.fr) created in 1999 and operational since January 2001.
20 employees, one controlled temperature warehouse at Rungis, orders prepared "just-in-time" (zero stock), optimal freshness (self-contained isothermal packaging).
Deliveries within 24h or 48h depending on the location.
Average basket: €120, 14kg (90% fresh products: 31% fruits and vegetables, 15% dairy products, 19% meat, 12% fish, 15% delicatessen products, 8% grocery products), 20 product references and 12 producers per order, delivery cost (€7 to €4 depending on purchasing frequency), in packages

Deliveries: Electric three-wheeled scooter (Paris and its region), Chronopost (rest of France, abroad)
Awards: Clics d’Or and Grand prix from the 2005 Jury
Projects: Cut delivery times by 12 hours .