Digital Consumers in France

COVID-19 leads to a shift in consumption habits as consumers reassess their priorities:

In 2020, French consumers will face national lockdowns, curfews, and significant movement limitations. To prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus in France, a number of health and hygiene precautions were implemented across the country.

Niche contact-free payment methods fail to take off in France:

Remote payment monopolises sales in French e-commerce, and the COVID-19 pandemic will further strengthen its domination in 2020. Despite the fact that customers spent more time at home during the COVID-19 lockdown, there was a significant increase in remote payments done through mobile devices and tablets, attributable to the gradual emergence of mobile e-commerce in France.

The digitalisation of French retailing accelerates:

The COVID-19 epidemic resulted in a higher-than-average growth in internet and e-commerce consumers in 2020, as the number of internet connections and time spent online both surged dramatically. This was partly due to an increase in work-from-home agreements as French firms attempted to contain COVID-19 through shared workspaces, as well as an increase in leisure time spent at home as consumers remained in seclusion for much of the year.

Leclerc Drive, Fnac, Darty and AliExpress enjoy strong gains as Air France, Accor, Booking.com and Airbnb suffer hefty losses:

As Amazon remained the largest e-commerce store, as well as its primary opponent C-Discount, which also offers a substantial online marketplace, 2020 was an opportunity for the online-only leaders of e-commerce to make significant advances. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, click and collect players like Leclerc Drive and Carrefour Drive in modern food chains acquired the most traction in 2020, thanks to increased demand for contact-free shopping techniques for important transactions.

France faces further setbacks as the recovery is delayed until 2022:

The recovery of store-based retailing and e-commerce services is projected to be delayed through the forecast period, following the onset of a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Autumn 2020 and the possibility of more waves in 2021. France's vaccination programme has also been delayed, and the appearance of new strains creates additional epidemiological and economic issues for the country, as travel prohibitions are expected to stymie tourism recovery in 2021.