Reconfinement: local businesses try to survive thanks to "click & collect"

Confinement, season 2, episode 1 ... Since Friday morning, the French are again invited to stay at home and limit their movements.

And the possibilities of going out are limited: only so-called "essential" businesses are allowed to open, namely food stores, dry cleaners, car garages, etc.

The others must lower the curtain.

Unless they set up a "click & collect" system: an online store on which customers place orders before picking up their products without entering the store.

The government has indeed authorized "click & collect" to boost economic activity.

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A relief for local shops

Many traders were sighed with relief when they heard Bruno Le Maire give the green light to "click & collect" on Thursday.

For small stores forced to close, it's a lifeline in a dying year at best.

Myriam Couty runs an organic products shop in Blois and she tinkered with the digitization of her business during the first confinement.

"Not being an IT specialist, we had to find solutions. We took the time to identify all the products in the store to set up an online order form system that our customers could fill out," he explains. she.

This process allowed the entrepreneur to save a badly embarked year.

"After a period of doubt, we didn't really know where we were going, we saw a big crowd during the confinement thanks to the 'click & collect'. We almost tripled our turnover," says Myriam Couty.

"It not only allowed us to keep our regular customers but also to introduce ourselves to other people. We experienced something quite incredible."

A craze linked to demand: according to an Odoxa study, during confinement, one in four French people used "click & collect" at least once.

France is behind on the "click & collect"

All traders will be able to set up the "click & collect" during this new confinement.

But you still have to know how to do it because it requires computer skills that not everyone has mastered.

To help local shops, companies like Ollca, founded by Victor Gobourg, have therefore developed turnkey solutions.

"The merchant can be completely autonomous in the management of his catalog, by adding a product, by modifying a price, etc. But if he does not have the appetite or the time, he can call on an advisor. digital technology that accompanies it, advises it and can make changes for it, ”he explains.

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Proof that the "click & collect" has grown, the number of Ollca customers has almost doubled in a few months, from 400 before containment to 700 currently.

"Before, we had one request per day. Since confinement, it's 25!", Assures Victor Gobourg.

But there is room: today, barely a third of small and medium-sized businesses have their own website.

"We are lagging behind our Italian and German neighbors in this area. We will support the digitization of traders and artisans," Bercy was informed.

A promise that makes cringe in the clothing industry.

"It's too late! We had deposited a plan on Bruno Le Maire's desk on August 10. We were asking for 150 million euros for the digital transition of the stores, in exchange for commitments. We had no return ”laments Eric Mertz, president of the National Clothing Federation.

Still, at two months of Christmas, the possibility of doing "click & collect" could well save stores taken by the throat by this second confinement.