Paris (AFP)
Already in the sights of environmental defense associations, the American giant Amazon is becoming the number one scarecrow of closed businesses in an attempt to stem the Covid-19 epidemic.
Elements on its weight in the French economy.
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What is its sales volume?
The Secretary of State for Digital, Cédric O, "recalled" on Sunday that Amazon "only represents 20% of e-commerce in France", and that the increase in online sales also benefited French companies, Fnac , CDiscount, Veepee, Mirakl or ManoMano.
Amazon is still "the most important player" in online sales of physical goods, according to Frédéric Valette, director of the Kantar distribution department, a specialist in market research.
"At Kantar, the e-commerce market" refers to the purchase of physical goods, therefore excluding services such as booking plane or train tickets, he explains.
"Over 12 rolling months stopped at the end of June, this market was estimated at 44.5 billion euros, including food", and "771 million transactions".
Amazon's share is estimated by Kantar at 7.4 billion euros, or 16.5% of the market share including supermarkets in the equation.
Excluding supermarkets, Amazon's market share is 22%, more or less the figure put forward by Cédric O.
The competition is far behind: Kantar estimates the "online" sales of Leclerc, the leading French player in the drive, at 4 billion euros.
Excluding supermarkets, Amazon's runner-up is CDiscount with sales "of the order of 3 billion euros".
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What are the specificities of Amazon?
According to Kantar, 70% of French women and men over 18 buy goods on the internet, i.e. almost 35 million people.
Nearly one in three French people (almost 22 million French people) buys on Amazon, carrying out "a fairly high number of annual orders", almost ten, and for an average order "quite low, around 35 euros", according to Frédéric Valette.
Food is not the strong point of the American giant, especially in France.
"Consumer products (category including groceries, fresh products, but also maintenance or hygiene, Editor's note) represent between 7 and 10% of the turnover of Amazon's e-commerce", specifies Edouard Nattée, Managing Director of Foxintelligence, which measures the activity of e-commerce companies.
Amazon, on the other hand, is strong in multimedia, culture, decoration, DIY, home automation, toys, stationery or fashion.
A list which is reminiscent of that of products considered non-essential and whose sale in physical stores has been prohibited (except for delivery or "click and collect") in an attempt to stem the Covid-19 epidemic .
However, sales that take place on Amazon also benefit the selling companies to some extent.
If the government "encourages small French traders to sell on French marketplaces", Cédric O told AFP, Amazon claims that "more than 10,000 French small businesses and SMEs" "are developing their activity" with its help.
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What was the impact of the first confinement?
The first confinement sparked a great deal of enthusiasm for online commerce, especially food, but was not necessarily favorable to Amazon.
"There is a drop in April and May because of the ban on the sale of non-essential products and because the Post Office has no longer been able to deliver packages quickly," recalls Edouard Nattée.
"Amazon has had social problems, warehouse closures, and has developed much less than other players," confirms Frédéric Valette.
Excluding food brands, the online merchant's French market share in the last quarter of 2019 was 24%.
In March-April-May, it was only 13%, continues the Kantar specialist, who nevertheless specifies that it is not Amazon which has declined, but "the market which has developed faster than Amazon ".
In any case, the group announced at the end of October insolent financial results for the third quarter at the global level, with in particular a tripling of its net profit, to 6.3 billion dollars, and a turnover up 37% to $ 96.1 billion.
He says he has created 400,000 jobs since the start of the year around the world.
© 2020 AFP