Lockdown effects in France
Last update January 14, 2022 by Sabrina Touami & Heleen Buldeo Rai.
The beginning of the health crisis in France was on January 24, 2020, with three first cases of contamination by the coronavirus confirmed, the first cases in Europe. On March 12, 2020, France closed restaurants, cafes, cinemas, and other public establishments and non-essential businesses. On March 17, a general lockdown was announced. After 55 days, France began a gradual exit from lockdown on May 11. Faced with a "sudden acceleration" of the epidemic later that year, that overwhelmed France as well as the rest of Europe, a new national lockdown was announced on October 28, with a gradual opening of various sites and establishments between May and June 2021 (Mazuir, 2021).
The initial lockdown related to the COVID-19 outbreak in the spring of 2020 caused a historic decline in business, with 73% of companies reporting a decline in sales greater than 10%, and 35% reporting a decline greater than 50% during this period. One-third of the companies closed for an average of 57 days, most often as a result of administrative restrictions on receiving the public (65%), but also for supply issues (8%) or market outlets (7%). This suspension of activity primarily affected the activities most closely in contact with the public: restaurants, accommodation, personal services or cultural and recreational activities, but also air transport (Duc & Souquet, 2020).
These companies have adapted to this new environment by modifying their offer, and by proposing new products or services, by reorganising their logistics, by setting up new partnerships. The proposal of new offers in adequacy with the situation, for example in the textile industry with the manufacture of masks, or in the pharmaceutical industry with hydro-alcoholic gel, the withdrawal of certain products by replacing them by other innovations, or the recourse to e-commerce to compensate for the closing of stores.
The quarterly barometer of Fevad presented the results of online sales in the first quarter of 2021 and the impact of the health crisis on this sector year of health crisis on the market. After 12 months of COVID-19 crisis, internet sales were up by 15% and internet sales of physical stores (i.e., “omnichannel retail”) have grown twice as fast as the market average, and 3 times faster than that of pure-player sites. The e-commerce sector (i.e., both products and services) reached nearly 30 billion euros in the first quarter of 2021, up 14.8% over one year. The diversity of the offer continues to grow with the number of e-commerce sites, up 12% from last year. 499 million transactions were recorded, an annual increase of 17.8% (Fevad, 2021).
A report by Apur (2020), the Parisian urban planning agency, states that 32% of consumers from the Île-de-France region around Paris say to have done food shopping on the internet during the first lockdown, previously only 22% of those surveyed did so at least once a month. Of the 78% in the Paris region who never or almost never used e-commerce for food, 25% state that they had used it during lockdown, including 14% for the first time. For the 32% of consumers in the Paris region who did used food e-commerce during lockdown, most commonly used solutions were home delivery (58%), click-and-collect (15%), drive (13%) and pedestrian drive (11%). In Paris and the Greater Paris area, home delivery is the clear majority with almost 2 out of 3 e-consumers having used it.
During lockdown and according to different territories, consumers who have used food e-commerce have used the following delivery methods (Apur, 2020):
Delivery methods during lockdown in Paris, the Greater Paris Metropolis and Ile de France (Apur, 2020).
Among the new e-consumers in Ile de France, a quarter wish to continue to buy online. Among e-consumers who only used home delivery during lockdown (17%), 34% of them believe that they will be doing their shopping on the Internet more often in the future. Everywhere in France but in Paris (Apur, 2020), drives confirmed themselves as preferred delivery method and gained share as result of the crisis (BCG x Foxintelligence, 2020). On 10 April 2020, a 70% growth in Auchan's drives, 80% growth in Intermarché's and a 974% increase in the number of people registered on the Monoprix website was cited (APUR, 2020), in order to be delivered or to benefit from the click-and-collect service (Cousin, 2020). Retailer Carrefour saw its food e-commerce sales jump by 45% in the first quarter (Dekonink, 2020).
67,9% of French consumers state their e-commerce activity been affected, 6% say it did not and 26,9% claim it has partially changed (RetailX, 2020). More than one in three French consumers who made online food purchases during lockdown were first-timers. 70% of them are ‘Babyboomers’ or born between 1940 and 1955 (FoxIntelligence, 2020).
During lockdown, e-commerce sales were up by 29% compared to the 2020 baseline (from 13/01 to 08/03), after the lockdown sales were still at a 27% increase (BCG x Foxintelligence, 2020). Yet only 20% of web-shops reported growth, whereas 75% reported a decrease of sales, an average drop of about 50% (RetailX, 2020).
McKinsey (2020) reports 5% to 15% growth in consumers who purchase online for most product categories and 10% to 30% growth in consumers who purchase most or all online for most product categories, strongest growth for medicine (+80%) and groceries (+71%). 3% of consumers in France started using restaurant delivery, 6% used it more since COVID-19 started. 57% intend to use it after the crisis as well. 5% of consumers in France started using grocery delivery, 7% used it more since COVID-19 started. 50% intend to use it after the crisis as well. 29% expect to do more of their holiday shopping online, 19% more in store (McKinsey, 2020).
The French e-commerce federation FEVAD, describes five trends for 2021 following the COVID-19 crisis (FEVAD, 2021):
Consumption in compliance with health measures, illustrated by an increase in online shoppers (+1.5 million, adding to a total of 41.5 million online shoppers in France) and an increase in online purchases at retailers with a store network (+53%).
Intensification of e-commerce, illustrated by an increase in online orders since the beginning of the crisis (for 37% of French internet-users, for 45% among those working from home, 87% of them substituting store purchases with online purchases, 92% among those working from home) and since 2019 (for 96% of French internet-users, for 99% among those working from home).
Equipment provision by companies for e-commerce, illustrated by online shoppers using company provided equipment to shop online (for 8.9% of French internet-users, 58% use it for e-commerce, 63% among those working from home).
Intensification of e-commerce for food, illustrated by online food shoppers (30% of French internet-users, 40% among those working from home), an increase of online food orders among those (for 56% of French internet-users, of which 11% uses short chains and 48% uses “drives”) and a willingness to continue after the health crisis (for 81% of French internet-users).
Proximity and connected commerce, illustrated by consumers waiting for their proximity stores to go online (for 70% of French internet-users) and an actual usage of proximity stores’ online offer (for 26% of French internet-users, for 32% among those working from home) and a willingness to continue after the health crisis (for 81% of French internet-users).
References
Apur. (2020). Note n°178 – Commerce et e-commerce à l’heure du déconfinement dans la Métropole du Grand Paris.
BCG x Foxintelligence. (2020). Online growth during COVID-19 crisis – France The view after lockdown.
Cousin, C. (2020, April 17). Le Groupe Casino, à l’heure du Covid-19. Voxlog.
Dekonink, B. (2020, May 29). Déconfinement : le grand bond en avant de l’e-commerce alimentaire en question. Les Echos.
Duc, C., & Souquet, C. (2020, December 10). L’impact de la crise sanitaire sur l’organisation et l’activité des sociétés. INSEE, 1830.
Fevad (2021). Le eCommerce à l’heure de la crise : 5 tendances en 2021.
Fevad (2021). Bilan du e-commerce en 2020 : les ventes sur internet atteignent 112 milliards d’euros grâce à la digitalisation accélérée du commerce de détail.
FoxIntelligence (2020). E-commerce Weekly Pulse - April 20-26.
McKinsey (2020). Survey: French consumer sentiment during the coronavirus crisis.
Mazuir, V. (2021, August 3). La France face à l’épidemie de COVID-19. Le Echos.
RetailX (2020). Europe 2020 Ecommerce Region Report.