Will the inflation-stricken French keep their Christmas shopping as they eased budgetary restrictions to go on holiday this summer? Commercial promotions around “Black Friday”, Friday 25th November, will serve as a test as that is where the majority of French people normally shop for their holiday gifts.
According to a survey by Toluna Harris Interactive for the Federation of E-Commerce and Distance Selling (Fevad) released Thursday, 30% of respondents do not intend to take advantage of Black Friday discounts online this year, including 9% with certainty 17. November. Reason given: “Purchasing Power Problems”. Overall, 37% of them prefer saving in the current context, especially the youngest (58%) and the most modest categories (40%).
In general, for the holidays, “More than one in three French people (39%) plan to spend less than 2021 on Christmas shopping, especially among low-income and rural people”, says the study. The average budget for Christmas gifts and preparations is 404 euros.
Service revenue growth
Granted, many will be searching the web for bargains and choice, but after years of uninterrupted growth, e-commerce is dying in 2022. In the household appliances sector, sales at the end of September were even up 14.7% over one year (EUR 6.5 billion, not including marketplaces), according to the GfK Institute. A novelty, and that while this market, which together weighs 26.7 billion euros over twelve months, according to GfK, only fell by 0.4%.
In addition, the total sales of e-commerce (+ 16.8% compared to the third quarter of 2021) owe its growth only to the sale of services (+ 34%), driven by the tourism and travel sectors. Product sales fell 2% year-on-year (after -15% in H1), although they are up almost 30% compared to 2019.