80% of all French internet users buy online

Online purchasing is becoming more and more popular in France as is recently shown by the success of the local Black Friday and Cyber Monday. For the first time in the history of the French ecommerce the percentage of internet users who bought something online went over 80%. There were nearly 35 million Internet users who made online purchases in the third quarter of 2014, which is 2.2 million more than one year before. The number of online shoppers grew by 7%, while Internet penetration grew by 2%.

These are the key findings of a new study done by the Fevad.  It also shows that during the first nine months of 2014, the French spent 40 billion euros online. The third quarter of this year showed a growth rate of 11 % in online spendings, wich was similar to the previous quarters. Fevad counted 154,600 online stores in France, this number is ten times bigger than it was nine years ago.

Average online spend declines
Another study by Fevad showed that the average online purchase amount was 81 euro. Although shopping online is very popular, the French spend less and less money per order. Average spendings are steadily going down by 4% and the average amount might go under 80 euros before the end of the year. This decline is compensated by the number of times that people purchase online. On average a Frenchman places 6,1 orders online every quarter (+ 9%). Between July and September the average online spending was 491 euros. That was 465 euros during the third quarter of 2013.

Almost 20% of French online spendings happens around Christmas time
The Christmas 2014 spendings during November and December are supposed to represent 19% of the yearly online spendings and they are expected to be 10% higher than in 2013 (€11,1 billion versus €10 billion). The growing number of online shoppers and purchases will compensate the continuous decline of average spendings. Mainly due to the economic situation, the French will probably spend 5% less than last year, 304 euros of which 174 euros are spent online (57 %).

When considering the Christmas forecasts, the FEVAD estimates that the French ecommerce market will be worth 56 billion euros by the end of 2014.