Online retail businesses in 2014 – Towards better linkage with physical retail outlets

In 2014, 15% of companies in France with ten or more employees offered sales of goods or services over the Internet. These employed around 112,000 people excluding subcontractors for the organisation of this activity, which represented 3.7% of the turnover of all companies with more than ten people in 2013. This sales channel concerns more and more companies, especially in the trade and service sectors. Half of these use the website of their company or brand and more than a quarter a dealer or affiliate website. The links between online sales activities and physical sales outlets have developed; commercial offers are mostly identical or linked between the different sales channels. Picking up orders in physical sales outlets has become standard in the retail trade. Selling online is primarily a way to reach a wider client base; it helps develop the enterprise overall without necessarily having a profitability target in itself. The international arena is seen as a source of growth for web sales, mainly for accommodation or for the oldest players.