Carrefour commits to live shopping platform

Carrefour has entered the world of social shopping and live streaming by setting up Brut Shop, a joint venture that aims to become the French market leader in the field of social commerce. However, there is still a lot of work to be done…

For the French youth

Brut is the French counterpart to Buzzfeed: the media channel specialises in making videos that get distributed via social media and are particularly popular with young people. According to Brut, its videos reach seventy million users and all French people aged between 18 and 34. The news medium says it represents 39 % of the media market on social networks in France.

The company wants to capitalise on this large fan base with the help of Carrefour Group. That retailer already has some experience with live shopping: last year, Carrefour held around fifty online events, where customers could order products live during a broadcast. This week, for example, they had a valentine’s day edition, during which anything from vibrators to laptops was promoted.

Market of 500 billion

Brut Shop will allow users to make online purchases while participating in video events broadcast live on social networks. With Brut’s expertise and its reach of young people, the joint venture hopes to become the French market leader in shopping through social media.

“This new community-based shopping experience will bring growth and value to both our businesses”, Elodie Perthuisot, director of digital transformation at Carrefour Group, reckons. The retailer points to figures on the growth of social commerce abroad: Accenture expected the social commerce market to triple from 492 billion dollars to 1.2 trillion dollars by 2025. However, these figures are heavily distorted by China, where 65 % of consumers already buy through live shopping. Experts doubt whether the sales system has anywhere near the same potential in the West.

According to Carrefour, live shopping would attract younger customers, ensure faster e-commerce conversion and create better customer loyalty. In France, 60 % of Carrefour customers declare to be interested in live shopping. Although Brut still has some work to do to make the content more attractive and relevant…