Vente-privée founder: “Amazon will destroy classic distributors"

Jacques-Antoine Granjon, CEO and founder of French Vente-privée.com, believes Amazon will destroy classic distributors like Carrefour. It will compete these distributors into the ground and make them disappear.

Dumping prices

He does not believe the major shift will happen anytime soon, but in 40 years’ time, companies like Carrefour, Leclerc and Auchan will no longer exist. According to French La Revue du Digital, Granjon made the comments during an Electronic Business Group event.

The online giant already lures a lot of customers away by selling basic products at very low prices. “This costs them a lot of money, but as long as their dumping practices continue, a lot of consumers will flock to Amazon. Younger people are also wary of spending an afternoon in the supermarket to buy these basic products”, Granjon feels.

Amazon will be able to sustain its very low prices because it makes a lot of money with its cloud activities. Classic distributors will therefore not be able to compete with Amazon on pricing, unless they cut into their margins, which will eventually be detrimental for their bottom line.

Granjon also feels hat home delivery services will become the basic feature in the future and not just be an added feature like it is nowadays. “That may work now, to get people into their car to buy something somewhere at a discounted price, but that will not last 20 to 30 years.”