Auchan, France’s third largest food retailer and the 11th biggest in the world, is to increase its product lines and range with the launch of a new online Auchan marketplace in partnership with Mirakl.
Auchan is known primarily as a food retailer, but will launch later this year a range of a new product categories: high tech, baby products, toys and furniture. Instead of trying to increase its offering on one particular product category, Auchan’s plans for the marketplace are linked to a global strategy which places the Auchan brand at the core of its proposition. Auchan therefore needed a marketplace platform that was scalable, easy to use and could guarantee the quality of service of sellers and whether the products fitted with the Auchan brand.
“We select our sellers according to the quality of their products, their price and the respect of their commitment towards our customers,” said Denis Vanbeselaere, Business director of Auchan e-commerce, France. “Choice has always been at the core of Auchan’s brand, and today choice is the web, and the marketplace. We want this XXL choice to be accessible to our customers, and our associates in the stores”.
Mirakl’s platform allows Auchan to select and manage its third party vendors, enabling the supermarket to guarantee the quality of service and the relevance of the products with the Auchan brand. Furthermore, choosing the marketplace model makes sense for Auchan’s existing business. In Auchan’s stores the customer already have the choice between Auchan’s products and other brands – the marketplace helps bring this model online, as well as increasing the product selection without investment in storage.
The marketplace won’t just be confined to e-commerce either but will be fully integrate with Auchan’s cross-channel strategy by connecting to the stores enabling click and collect and returns for marketplace orders, strengthening the Auchan brand relationship with customers.
The first two retailers selling on the Auchan marketplace are Les Cafes Henri coffee supplier and The Knights of Argouges, a chocolatier.
Food is a fast growing marketplace segment with specialist foodie marketplaces like Yumbles and more established players such as Amazon Fresh all launched recently. Plus of course we’ve seen Tesco in the UK launch a marketplace, as has Lidl in Germany. If you’re selling food related products it’s time to look at specialist food marketplaces, or of course for any product set to consider retailer’s websites such as food retailers and more specialist retail marketplaces such as Halfords and Game.
“For any retailer in 2015 it is essential to return to the fundamentals of e-commerce, by focusing on the customer and offering them the best products at the best price with the best quality of service,” said Adrien Nussenbaum, co-founder, Mirakl. “By increasing its product offering with selected third-party vendors on an online marketplace, Auchan is doing exactly that”.