At Pentagon’s Retail Without Borders conference on the 15th of March, La Redoute will be taking part in a panel session discussing how online marketplaces have changed the way consumers shop. Ahead of the conference we spoke to Julien Pons, Head of Business Development at La Redoute to find out more about what the marketplace can offer online retailers and brands.
What is the importance of France?
France is a very different market to the UK, and alongside the UK and Germany is one the most powerful markets in EU valued at €82 billion with 15% growth. More and more French consumers are buying online and especially on mobile.
The French customer has slightly different behaviour to the UK and Germany, which is why retailers use marketplaces. French customers want the right product first time and due to this they require many many details compared to other countries.
Reaching French customers through La Redoute
La Redoute understand what French customers are looking for and so require a greater depth of information from retailers than they may be accustomed to supply on other marketplaces. When selling on La Redoute you can expect to be asked for more pictures, more product features, and better descriptions than your usual standard. It may be more difficult to integrate with La Redoute, but Julien explains the results have no comparison with significantly lower returns rates.
For comparison, return rates in Germany run at around 60-70%, on Zalando you might expect returns rates around 55%, and in the UK 30-40%. But La Redoute returns rate is only 12-15% across all products including clothing and brands globally.
Around two thirds of La Redoute’s business comes from their own own private labels and also offer well known international brands. One third of sales on La Redoute are from wholesale and marketplace sellers.
What type of retailer should be interested in La Redoute?
La Redoute prefer to avoid brands in direct competition with own private labels and instead are interested in partners who can offer premium and internationally well known brands. The marketplace are also interested in new products that don’t compete in an ever widening array of categories, for instance La Redoute now sell wine champagne and delicatessen products.
Aiming to be selective and curate a premium environment, popular categories are home, textiles, furniture and woman’s wear. Expect La Redoute to be very selective as the seek more premium, well known brands of high quality who can offer a great delivery and returns experience.
It is important to realised that La Redoute are ideally looking to parter with well known brands. Around 10,000 retailers apply to sell on their marketplace each year but they only accept 1% – About 100-150 annually. The marketplaces is not interested in compete with Amazon and so differentiate through quality and product detail. La Redoute will appeal to retailers and brands who want premium partner, who probably won’t have chosen to trade on eBay and Amazon, but want their products in a premium place and won’t be interested in offering deep discounts. La Redoute’s preference would be to trade directly with brands themselves.
La Redoute and Pentagon
La Redoute are actively targeting brands that they wish to welcome onto their marketplace and aim to be the 1st or perhaps 2nd platform that they launch on. Brands will benefit from total control of their offer, pricing and the manner in which their products are presented so if you want to target a premium platform partner in EU for home products or textiles then La Redoute should be one of the first that you consider.
Pentagon work closely with La Redoute and can assist retailers and brands launch on the marketplace. Due to the in depth product data and translation required to be successful on La Redoute, Pentagon can assist to ensure your brand is presented in the best possible light on this exclusive platform.
Meet La Redoute at Retail Without Borders
The focus for the round table La Redoute are participating in will be around changing consumer demands and how brands will develop online, the La Redoute team will be at the conference all day if you’d like to find out more.
For Tamebay readers who would like to attend Retail Without Borders, we have a discount code TAMEBAY18 for the first 18 retailers to sign up.
