If the French have adopted Black Friday, this day, they remain hermetic about Thanksgiving, which falls the day before. “We have traditions around turkey, but at Christmas,” underlines Frédéric Duval, CEO of Amazon France. Having become part of the customs of many French people, Black Friday is an opportunity “to access a very wide variety of products and anticipate their Christmas purchases”, says the manager, relying on an OpinionWay study for Amazon. With fashion as the primary item of expenditure for 57% of French people, followed by high-tech (50%) and small household appliances (39%). To cope with the influx of orders for the end-of-year holidays, the e-commerce giant is recruiting “6,500 seasonal workers in France” to help the more than 20,000 current permanent employees,” indicates Frédéric Duval.
What does Black Friday represent in Amazon’s year, in sales volume and turnover?
Obviously, during the Christmas period, we have a seasonal surplus of orders. What I can tell you is that we will contribute in a very positive way to the economies of the French this year, since during the holiday periods, the French will make around 75 million euros in savings on Amazon.fr .
What products are French consumers looking for during Black Friday?
For the French, Black Friday is a time to save money. They first equip themselves with materials, then anticipate the gifts that will end up on Christmas lists and under the tree.
Is made in France popular during Black Friday?
Consumers benefit from offers on products such as Rowenta, Seb, Tefal, Moulinex, but I could name others. All these brands are very well-known, made in France, and benefit from very strong promotions. Amazon offers the largest “Made in France” store, with more than a million different items.
During Black Friday, do the French tend to consume high-tech, kitchen or home equipment?
It can be high-tech, television, more general equipment, decoration. It’s a little bit of everything. It ranges from the decorative element for Christmas to the washing machine or the wine cellar. We must realize that hundreds of thousands of offers are made available, either through Amazon or through companies that sell on the marketplace, including 16,000 French SMEs.
Are Black Friday shopping early Christmas shopping?
Indeed, consumption has shifted slightly towards Black Friday because the event allows the French to anticipate their end-of-year purchases and make significant savings. In this period of inflation, Black Friday has become a necessity for more than half of French people (52%), according to an OpinionWay survey carried out in November 2023 for Amazon, and for 66% of them, inflation encourages to perceive Black Friday even more as an opportunity to save money than a few years ago. And I will say one last thing, before the advent of Black Friday, people tended to make big savings during the post-Christmas sales, once the budgets were spent, now they can make them during this period which anticipates the period gifts.
Today, Black Friday lasts eleven days on Amazon. Last year, on Black Friday, there were less than 2% of orders compared to the year before and the bulk of orders were placed on Black Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Are eleven days necessary or is it not too long?
I think it’s important to give customers time, with offers that are available for longer because not everyone is on their cell phone, on their computer the same day wanting to do their shopping. Everyone has their constraints, we must give everyone the opportunity to organize themselves and take advantage of Black Friday.
Green Friday emerged in 2017, warning about Black Friday which pushes consumption and the environmental effects of this day. Have you seen an impact of this movement on Black Friday? Does this lead you to change order delivery practices?
Black Friday means more savings for the French, and they need it. Secondly, we agree that public transport is less polluting than individual transport. We agree that if we asked everyone to collect their mail from the post office, it would be much more polluting than asking a postman to deliver the mail. Well, e-commerce is exactly this factor applied to the distribution of goods. Three independent studies that are those ofOliver Wyman*, of MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] and of Ademe** have demonstrated that e-commerce is less polluting than retail. That doesn’t mean we have to stop there. We also really want to ensure that this logistics chain which brings products to customers is completely decarbonized. Amazon’s goal is to achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2040, ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement targets. Today, we are further decarbonizing our deliveries over the last mile in the largest cities in France. It is much easier, ultimately, to decarbonize a logistics chain that includes a few tens of thousands of vehicles than to decarbonize the tens of millions of vehicles in the French automobile fleet.
*study commissioned by Amazon.
**In its study, Ademe proposes fourteen delivery scenarios. The ecological transition agency remains cautious when drawing conclusions: “To date, it has not been demonstrated that online commerce would present a systematic and indisputable environmental advantage over in-store commerce,” admits Marc Cottignies, technical coordinator of the study at Ademe. “Similarly, among the delivery options, there has not been demonstrated a systematic and indisputable environmental advantage of delivery to a collection point compared to home delivery, nor of “standard” delivery time compared to fast or express delivery. »