Carrefour chief executive Alexandre Bompard has said that the retailer plans to place "digital and data at the heart of all its operations", as the group positions itself to be a 'global leader' in digital retail.
Bompard was speaking as Carrefour hosted a Digital Day in Paris, at which it outlined the key drivers of its 2026 digital strategy and related value creation objectives.
Triple GMV To €10 Billion
The retailer is seeking to triple its e-commerce gross merchandise value (GMV) by 2026, to reach €10 billion. It also expects that digital will contribute an additional €600 million to recurring operating income by the same year.
To achieve this goal, Carrefour said that it plans to increase its level of investment in digital by around 50% over the coming years, with the rollout of a €3 billion strategy between 2022 and 2026.
This will include an acceleration of e-commerce, the ramping up of data and retail media activities, the digitalisation of financial services, and the transformation, through digital channels, of traditional retail operations.
Digital Transformation
“As a successful first transformation plan comes to its end, we now want to transform Carrefour, a traditional retailer with e-commerce capabilities, into a Digital Retail Company, which places digital and data at the heart of all its operations and its value creation model," Bompard said.
"This profound change, which we intend to carry out by 2026, will unleash the full potential of omnichannel, which is today the DNA of Carrefour and a unique asset in the industry."
The new strategy comes on the back of a number of digital initiatives already rolled out by Carrefour since 2018 – the group has seen 33 million downloads of the Carrefour app, while its digital platforms receive 800 million annual visits.
It has tripled its e-commerce activity over the past four years, and anticipates GMV to come in at €3.3 billion in full-year 2021.
Express Delivery And Quick Commerce
As part of its future digital transformation, the group is planning to establish leadership in the fields of express delivery and quick commerce, following the recent launch of Carrefour Sprint in France, in partnership with Uber Eats and Cajoo, as well as roll out personal shopper services.
Its recently-launched Carrefour Links platform will bolster its digital marketing capabilities, while the digitisation of financial services will build on its already strong presence through its five banks (France, Brazil, Spain, Belgium and Argentina) and commercial agreements.
It also plans to make its e-commerce activities entirely carbon neutral by 2030, ten years ahead of the overall group objective of 2040.
"Our digital advances will allow us to develop new revenue and profit streams, as well as improve the operational performance of all our formats," Bompard added.
"They will be supported by leading international partners, an additional investment budget and digital training for all the group’s employees. It is my conviction that this new "digital first" course will be a powerful vector of leadership in a rapidly-changing market.”
Carrefour reported a 0.8% increase in like-for-like sales in its third quarter.
© 2021 European Supermarket Magazine. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. For more Retail news, click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
