Carrefour : starts selling local products online

Once again, for the 16th year in a row, Carrefour is the only retailer at the Libramont Agricultural Fair, where it will be unveiling its new online sales platform for local products via its Drive site on Carrefour.eu

Carrefour is the first mass-merchandising player to open up its website to local producers interested in reaching a new public: people who shop via their computers or via the Carrefour app, and who are on the lookout for authentic products.

Carrefour had already adapted its supply, billing and payment services so they could be used by all these small production units. It has now overhauled its online ordering system, so it can include a selection of local products.

How it works is simple: customers go to the Drive site via Carrefour.eu and choose the store at which they want to do their shopping. Among the other tabs, they'll see a 'local products' tab which they can click on to access the online selection available from their store, and then they just shop as they normally would for their other items.

The local products they have ordered will be prepared in the store and then included with the rest of the order that they have submitted via the Drive site. Then they just have to pick up their shopping as they normally would, or have their shopping delivered to their home - if the facility is available in their region. The 'local' aspect is fully preserved: even when they are purchasing online, they'll only have access to products that come from within a 40 km radius of the selected store.

All the advantages of the virtual, but without any of the disadvantages

Carrefour currently works with 750 local producers who supply stores with some 11,000 products, depending on the season. All of these small producers now have the option to sell their products online, which spares them all the IT and administrative management work involved in setting up a virtual store.

Depending on their own specific circumstances and their production capacity, they can decide whether or not they want to feature on Carrefour's Drive site.

The digital platform has been launched with the Arlon Carrefour hypermarket alongside our first 'local e-producers', who are already selling ten or so of their products online.

Carrefour's plan is to extend this opportunity to all of its stores which already have a 'physical' local product offering.

Carrefour wants to be the leading food e-commerce retailer. Opening up its website to small local producers falls within the framework of its transformation plan. Doing so will provide customers, wherever they may be, with permanent access to a wider selection of authentic products at reasonable prices, as well as ensuring that as many people as possible can enjoy the best products.