What Fevad’s key e-commerce figures tell us about PIMs
15 December 2025
The Federation of Distance Selling Companies (Fevad) has published an informative 2015 summary of e-commerce figures. Beyond the continued growth in e-commerce turnover – which comes as no surprise – the report contains insightful statistics that are useful for developing an e-commerce strategy.
Significant room for growth in mobile shopping
In 2015, more than 34.7 million French people made online purchases, representing 79 per cent of internet users, generating a turnover of 62 billion euros (2015 estimate). Computers, whether desktop or laptop, remain the primary means of shopping online, even though mobile devices are making significant inroads. Tablet shopping is carried out by 23.5 per cent of internet users, and more than one in ten has made a purchase using their mobile phone (10.7 per cent). Whilst m-commerce is growing – rising from 4 in 2013 to 6.4 billion – one might question its relative weakness. More than half of the French population now own smartphones, and these now account for over 84 per cent of mobile phone sales (see this survey). The reason so few transactions are carried out via mobile is undoubtedly because too few websites are optimised for m-commerce – that is, designed with a responsive layout or linked to a dedicated app. However, mobile shopping is largely a matter of user-friendliness and the accessibility of product information. Moreover, leading websites (Amazon, Cdiscount, FNAC, etc.) account for 21 per cent of mobile transactions; this is undoubtedly because they have properly embraced mobile shopping.
Multilingualism: a real opportunity
Compared with our European neighbours, French e-commerce has significant room for growth. French e-commerce turnover thus represents less than half that generated by the United Kingdom in 2015: 143.9 billion euros compared with 62.4 billion in France. Overall, France is lagging behind, and the reasons for this lie less in infrastructure – for example, our triple-play broadband is among the cheapest in Europe – than in digital practices. When it comes to businesses buying and selling online, for instance, the Fevad barometer shows that France ranks 10th, with barely a quarter of the population making online purchases and only 15 per cent selling online – well behind Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. We might lament this situation, but we can also view it as an opportunity. With a bilingual French-English website – which is the bare minimum – an SME can target not only our neighbours across the Channel but also all the Nordic countries where English is used on a daily basis.
Multi-channel and multilingual communication paves the way for real business opportunities for French SMEs marketing goods and services in B2B or B2C markets. This strategy involves implementing a PIM (Product Information Manager) which will unify and ensure the reliability of product information, making it accessible across all platforms and in multiple languages.