E-commerce in France grows by 8.5 pct in 2020, says sector federation
Xinhua
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PARIS, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- The e-commerce sector in France went up 8.5 percent year-on-year and reached 112 billion euros (about 134 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020, the Federation of e-commerce and distance selling (Fevad) said on Thursday.

A picture taken on January 5, 2021, shows a cyclist riding past a sign "for rent" on the window of empty commercial premises in Paris. (Photo: AFP)

While e-commerce only represented 9.8 percent of retail trade in 2019, it now represents 13.4 percent, Fevad said in a press release. The federation brings together more than 600 companies and 800 websites in France.

"This growth is driven by the increase in sales of products on the internet estimated at 32 percent up while services are down 10 percent, under the effect of the sharp drop in travel and leisure activities during the (pandemic) crisis," said the federation.

Over the past year, the sector had 17,400 additional sites compared to the year before, and all these internet sales sites, all products and services combined, recorded more than 1.84 billion transactions, an annual increase of 5.8 percent. The average basket amounts to 61 euros in 2020 compared to 59 euros in 2019.

"The health crisis changed the evolution of the average amount of a transaction which had been falling for several years," said the federation.

It added that the two lockdown periods have resulted in unprecedented spikes in online sales, and between the two periods, sales remained at a high level.

France went into a strict national lockdown from March 17 to May 11 to contain the first wave of the epidemic. From the end of October to mid-December, a less strict lockdown was put in place.

The closure of stores and of the so-called non-essential departments led to a sharp increase in online sales in November which continued in December, despite the reopening of physical stores. The Christmas period (November-December) saw an increase of 23 percent compared to 2019 Christmas, with sales of products and services reaching 25 billion euros, according to Fevad.