Latest / The Retail Podcast / Five Things Friday (EU)– Delipop folds, JD.com courts MediaMarkt, summer luxury slump, Picnic’s Paris push, France’s fast‑fashion clamp‑down

Transcript

Five Things Friday (EU)– Delipop folds, JD.com courts MediaMarkt, summer luxury slump, Picnic’s Paris push, France’s fast‑fashion clamp‑down · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, Happy Friday, It's August and welcome to Five Things
• 0:04
  Friday, European edition. Hello Alex, how you doing?
• 0:21
  Hi, how are you? Yeah, I'm good.
• 0:23
  Thank you. This is the first time you're
• 0:25
  watching. My name's Alex.
• 0:26
  I hope retailers maintain their thought leadership at the major
• 0:30
  conferences across the globe. And I'm joined by my wonderful
• 0:33
  Co host, Alex Wassant. Alex, what do you do?
• 0:36
  I work for Business First, the French Trade Commission in
• 0:39
  London and I help French retail technology companies to expand
• 0:43
  in the UK but also British retailers to find innovative
• 0:48
  solutions in. France plastic.
• 0:50
  And so without any further ado, let's just jump straight in five
• 0:54
  things Friday. Let's see what we have today.
• 0:57
  So why don't we start with you, Alex?
• 1:00
  Yeah. So today's first news is about
• 1:04
  something we discussed in the 1st episode of Five Things
• 1:09
  Friday. So we discussed the boom of the
• 1:11
  Dr thru model in France and we mentioned as well the pedestrian
• 1:16
  model. So this topic will resonate in
• 1:19
  different ways since it is about Belly Pop, a startup that
• 1:22
  offered robotic and multi brand grocery picker points, which is
• 1:27
  unfortunately shutting down. So they have launched in 2021
• 1:32
  and they allowed users to collect online grocery orders
• 1:36
  from several retail. So this is different from the,
• 1:40
  for example, the Luclaire model, which was its own brand model.
• 1:43
  This one was for several retailers, including Carfur and
• 1:47
  Tarmarche Monoprey, and they were using automated lockers
• 1:52
  open from 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM. The idea was to create a more
• 1:57
  efficient and shared alternative to traditional pedestrian Dr
• 2:01
  throughs. But in the end, the concept, the
• 2:03
  concept didn't really scale. Dalipop only opened nine
• 2:07
  locations and that they faced many obstacles including
• 2:12
  regulatory push back from Paris, being confused with quick
• 2:16
  commerce models. They also had a limited investor
• 2:19
  interest and most importantly I think changing retail
• 2:24
  environment. So they had originally aimed for
• 2:28
  1000 locations by 2027 but the roll out never took off.
• 2:33
  So I think this is. So I know you've highlighted two
• 2:37
  or three different reasons on why they failed, but you think
• 2:41
  that's more ultimately it's consumers not wanting to pick up
• 2:45
  from lockers or I just love what Dr throughs I.
• 2:49
  Think this is mainly a reminder that the if the environment
• 2:54
  isn't ready, even promising ideas can struggle.
• 2:59
  And this is not. I think the shared automated
• 3:02
  pickup points make sense really, especially for reducing delivery
• 3:07
  costs and traffic in cities. But between unclear rules and
• 3:12
  rising competition from the other lockers and all the
• 3:16
  delivery apps, I think it was just not the right timing for
• 3:20
  them. So the concept may come back
• 3:22
  later, but it will need to be stronger in better conditions to
• 3:26
  succeed. Because for example, the look
• 3:28
  like 1 was I mean the all the others are really successful as
• 3:33
  I mean. So it's a shame to see that, but
• 3:35
  hopefully it will come back. OK.
• 3:38
  Well, thank you for that. So the next one was obviously
• 3:41
  this, the articles from the Financial Times.
• 3:44
  But I think it's an interesting development in Chinese
• 3:48
  powerhouses trying to create footholds in Europe.
• 3:53
  They did try to buy curries in the UK, but they didn't go ahead
• 3:57
  with that. And to me that's AI think
• 3:58
  they're probably got a European strategy in terms of how do we
• 4:02
  buy a major and they'll and they've put a bid in for
• 4:05
  Mediumark Saturn. For those who don't know,
• 4:07
  Mediumark Saturn is one of the largest electronics retailers
• 4:12
  across Europe with 1000 stores. The bid is around is it
• 4:17
  mediumark Saturn, Liam, So they they're at Twinton.
• 4:20
  Well, I mean, that's bigger than I thought €22 billion in
• 4:25
  turnover in last year, which I think makes them quite
• 4:29
  significant. How do you compete with Amazon
• 4:33
  in Europe? And I think this is a foothold
• 4:36
  that they they they're trying to get whether or not regulators in
• 4:40
  Germany approve this, I think it will be an interesting one to
• 4:44
  watch. Are we going to see more of
• 4:46
  these in terms of Chinese companies trying to take a
• 4:49
  foothold in the retail landscape like moving on?
• 4:55
  We've discussed this. So I've discussed this in in
• 4:57
  different show, but they're missing their targets from a
• 5:03
  wall from a, an earning perspective.
• 5:06
  And one of the reasons this is invoked business that they sort
• 5:10
  of comment on a few major brands such as Forangmo, Prada Group,
• 5:15
  Burberry, Montclair, caring, obviously caring, owning lots of
• 5:20
  large brands within the group. A luxury brands, shoppers from
• 5:24
  the US and China are basically not buying luxury when they're
• 5:29
  coming over. And tourist numbers are down in
• 5:32
  general across Europe. Now, I don't know if this is an
• 5:35
  outcome of the trade war. So hopefully it's just maybe
• 5:39
  this summer that this happens too.
• 5:41
  And it's not something we see year on year because I think
• 5:44
  that will have detrimental impact on the economies that
• 5:47
  depend on tourism. But it definitely is having an
• 5:51
  impact on the European brands. And for those who will what, who
• 5:57
  may not watch the Asia packed show, but on that show, I was
• 6:01
  talking about the rise of Chinese luxury brands that are
• 6:06
  serving their local market. So now you've got homegrown
• 6:09
  brands. And the one that I was talking
• 6:12
  about was was based in Shanghai. They came to Paris Fashion Week.
• 6:17
  They launched at Paris Fashion Week.
• 6:18
  They did incredibly well. And you know, you can buy their
• 6:23
  garments through all of the luxury online platforms such as
• 6:27
  Farfetch and all the others. But is this a sign of things to
• 6:31
  come where Chinese consumers culturally more aligned with
• 6:37
  luxury brands from from from home?
• 6:40
  It's an interesting one to watch back over to you.
• 6:43
  Thank you, Alex. So I think this third topic will
• 6:47
  resonate with boom of ecommerce that we also mentioned in the in
• 6:53
  the first episode or the second one.
• 6:55
  Remember, you can edit this movie, but there's this Dutch
• 7:01
  online supermarket called Picnic.
• 7:03
  Very well, they're. Very cool.
• 7:06
  They are they just opened a new hub in near Paris.
• 7:10
  This is the 10th hub for the brand in the region.
• 7:15
  It allows them to serve more than 500,000 households in
• 7:20
  cities like Le Valois, Cologne. So it's really interesting to
• 7:25
  see that there are expense expanding fast and this move
• 7:31
  completes their roll out in their in de France region two
• 7:35
  years after launching in the area.
• 7:38
  So the concept is very simple. All the deliveries are free,
• 7:43
  scheduled in 20 minutes and made with electrical vehicles.
• 7:47
  So there are no physical stalls, just a mobile app and a central
• 7:51
  warehouse South of Paris. So the brand now covers 2
• 7:55
  million households across the Paris region and continues to
• 7:59
  grow fast with more hubs and jobs planned.
• 8:03
  And it's also preparing to expand to other major cities by
• 8:07
  2026. But they haven't revealed which
• 8:10
  one yet, so I'm really excited to see which one is going to be.
• 8:14
  And yeah, I think this is a great example of how smart
• 8:17
  logistics and a clear focus on service can help retailers scale
• 8:22
  fast. That model is very appealing,
• 8:24
  especially for busy families. It reminds me of Okado here in
• 8:28
  London. But we have to be mindful that
• 8:31
  the competition of quick commerce is growing and the
• 8:35
  challenge will be keeping the model both efficient and
• 8:39
  sustainable at the same time without putting into traps of
• 8:43
  the over delivery or unnecessary packaging.
• 8:47
  I remember seeing the C the CEO founder talk shop talk Europe
• 8:53
  before, before Covic. So I don't know. 20/19/2018 And
• 8:59
  the one thing, and obviously they set up in the Netherlands.
• 9:01
  No, I don't know if they're exporting this to Europe, but
• 9:05
  the one thing that they really, really, really made a big pay on
• 9:08
  is that they are a local community based delivery
• 9:12
  company, meaning that that driver who delivers on these
• 9:16
  floats are going to they're going to know your name.
• 9:19
  It's interesting. And, and maybe that was how they
• 9:21
  started and now they are part of the quick commerce revolution.
• 9:25
  But we feels what they're trying to do and their network for
• 9:29
  expansion was creating these network hubs that the drivers
• 9:33
  can sort of service. And you know, like, I don't know
• 9:38
  if this was a European thing, but in the UK we used to have
• 9:40
  our milk delivered, our milk float like this.
• 9:44
  And that's what they're trying to get back to and to create
• 9:47
  that community. And that's for them was working
• 9:51
  really, really well. And specifically for them, you
• 9:54
  know, the ageing demographics such as, you know, people,
• 9:58
  pensioners who are retired or people with disability, people
• 10:01
  who can't go shopping, who may be alone.
• 10:04
  And it was their sort of lifeline or their sort of
• 10:07
  communal grocery delivery. So I thought it was an
• 10:11
  interesting attack. I have no idea if that's what
• 10:15
  they're going to use in Europe or they're just going to be a
• 10:17
  quick promise fulfilment like Ocado.
• 10:20
  Because Ocado to to me doesn't build a sense of community.
• 10:25
  It's just delivery, right? It's efficient delivery and
• 10:30
  efficient houses. Whereas this is less efficiency
• 10:34
  and more community. But as I.
• 10:35
  Said and sustainability as well. That's why the electric crush.
• 10:39
  Yes, exactly. Because their principle was why
• 10:42
  in I don't know how many 2 million people going to the
• 10:44
  grocers or one electric van serving 250 people, 250,000
• 10:51
  people at a time. So yeah, really interesting.
• 10:54
  I didn't, I didn't even realise they'd moved to France now.
• 10:57
  But yeah, great to see. OK, bringing it home for the
• 11:00
  last one. Now.
• 11:00
  This one's really topical in the sense of I, I always like
• 11:05
  stories because I'm a bit of a sci-fi nerd.
• 11:08
  I am a nerd. I have to admit.
• 11:10
  I like stories that potentially give me a glimpse of the future.
• 11:15
  And this is exactly that type of story.
• 11:17
  And and this is in France and we accord this is according to Mary
• 11:22
  Claire at Dot co.uk. So I'm hoping it's true.
• 11:26
  And I'm not just, you know, this was in July that this feature
• 11:29
  for this article published by Lauren Cunningham basically
• 11:33
  saying that France has just made influencing fast fashion a crime
• 11:38
  and a lot of eco warriors or people focused on sustainable
• 11:41
  etcetera will go fantastic. That's brilliant.
• 11:43
  But they've only focused on the Chinese brands.
• 11:46
  So on Timu and Shin as being AI presume a criminal offence to be
• 11:54
  an influencer. And so Fast forward to the
• 11:56
  future where we are in a creator economy, obviously the freedom
• 12:02
  then to be a creator for whoever you want.
• 12:05
  In this instance, you, you can't potentially be a creator for a
• 12:09
  brand from another country. You can only support European
• 12:14
  fast fashion houses such as H&M and Inditex.
• 12:17
  So again, maybe there's nuances that I'm overlooking such as the
• 12:24
  the products, the transparency behind the products and these
• 12:28
  European brands are far more transparent.
• 12:30
  So we know the types of ingredients that going on to
• 12:33
  thing they're meeting European standards.
• 12:35
  So I have to be fair in my assessment.
• 12:38
  I can't tell it's just because they're Chinese.
• 12:40
  No, because I understand the transparency on the goods.
• 12:44
  How are the goods made? There's been lots of coverage of
• 12:47
  goods being made with with really bad materials, but it's
• 12:50
  super interesting to see the creator economy now being
• 12:55
  impacted by these types of laws. So that brings US whirlwind
• 13:00
  super fast on 15 minutes. We'll just be underneath 15
• 13:04
  minutes. 5 things Friday, European edition.
• 13:07
  Are you going to be on a beach anytime soon, Alex?
• 13:10
  No, I'm afraid not. OK, we're going to be working
• 13:15
  through the What's the weather in the UK like right now?
• 13:18
  It's cold and cloudy, 20°, and seriously, I wish I was in South
• 13:23
  of France. So this morning it was 37° in
• 13:26
  Toulouse, where I'm from. So yeah, I wish I was.
• 13:30
  I was there. But that's actually.
• 13:33
  Yeah. To say on that bombshell, we're
• 13:37
  going to call it. Thank you so much, Alex, and
• 13:40
  until thanks for. Having me.