France’s third largest food retailer and the 11th biggest in the world, Auchan, is to increase its product lines and range with the launch of a new online marketplace in partnership with Mirakl.
Auchan
is known primarily as a food retailer, but will launch later this year a
range of a new product categories: high tech, baby products, toys and
furniture. Instead of trying to increase its offering on one particular
product category, Auchan’s plans for the marketplace are linked to a
global strategy which places the Auchan brand at the core of its
proposition. Auchan therefore needed a marketplace platform that was
scalable, easy to use and could guarantee the quality of service of
sellers and whether the products fitted with the Auchan brand.
“We
select our sellers according to the quality of their products, their
price and the respect of their commitment towards our customers,” said
Denis Vanbeselaere, Business director of Auchan e-commerce, France.
“Choice has always been at the core of Auchan’s brand, and today choice
is the web, and the marketplace. We want this XXL choice to be
accessible to our customers, and our associates in the stores.”
Mirakl’s
platform allows Auchan to select and manage its third party vendors,
enabling the supermarket to guarantee the quality of service and the
relevance of the products with the Auchan brand. Furthermore, choosing
the marketplace model makes sense for Auchan’s existing business. In
Auchan’s stores the customer already has the choice between Auchan’s
products and other brands – the marketplace helps bring this model
online, as well as increasing the product selection without investment
in storage.
Not
confined to e-commerce business, the marketplace will integrate with
Auchan’s cross-channel strategy by connecting to the stores, where
purchases and returns from the marketplace will be possible,
strengthening one unique brand universe.
“For
any retailer in 2015 it is essential to return to the fundamentals of
e-commerce, by focusing on the customer and offering them the best
products at the best price with the best quality of service,” said
Adrien Nussenbaum, co-founder, Mirakl. “By increasing its product
offering with selected third-party vendors on an online marketplace,
Auchan is doing exactly that.”
Mirakl
recently closed a $20 million Series B round of funding, a deal led by
noted investors such as 83North’s Laurel Bowden (an investor in firms
such as hybris, Just Eat and Notonthehighstreet), Felix Capital’s
Frederic Court and Dave Strohm, Partner at Greylock. Mirakl has offices
in France, the UK and North America, and now numbers more than 50
customers, with other recent customer wins including Best Buy, GAME and
Halfords.
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