One to One Monaco is a bit like the Kit Kat advert: you're never in the right place, so you miss the conferences everyone's talking about. But don't panic: every morning, the masked cucumber from the organisers will tell you what happened the day before in the conference room and during the meals.
The One to One edition is entitled "Under Pressure".

And that's exactly what the Fevad survey of its members revealed at the opening conference: three quarters of French e-commerce site managers are worried about the impact of inflation on their business. As a result, the vast majority of respondents (84%) fear that consumers will switch to sites and chains selling cheaper products (hyper-discounts, destocking, second-hand goods, etc.). To cope with inflation, more retailers in 2024 have cancelled or postponed certain investments (53% compared to 49% in 2023) than have reduced their margins (50% compared to 53% in 2023). As for prices, 67% of respondents expect to increase them in 2024, 16 points less than last year (83%). There is growing concern about tougher taxation and regulation of e-commerce. For 48% of respondents, this is a very worrying issue in 2024. This compares with only 27% in 2023. Concern about the restriction of logistics flows in urban areas is also on the rise. In 2023, 19% of respondents were very concerned about this issue, compared with 30% today. Among the trends explored at the inaugural conference were generative AI, as well as second-hand and fractional payment. And on the subject of fractional payments, which we came across at lunch, one guest sounded the alarm about these solutions, which contribute to over-indebtedness and could soon be regulated... A topic for 2025?

Lunchtime pap

Crossed paths during meals and over drinks: the retailer Decathlon is getting into the market place, but not in the usual sense. The retailer, which wants to rival Nike worldwide, is creating its own market place. But it is also exploring a new area: selling its own products on an external market place. Décathlon has already made a start with Alltricks (a marketplace acquired by the group, admittedly).

  • Sheerid verifies identity to offer promotions aimed at students, for example. But that's not all: airlines are using its data (which combines 200,000 databases worldwide) to offer additional services to their young customers. The verified data belongs to the brand.
  • The former head of Jam, Marjolaine Grandin, led a 45-minute workshop for One to One on Monday, with fifteen or so people from Meta, Le Bon Coin, Sephora and others. For 5 minutes, each person asked themselves what role they would play in the group, and found their "Ikigai". Then 4 sub-groups developed a trade show guide, a chat bot and a song, using AI tools unearthed by Marjolaine.*

The video was generated without recording. The prompts were refined by Prompt Perfect and plugged into midjourney and Dall-E. And the song created a wow effect at the feedback session. Managers had the pleasure of creating "hands on" and Marjolaine left with a full order book to repeat the experience!

The Mirakl Keynote

On 28 September 2023, Mirakl and Havas Media announced a global partnership. Capucine Pierard, Vice President of Havas Media, Octavie Gosselin, VP and Philippe Corrot co-founder of Mirakl were on stage at the Palais Grimaldi to tell us more. Indeed, retail media is acting as a growth relay for retailers under pressure from inflation, shrinking margins and exploding advertising costs. In the fourth quarter of 2023, retail media became Amazon's leading source of revenue, with sales of 14 billion, or 10% of total sales.In the USA, retail media accounts for 4.7% of retailers' turnover, but only 1.5% in Europe, and 0.8% in France. The potential is there for all retailers: the market is set to grow by 30% a year, and by 18% for Amazon.

Mirakl has 2 billion visitors, 100,000 sellers and 5,000 brands. Two years ago, the company acquired Target to Sale, which enables products to be recommended based on the consumer's profile. Philippe Corot has "put this technology at the heart of retail media, to have the banner best adapted to the customer profile. And the AI does the work of planning the campaigns". On Tuesday afternoon, a workshop will detail the Mirakl solution implemented at Maison du Monde, which has launched its retail media programme in 2023.

For Capucine Pierard, retail media is a subject that is "underestimated by the heads of retail groups, who still don't see the extent to which it is strategic and needs to be integrated into the retailer's DNA. Retailers think that Amazon has killed the game, but all it has done is open up the field".

Retail media is still very much focused on conversion: "70% of volumes come from product requests. But video and enriched content can also be used for image campaigns. Mirakl and Havas agree, concluding this panel: "Retailers need to launch quickly and with a differentiating strategy. And the head of Havas has a message for retailers: "share the value with yield management tools so that the market can develop, but don't be too greedy".

Visa keynote

Sophie Noël, Visa's retail director, gave the keynote intro to Sofyane Medaoui, a wheelchair basketball champion, to emphasise the importance of teamwork. She launched Click to Pay, a new standard for simple and secure online purchases on all connected devices. Virginie Melaine Christensen, CEO of Adyen, points out that "67% of consumers expect a more rewarding shopping experience. But only 18% of e-retailers are investing in improving the consumer experience. Online sales account for 12% of total sales in France. Mobile payment is exploding, with a 137% increase. And the fraud rate, at 0.1%, is the lowest ever".

Retailers don't want to slow down the purchasing process by registering. By offering click to pay to customers as guests, they can get closer to a one-click experience. Bernard Osta, financial director of vestiaire collective, is the first to implement the solution: "With CTP, we hope to reduce the rate of data entry errors by 10%. Our challenge is to increase the penetration of second-hand fashion". By 2023, 20 merchants had launched Click to Pay, with an average 4% increase in the authorisation rate. The purchasing process is 25% faster. With the addition of biometrics, this will accelerate even further. The target for this new solution?

"The 50% of card transactions that are entered manually". Sophie Noel expects the adoption rate to be very high. Visa will be working with the banks this year to embed the solution in their cards. Merchants will then play their part, integrating the solution either directly or via their PSP.

Payplug keynote : on the future of payment

Antoine Grimaud, co-founder of Payplug (set up in 2012), gave a brilliant presentation on payment trends. Payplug equips several thousand merchants, and its shareholder is BPCE, which issues 20% of payment cards in France, giving it a good overview.

After 20 years of uninterrupted growth, e-commerce has reached a plateau in the last three years, accounting for 27% of the retail mix. By 2023, the sale of products will be in decline, offset by the sale of services. Some sectors are at a standstill, such as household appliances, homeware and DIY. Three sectors are doing well: +14% hard discount customers +33% second-hand clothing + 15% travel. Cosmetics and refurbished goods are also enjoying double-digit growth. But consumption could pick up again thanks to the Olympic Games. "During the Rugby World Cup, the increase in consumption linked to this event was 8%". For the Olympic Games, 7 million people from 170 countries bought tickets. Since 2019, contactless payments have quadrupled, and mobile payments have increased by 23 times. "The next step is to bring the same thing to retailers, with mobile payment via tablet" Apple launched Tap to Pay 2 years ago in the USA, and 4 months ago in France. Payment is made by bringing two iPhones together. "The solution is suitable for small retailers, but also for large ones, to better manage queues: 76% of French people have already left a shop because the queue was too long. To take things a step further, contactless payment can also be embedded in a business tablet. Payplug is a card expert: "Today, 350 local payment methods are available internationally. But no PSP can rule everywhere. So we're working on orchestration, and the 3 missing from the top 10 are going to switch over, negotiating resilience performance. Commerce will become more unified and more orchestrated.

And the future? 2025, the year of Open Banking.

 

Open banking has only a 44% acceptance rate: "It cannot be a main payment method, there is no certification authority, each bank implements open banking, which creates disparities. 2026: EPI 16 European banks create a new hybrid instant transfer/card payment method. The first EPI payment was made between a Banque Pop customer and spaar kasse in Germany. "The solution has the merit of addressing the weaknesses of open banking".

27 -28: the digital Euro

BPCE has just launched the preparatory phase The digital Euro will replace cash for in-store payments. Retailers would be obliged to accept it.

Geneviève Petit