Why does the French fashion and sports market tick differently - and what does that mean for brands? In this episode of Let's Talk Marketplace, Ingrid and Valerie discuss this topic in detail with Déborah Schinasi (founder of the consulting firm The Agent in Paris) - in a practical, pointed, and no-nonsense way. They discuss why storytelling and emotional commerce beat pure transactions, why the fashion industry is united against the spread of Shein, and how brands are scoring points despite growing price pressure. They also take a look at channel priorities: Who generates volume, who is indispensable for the image, where do Zalando, Decathlon, and La Redoute stand? There is also an outlook on the growth drivers for 2026: Secondhand is getting bigger - Vinted is already a major fashion player; AI is changing search & content; TikTok Shop has had a modest start and still stands for low-basket, but is also firmly on the watch list for live shopping.
Note from the sponsor Pixelmoda:
Pixelmoda is a Milan-based pioneer in AI-assisted image and video production for fashion and luxury brands. Their AI doesn’t generate content - it enhances it. By optimizing lighting, camera angles, and model poses in real time, Pixelmoda helps teams shoot faster and smarter - cutting production costs by up to 70 % for photos and 90 % for videos. They work with over 100 brands in 20+ countries, producing more than 14 million visuals a year - including for three of the world’s top five marketplaces. A great example for their work is Rinascente in Italy, which reduced fixed content costs by a double-digit percentage while keeping its luxury look intact. Want to know more? Check out the full case study on Marketplace Universe: https://marketplace-universe.com/best-practice-product-images-rinascente-pixelmoda/
or join the webinar "How AI-Driven Product Images & Videos Are Boosting Sales and Cutting Costs for Fashion Brands on Marketplaces” on December, 2nd 2025, 11 a.m. Register right here now! https://zoom.us/webinar/register/1717621839500/WN_3visssBjRO-pv6tgQuL-uA
So I think it's important to have in mind that the customer have this mentality and the way of thinking that second end is a possibility.
Speaker A:And I will have a look into the second end business because as Ingrid was saying at the beginning, price is very important and price pressure is very important in France as well.
Speaker B:Let's Talk Marketplace.
Speaker C:The Marketplace podcast with Ingrid Lohmer and Van Friedrichte.
Speaker B:Hello everyone and welcome back to let's Talk Marketplace.
Speaker B:I'm Ingrid and as always with me is Valerie.
Speaker C:Hi from me and great to have you back.
Speaker C:And I would say first of all, I would like to take this opportunity, opportunity to thank you all for your great interest in our recent episode with Neil Lauderdale about the bridge Marketplace business.
Speaker C:I Ingrid told me actually that this episode was quite followed by huge interest about the marketplace landscape in the uk and yeah, so I'm really happy and I thought that could be a good first part of it, maybe like country series we are starting again.
Speaker C:I don't know.
Speaker B:Yep, that's what I thought too because yeah, we invited Neil to be our expert and it was interesting to hear hear from someone who is actually a local, a local guide about the market that we are researching on and writing on.
Speaker B:And it's always something different if you talk to someone who is actually from the country.
Speaker B:And so I thought we could do this again today, but this time for France, a market that's really, really complex and very dynamic and has a very own DNA.
Speaker B:So I think we need a local guide.
Speaker C:Yeah, so I thought that's a very good idea and even better that I know just the right person to join us.
Speaker C:And finally again, a woman.
Speaker C:Sometimes it's really difficult to find women to speak on podcasts in English and.
Speaker C:Yeah, and then we came up with the idea that we talked to our guest we already had in episode 27.
Speaker A:Yeah, that was quite an age ago.
Speaker C:Our in 131.
Speaker C:So more than 100 episodes away.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, that was two and a half years ago and then we were talking about major upheavals and shifts at the Solando Marketplace and today she's back with us and she is not only an expert on the marketplace fashion business, but also knows the French market inside out.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So welcome Deborah Shenazi, founder and CEO of the Agent, a Paris based marketplace consultancy that supports fashion and lifestyle brands across Europe.
Speaker B:Hi Deborah, great to see you again.
Speaker A:Hi, thanks for joining me on board and happy to give you some highlight about the French market.
Speaker C:Yeah, thank you so much for your time and for your spontaneously jumping in it's been a while since we talked Deborah so I think it's time for reintroduce you again with our three questions.
Speaker B:Questions.
Speaker C:So first question is like who are you?
Speaker A:Okay, so my name is Deborah.
Speaker A:I'm working at the agents since five years.
Speaker A:So what is the agents?
Speaker A:We are managing marketplaces channel for brands.
Speaker A:We are helping them on the day to day in order for them to success on marketplaces.
Speaker A:And who I am, I'm the COO so working on all the operation that the brand should be leading joining in marketplaces.
Speaker C:Okay, and what do you do best in the marketplace business?
Speaker A:What do I do best?
Speaker A:I would say identify the the pain or the reason of the underperformance of a brand.
Speaker A:So having a quick look on what has been published online and find the quick like drivers of sales that are missing.
Speaker A:I would say I have now the the eye in like two minutes time to see what is what is missing for brand.
Speaker C:Yeah, I can totally relate to that one.
Speaker C:And okay.
Speaker C:And then on the more fun note what is like a fun fact about you can also be a private one.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So fun fact.
Speaker A:I will say that I have my own sentences called the chick check.
Speaker A:What is the chick check?
Speaker A:A sentence is meaning it's I like things to be done quickly and efficiently.
Speaker A:So you know when I'm telling to the team let's do it chit chat it means let's do it efficiently and quickly.
Speaker A:This is a bit my and all the one knowing me will understand these messages because I'm doing chick check all day long.
Speaker B:I see you'd be right around right at home in the German market where people like to say sac tuck if it has to be quick.
Speaker A:Yeah, same, same.
Speaker B:Okay, so great to have you back Deborah.
Speaker B:I'm looking forward to your insights in the French market.
Speaker B:Valerie, we had the pleasure of speaking about our country quadrants which you might know last week, two weeks ago actually in on Newcom summit in Munich and there we did some updates on our quadrants and looked into the recent figures that we found.
Speaker B:We normally use ecdb.com for our country figures and stuff.
Speaker B:And when I looked again at the French market I was like okay, that is really an interesting market because we have so many different local players that are not present on any other marketplaces.
Speaker B:We have a strong E commerce turnover.
Speaker B: I think in: Speaker B:We have a medium ecommerce turnover per capita which is always also a sign for an interesting market.
Speaker B:And we have Amazon which is strong, but not as strong as in other western countries.
Speaker B:So there is an interesting landscape forming around these in this market.
Speaker B:So I'm really looking forward to what you are going to contribute to what we already learned about it.
Speaker B:Yeah, let's do that.
Speaker B:But first let's dive in and have a quick look at our partner PixelModer.
Speaker B:And afterwards we turn back to the French market.
Speaker A:Good.
Speaker C:Today we would like to introduce you to our sponsor, pixelmotor, a Milan based pioneer in AI assisted image and video production for fashion and luxury brands.
Speaker B:The AI doesn't generate content, it enhances it.
Speaker B:By optimizing lighting, camera angles and model poses in real time.
Speaker B:Pixelmotor helps teams shoot faster and smarter, cutting production costs by up to 70% for photos and 90% for videos.
Speaker C:They work with over 100 brands in 20 plus countries producing more than 14 million visuals a year, including for three of the world's top five marketplaces.
Speaker B:And a great example of their work is Rinascente in Italy.
Speaker B:They produced fixed content costs by they reduced fixed content costs by double digit percentage through working with PixelModer while keeping their luxury look intact.
Speaker B:So interesting case.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:And if you want to know how they did it, check out the full case study in our show notes or take part on our webinar in December which we also share with you in the show notes.
Speaker B:Okay, now let's turn back to the French marketplace landscape.
Speaker B:Deborah, what would you say if you look at the French market and compare it to other European markets?
Speaker B:What are the main differentiating factors?
Speaker A:I would say first that the clients.
Speaker A:The French client is very volatile.
Speaker A:He don't like to buy to one single place, he likes to buy to many different websites, E shops, marketplaces.
Speaker A:And I can give you a figure.
Speaker A:We see that the D2C so drive to customer is having minus 1.4 points this year compared to last year.
Speaker A:Whereas marketplaces is growing 1.2 points.
Speaker A:Meaning that at the end the French customer like to move from a website to another one and is not linked to one typical website.
Speaker A:And I think this is linked to the history of the French customer.
Speaker A:We used to have many retail shops, many, many retail like everywhere.
Speaker A:And we are seeing a swift in the way of consuming in French.
Speaker A:And this swift is also translating the thing that people are like much more volatile than in the other markets.
Speaker A:This is the first insight that I would say.
Speaker A:Second one is that French customer like the emotional shopping so they like to be entertained a bit before buying.
Speaker A:So I can give you another figure.
Speaker A:We know that 70% of the buyers are like getting inspired before buying.
Speaker A:So they like when they go online buying, doing shopping to have this kind of entertainment, storytelling and all those things because they need to be a bit reassured of what they are doing to the platform they are looking for to the platform they are buying.
Speaker A:They are already loyal to a brand rather than loyal to a marketplaces or website.
Speaker A:So they are.
Speaker A:They feel that when they do shopping online they need to have all the storytelling around and all the restaurants inside to concretize the purchase.
Speaker B:That's interesting.
Speaker B:So does that mean that the customers find their or find the solution to the problem?
Speaker B:What should I buy on very different channels and then they just look for the cheapest way to get the product or is price not so differentiating here?
Speaker A:No, no, I think price is very important.
Speaker A:But I think also they can get inspired inside of the Eshop or the marketplaces so can be outside as you mentioned.
Speaker A:So they are making many search and finally buying the product that they like at the cheapest price, but can also be that they were navigating online.
Speaker A:And as they found it as an entertainment phase, they concretize the purchase finally on the website that they found.
Speaker B:So as we both are German, we tend to think that if you look at a market you need about three or four, maybe five marketplaces and then you.
Speaker B:Fine.
Speaker B:I guess that is different in France.
Speaker B:So how many marketplaces are there to consider if you are a brand and say okay, I want to be present on the main platforms.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:So what I can.
Speaker A:I can say is in.
Speaker A:In France we have like in the top 10.
Speaker A:We have Zalando, we have Vinted, that is a second and platform.
Speaker A:That is not a marketplaces.
Speaker A:We have ASOS, we have Amazon, we have VP and that's.
Speaker A:And we have La Redut but after the top 10.
Speaker C:But is this, Deborah, if you are telling us the names of them, is this a focused fashion and sports for you?
Speaker C:Yeah, because this is quite important.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, sorry, sorry, didn't mention it.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's a focus on fashion.
Speaker A:So what I would say is let.
Speaker A:Let's focus on fashion it in which I have much more expertise.
Speaker A:I would say that it's important for a brand to be on Zalando.
Speaker A:It's important for a brand to be on VP as well.
Speaker A:VP is an outlet channel.
Speaker A:So doing like the history of V is that they were doing flash sales and they move into a marketplace business model but they are doing mainly outlet.
Speaker A:Even if we are able to push current collection, they are known for like off price season.
Speaker A:So I think those are the two main one like in terms of importance of number of sales, GMV and so on.
Speaker A:Then you have all the department store that are very well known in France and here for images and here you have guenery, Lafayette, Printon, Biageve, Vincat 7.
Speaker A:You have many one on those areas.
Speaker A:But I would say that this is much more for image than for generating a huge volume of sales.
Speaker A:But it's important for when you are much more premium brand.
Speaker A:It's important to be there as well because your customer is finally looking for like your product there and then you have, you have the vintage, let's say competition, even if it's not the direct competition.
Speaker A:We know that in France the first website for fashion is Vinted.
Speaker A:So meaning that yes, it's like it's crazy.
Speaker A:It's a second hand business mostly run by customer like by customer like you and me for the other customer.
Speaker A:So it's not for a brand, it's not a B2B business or B2C business, but your brand.
Speaker A:If you are a brand, let's say on a brand perspective, your brand are sell or sold in all those places and as well in Vited.
Speaker A:So I think it's important to have in mind that the customer have this mentality and the way of thinking that secondhand is a possibility.
Speaker A:And I will have a look into the second end business because as Ingrid was saying at the beginning price is very important and price pressure is very important in France as well.
Speaker A:So yeah, if I have to recommend like let's say for the fashion brand to who they should be, to where they should be selling.
Speaker A:I would say if you want an image, go on the department store and if you want like to drive sales go on Zalando and Vin Preve VP in order to drive volumes.
Speaker C:And speaking about prices and volumes because we had this overview about the top five online stores in France and they always mentioned like Amazon, AliExpress.
Speaker C:Yeah, vinted as you said already, Shein and Vipe and yeah, speaking about Maybe she in first and then Amazon because I think AliExpress is not really relevant for fashion.
Speaker C:How do you see these two ones?
Speaker A:Okay, so I will have let's say the same feedback as a French brand having in the market.
Speaker C:I can guess what's coming.
Speaker A:Now I think you all heard about the story about the bhv but I will tell it once again just for everyone to be aware.
Speaker A:So Shein is now part of the BHV store.
Speaker A:BBHV is the one biggest department store in Paris, located in the Marais.
Speaker A:So it's the well known for fashion and it has been like crisis internally.
Speaker A:Many brands say that they cannot be close to Sheen so they want to go out of be just because of that.
Speaker A:So I feel this is a bit the behavior and the mindset of the French brands and French markets.
Speaker A:We want to fight against Sheins coming in France and we want to fight against them because we feel that it's not fair enough the way that a brand has regulation, rules and all the things needed to go inside the French market.
Speaker A:Whereas they can go in like super quickly, super fast.
Speaker A:On the other hand, we feel that having no duty, no taxes on product with a basket under €50 is unfair competition also against all the other things.
Speaker A:So what I would say is of course we have a price pressure, we have a politic and unstability, let's say that push the customer to go for the cheapest price, but has a brand perspective and an agency fighting for brands, fighting for how to grow in the European market.
Speaker A:We will fight against Sheins and we have many alternatives to fight against Sheins coming in the market.
Speaker A:And we are here to support brands in all those things, to not let them penetrate the market as much as they are doing now.
Speaker B:Yeah, they already are doing that.
Speaker B:Because I feel your passion here and I think that you share that with the whole French fashion industry.
Speaker B:But I'm not sure if the French customer is sharing this kind of passion because Shein is making quite a lot of money in France as well.
Speaker B:So how can you win the customers back from those platforms?
Speaker A:I think there is many things.
Speaker A:First thing is, you know, we have the brand DNA of being like sustainable, making high quality product and all those things.
Speaker A:So I think the way we can differentiate to Sheen product is basically to work on what we call the desirability, desirability of a brand.
Speaker A:So how much the brand can be, how the value of the brands can be seen for the final customer and to fight against that.
Speaker A:And what we will say is we have many platforms emphasizing the sustainable things, the way it has been produced, the desirability of the brands, the storytelling around the brands.
Speaker A:And this is a bit our reaction compared to Shein product and what we can do and what I can also share is I agree with you.
Speaker A:Shein is penetrating the market and the French customer is looking for shippers product and they will maybe continue buying on Shein product.
Speaker A:But on the other hand we are like hoping that we have new rules coming in, coming in the market that will Reduce and give them some entry barriers to to go further.
Speaker A:This is the first thing.
Speaker A:The second thing is I read that from this morning I heard that Le Nouveau Bazaar is like something created by Eco and Kot.
Speaker A:This is a girl fighting like against all the Chinese market.
Speaker A:And all those things is creating with all the brands that have quit the Bias Bay and all the other brands that want to be inside of this participation a concept store in the Marais in the same area of Beageville in order to support the thing that we are against Sheens coming in.
Speaker A:So I think that we have little and little organizations fighting all each other.
Speaker A:We are the first country that have taken the voice to say we are against the entry of the Chinese marketplaces Chinese industry workshop inside of the market.
Speaker A:But we are also the first country known for fashion as well.
Speaker A:So we feel that we can maybe be the first one and have all the community behind us to follow and maybe will help us to find what I would has again buyer entry buyer for like Shein to penetrate much more than they are doing now.
Speaker B:That's really interesting, you know, because Valdrimi have been debating about the case of Pimkey working together with Shein which was in the news a few weeks ago and where the fashion establishment also reacted quite violently from our more relaxed German point of view.
Speaker B:Yeah, so.
Speaker B:But it's really interesting to hear the passion that is behind this and how the fashion industry is trying to unite here.
Speaker B:Still just one final question on the Shein topic here.
Speaker B:Because if they like it or not, the brands are already present on the Shein marketplace because in France it also opened as a marketplace if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker B:And Valerie did some research on that and found a lot of western brands already active or already present on the marketplace of Shein.
Speaker B:Mostly not by because the brand themselves wanted to be there, but because the products found their way there through grey market or through third party retailers and stuff like that.
Speaker B:So how is the French fashion industry reacting to this?
Speaker A:You see the reaction with Pinky.
Speaker A:I think this is the same reaction that we honestly Pinky has made a huge buzz in France.
Speaker A:I didn't heard about other brands coming in the Shein market as a marketplaces but I feel that the brands coming in are not what we have as a French brand DNA.
Speaker A:You see what I mean?
Speaker A:But the.
Speaker A:The Pinky one is.
Speaker A:I think it's the same is a good example of the feeling of the French brands of French customer of having a Brandon Sheen.
Speaker A:We are again we are against against it.
Speaker A:Even if we cannot compete with what is, what is coming in.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker C:I think it's quite interesting.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:And that's like moving the shift from Shaheen because I would say if I think about Amazon 10, 15 years ago, I would say it was.
Speaker C:Yeah, we talked about it because I mean, I remember like 10 years ago I was a vendor manager in Amazon Fashion as well.
Speaker C:And I also worked a lot together with French colleagues.
Speaker C:And I mean, I just remember when I was on trade fairs, for example, I said like, hey, I'm from Amazon.
Speaker C:They were like, okay, please leave, go away.
Speaker C:I can imagine that employees are feeling quite similar right now.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:I cannot tell you how much messages I'm receiving From Shein Timu AliExpress asking for brands to come in.
Speaker A:And we always say, yeah, we, we are having the same reaction as the one you were facing into the fair.
Speaker A:Go, go far away, my guy.
Speaker C:I mean, but time has changed, right?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I mean for Amazon, I mean, 10 years later, I mean I, I still see that they're like speaking about fashion and sports, like the really premium luxury brands, they are still not there.
Speaker C:And Amazon is always trying and trying, trying.
Speaker C:But I would say price entry, mid price brands, basic products, kids products.
Speaker C:There are a lot of load of brands who are selling on Amazon fashion as well in France.
Speaker C:So how, how would you say like came or where did this shift came from?
Speaker A:I would say that even today Amazon is not really.
Speaker A:So it's on the top of fashion.
Speaker A:But if you analyze deeper what is sold in France, what you will see is they are selling pants, panties, sorry, yeah, underwear, whitish.
Speaker A:So finally, not fashion.
Speaker A:Fashion is not like basics.
Speaker A:It's not like.
Speaker A:So, so at the end, you see what I mean?
Speaker A:It's not, it's not the French brand, it's not the French DNA.
Speaker A:It's not the French fashion attitude.
Speaker A:It's not all the things that we are caring about.
Speaker A:Sustainability, the desirability of a brand.
Speaker A:All these things are not visible on Amazon.
Speaker A:So even here, okay, things have changed.
Speaker A:Brands are more willing to go on Amazon for sure.
Speaker A:But at the end, what are they selling there?
Speaker A:They are not selling.
Speaker A:They are selling the basic product, the carryover.
Speaker C:Yeah, but I mean selling fashion like selling basics.
Speaker C:Basics are still clothes.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, it's clothes, but not fashion.
Speaker C:Maybe it's a definition of fashion where it's clothing, which is like, maybe we should switch here.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:If we sell clothes.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:Amazon is quite a good way.
Speaker C:Right, Right.
Speaker B:You can see it's grudging.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:I think Depending on the brand you are.
Speaker A:But yeah, I will say that definitely there is KPI that I cannot, like, contest.
Speaker A:It's part of the top 10 in the French industry, even in fashion.
Speaker A:So definitely Amazon is the place to be for certain kind of fashion brand.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:And now switching slightly the categories in terms of sports and sports clothing.
Speaker C:Yeah, well, it was.
Speaker C:It's always a bit difficult to really, like, squeeze out who are the.
Speaker C:Who are the niche or specialized marketplaces.
Speaker C:Yeah, I would still say that Amazon is here quite huge.
Speaker C:Correct.
Speaker C:We mentioned also decathlon.
Speaker A:Yeah, very good one.
Speaker C:Salando and Sheen are on our lists and we still have generalists like ebay, C discount, Oshuan, AliExpress and Timu on the list.
Speaker C:But not telling, like, sports specific.
Speaker C:Who would you say is, like, really important, a really important marketplace for sports brands?
Speaker A:Definitely decathlon.
Speaker A:Nothing to compare with the other one that you mentioned.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:Not even Salando.
Speaker A:No, no, no, no.
Speaker A:Zalando as well is a very good one, but not specialist as a spot.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker A:Rather than decathlon is specialist for the sport.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:So what I would say is the difference between those two is on decathlon, you will not look for a brand or not look for, let's say, inspirational, emotional commerce as you do for Amazon.
Speaker A:Zalando.
Speaker B:Sorry.
Speaker A:So on Zalando, you are navigating, looking for emotional commerce and finally finding your sports brands.
Speaker A:On decathlon, you are looking for an activity.
Speaker A:So a sport activity.
Speaker A:If you are doing hiking, then the way you search and the way you navigate into decathlon will be searching by the kind of sports you are doing.
Speaker A:And I think this is a quite interesting way for sports brands to be known and visible for the customer.
Speaker A:Indeed, we have a brand, for example, that we carry for different marketplaces and the same product can be seen as a fashion.
Speaker A:So, like, it's raining shoes.
Speaker A:So it can be like fashion shoes, but it can be also visible on decathlon in a sport area.
Speaker A:And I think then you are targeting two different kind of people.
Speaker A:One that is looking much more for fashion.
Speaker A:And this is the one you will get with Zalando and the ones really looking for sports performance, sport capabilities, sport equipment, technicity, and all those things you will carry with the catalog.
Speaker B:What would you say about the marketplaces of the big French supermarket chains?
Speaker B:Because they keep showing up in my reports like Ancient or Cafe, and they keep showing up for actually most of the categories in a more or less relevant way, but they are always there.
Speaker B:How important are them?
Speaker A:I cannot give you, like an insight here.
Speaker A:Honestly, for fashions it's not relevant at all.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:But maybe it can be for like electronics or for like kitchen apparel or stuff, I don't know.
Speaker A:But for the fashion industry it's, it's not relevant at all.
Speaker B:Interesting.
Speaker A:No, the only one that we didn't mention like outside of fashion that is really relevant in, in France is La Redout.
Speaker A:So La Redoute is like making approx.
Speaker A:Half of the turnover based on fashion and the rest based on home and decoration.
Speaker C:And this is, I'm ordering them a home decoration.
Speaker A:Yeah, they have an amazing brand called mpm.
Speaker A:Really crazy.
Speaker A:So I think they, they have moving from a fashion history to like the home decoration industry.
Speaker A:And they are really well known in France with a very good like KPIs in terms of customer experience, the French customer.
Speaker A:So La Rodut, to give you a bit of history, it used to be the book that you were collecting in your home.
Speaker A:So every, like every season you are getting a book with all those things and you were ordering, you know, by phone or with like not emails but with papers and so on.
Speaker A:So it's a very old company that everyone knows in France because of this history.
Speaker C:Like our auto.
Speaker A:Yeah, same, same.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I think it's a part of the marketplace panorama in France.
Speaker A:We should definitely mention La Reduste as a key player.
Speaker A:Half for fashion, half for home and decoration.
Speaker B:Yeah, we had, we had them in the home and decoration section of our country quadrant, but it did fill out of fashion because others were more important or more, it seemed rising more in the ranks, at least from the numbers that I'm.
Speaker B:I got.
Speaker A:It's correct, correct, correct.
Speaker B:Okay, so what would you say are the biggest challenges at the moment for French brands and French sellers?
Speaker B:Apart from we have already been talking about the Chinese platforms coming in and how you're fighting back on those.
Speaker B:So of course this is I guess a huge topic.
Speaker B:But apart from that, what are the challenges for, especially for smaller mid sized brands?
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:What I would say is for sure is the price pressure.
Speaker A:So we are in a momentum in which customers are looking for price.
Speaker A:So you need to fight against the price pressure and the way you can fight against the price pressure is to work on your brand desirability.
Speaker A:So how you can work on your brand desirability on the marketplace channel, first is your content.
Speaker A:Content is the first key if you want to promote your brand in a high level of visibility.
Speaker A:So having the right picture is not enough.
Speaker A:Now we are pushing brands to have lifestyle picture videos in order to Emphasize and to showcase what is a brand DNA.
Speaker A:This is the first thing.
Speaker A:Second things is making the emotional commerce so coming from like very transactional phases to emotional ones.
Speaker A:So it came from the content but it came also from the way you will advertise your products.
Speaker A:So create Mood Boards for instance inside of the marketplaces.
Speaker A:Take Nano Influence in order to promote your brands at let's say low cost, low budget.
Speaker A:In order in all, in all you remember at the beginning we mentioned that 70% of the customer are getting inspired before buying.
Speaker A:So I think influence, Mood board and all those things are really important in the way they purchase online.
Speaker A:So create your own content with a high level of quality and advertise it a bit with what is talking to.
Speaker A:Finally the Gen Z that is buying online is nano Influence getting Mood boards doing like all the things that is finally inspiring the customer before making the purchase.
Speaker A:So I would say this is the area that a brand should be focused on today in order to fight against the price sensibility and the price pressure.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:And like, yeah, like almost closing here.
Speaker C:I have one final question, Deborah.
Speaker C:What would you say like is the outlook for the coming year for the marketplace business in France?
Speaker C:Do you have like any, I don't know, insights or.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:I can share with you my personal like personal feeling.
Speaker A:I would say that the second hand will increase more and more because I think that in all this like behavior, feelings of price pressure, having the desirability of a brand, for instance, if you, you look at Vinted, what are the top brands sell?
Speaker A:They are the much more premium that are known in the industry.
Speaker A:So I think that people are like having the price pressure but wanted to have premium products, the good stuff.
Speaker A:So I think that this is the way that the industry will move.
Speaker A:So Vinted growing up having second hand part of like in all the key marketplaces, Zalando, La Redout and also in the brand Eshop.
Speaker A:So this is I think the first area, second area is of course I will talk about AI.
Speaker A:I think the way of consuming will be a bit different.
Speaker A:We will not be navigating anymore but much more chatting with the chat box, asking what I need for which purpose and all those things.
Speaker A:And I think also today we didn't mention TikTok but I think TikTok has penetrated the French market and the Spanish and the Italian market a few months ago.
Speaker A:It's not for the moment the target of the brands at the agent we carry.
Speaker B:It's not interesting.
Speaker A:No, the average basket is very low at TikTok today.
Speaker A:But I think that this we are keeping an eye.
Speaker A:So I think this can be changing, this can be moving.
Speaker A:Because in the other way as people like to get inspired, I think they will at a certain moment will have to to go into the live shopping for even for premium baskets.
Speaker A:So for today it's not the case but can like can be moving.
Speaker B:How did TikTok shops start out in France?
Speaker B:France anyway?
Speaker B:Did they move fast or is that a slow development at the moment?
Speaker A:No, it's on my end, like on my career, which is fashion.
Speaker A:It's slow.
Speaker A:I think it's moving fast on the beauty one.
Speaker A:But again we had a study, I think it was a month ago.
Speaker A:I think the sources was Nielsen's Judy saying that 89 of the sales are coming for basket under 25 or 30 Euro.
Speaker A:So really low basket, so really low basket.
Speaker A:On fashion you cannot carry anything rather than on beauty, I think it's the perfect match.
Speaker A:And also getting inspired having videos showing how they can demonstrate the product is completely matching with the beauty industry much more than I think with the fashion.
Speaker A:But I think this is the case today.
Speaker A:We need to keep an eye on what will be the case tomorrow.
Speaker A:And I'm feeling that live shopping will be moving.
Speaker A:It's like it's at the beginning and it's gonna having a great future.
Speaker B:Fits what you said in the beginning that the French customer likes to be inspired.
Speaker B:So that is.
Speaker B:Would be actually a good match.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Right, great.
Speaker B:Thanks for your insights, Deborah.
Speaker A:Thanks.
Speaker B:Really interesting to get your insider look into not only the French marketplace landscape, but sort of in the French fashion mentality in a way which shapes so much consumer behavior and also how the fashion industry itself reacts to the challenges of the day.
Speaker B:So thank you for joining us.
Speaker A:Thanks to you.
Speaker A:Thanks for having me on board.
Speaker A:And that's it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Thank you so much, Deborah.
Speaker C:And thank you all for listening.
Speaker C:I think that was quite insightful about French marketplace business with a huge twist and focus on fashion and sports.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So I mean, yeah, we had so many topics from AI to Chinese takeover or not take over French consumer behavior and how you're fighting back.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So it was quite interesting to see it like a different country perspective, which we cannot do if we are not locals.
Speaker C:I mean we need to have this input there.
Speaker C:So thank you so much.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:And thanks to all of you for listening and if you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to like and subscribe and leave us a comment.
Speaker B:No matter if you're tuning in on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or YouTube, wherever.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Your feedback really helps us to consider great new episodes like this one.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So Valerie, what can our listeners expect from next episode?
Speaker C:Next episode will be actually the one I will do alone with Laura Maria Schmidt because Ingrid is on family holiday in London and I take over and I will talk with Laura as the lead of Marketplace business at snox, a German D2C fashion brand for body wear and sportswear about how they are active on 11 marketplaces in six European countries.
Speaker C:And I'm quite excited about that.
Speaker C:Yeah, so it's a lot about like fashion focused in the past.
Speaker C:Actually that's quite good because what we didn't said at all before is that I will take a longer break in a few episodes and therefore I need to like push out all the fashion knowledge, all the fashion stuff.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And then Ingrid can take over.
Speaker C:Yeah, more on that soonish.
Speaker B:And I'm sure you're gonna have a great episode with Laura because she's known for being refreshingly open about anything that she's doing in the Marketplace business.
Speaker B:So she will tell you a lot of learnings and insights and maybe even a few fuck ups along the way.
Speaker B:So that's going to be great.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So thanks for the day and bye bye.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker A:Bye bye.
Speaker B:You listen to let's Talk Marketplace, the.
Speaker C:Marketplace podcast with Ingrid Lommer and Vanariti.
Speaker B:It.