July 15, 2024
US
What are the most visited e-commerce sites in France, and what are their strategies for attracting traffic? To answer these questions, Semrush, a company specialized in SEO analysis and digital marketing, has published a study on the retail sector in France. Between January 2022 and February 2024, i.e. “after the end of COVID-19 restrictions”, Semrush collected data for 5413 retail domains in Europe, with a particular focus on 106 domains in France. To formulate its conclusions, the online visibility management platform relied on its own tools, such as Traffic Analytics, Market Explorer, and Organic Search. Here are the main findings of the study.
Unsurprisingly, Amazon maintains its dominant position in the retail sector in France, with an average traffic of 228.7 million visitors, according to Semrush. It is well ahead of its competitors such as CDiscount (54.3 million), Leroy Merlin (39.7 million), AliExpress (37.2 million) and Fnac (35.3 million). The ranking also includes French companies such as Darty (18.2 million), Carrefour (21.4 million) and Boulanger (17.3 million).
To attract so many visits, e-commerce players in France rely mainly on two sources of traffic: direct traffic (48.4%) and organic search (39.2%). Although these platforms dominate the organic search landscape with several million keywords, the share of direct traffic remains slightly higher in France than at the European level. This trend reflects consumer behavior that favors direct access to retailer sites, thus underlining the strength of the brand and its visibility in organic search, explains Semrush.
In addition, 8.3% of e-commerce site traffic comes from referrals, which shows the importance of partnerships and backlinks. Emailing and newsletters generate 1.9% of traffic.
Some players, local or international, rely on paid advertising to increase their traffic in France, by launching campaigns on search engines and social networks. The supermarket chain Lidl saw its share of paid traffic increase by 5,156% between 2022 and 2023. Other brands such as Cultura (+554%), Action (+211%) and Zara (+110%) follow a similar strategy. Among the 15 main e-commerce sites in France, only Ikea recorded a significant increase in paid traffic (+76%).
Although paid search contributes to a lower share of overall traffic (2.3%), it is paying off for some platforms. Several sites that have invested in promotional campaigns, such as Lidl, Courir, Action or Marionnaud, are among the 20 e-commerce sites that recorded the highest growth in traffic between 2022 and 2023. Other local players such as Intermarkt (+42.5%), Carrefour (+25.9%) and Nocibé (+18.7%) also saw notable increases.
Julie Farley, EMEA Marketing Director at Semrush, highlights the key points for brands:
“In 2024, the online retail sector in France is changing rapidly. Google's frequent updates created a vastly different landscape in mid-2024. Online stores are now surpassing news sites for transactional queries. Moreover, the participation of women has increased significantly, now representing 53.54% of buyers.
To remain competitive, brands need to increase their online visibility. It is no longer enough to place keywords and accumulate backlinks; you need to offer a personalized, fluid and mobile-optimized user experience.
Familiarity with a brand reinforces consumers' cognitive trust, simplifying their buying journey and making interactions more intuitive and reliable. Emotional triggers, centered on product variety and customer reviews, play a key role in this dynamic, making brand strategy more crucial than ever. Brands need to highlight authentic reviews and communicate clearly about the variety of their offerings to capture a wider audience.
In short, brands must anticipate and adapt to consumer expectations, while offering an intuitive and reliable user experience.”
The Semrush study reveals that, in order to maintain and increase their traffic, e-commerce sites in France must combine a strong organic presence with well-targeted digital marketing strategies. Brands must not only optimize their SEO, but also strengthen brand loyalty and recognition through a quality user experience and effective advertising campaigns.
Source: BDM
