COUNTRY FOCUS: FRANCE
“
THREE QUARTERS (75%)
OF RETAILERS THINK AUTOMATION
CAN HELP THEM OFFER MORE
SUSTAINABLE AND ENVIRONMENTALLY
FRIENDLY SOLUTIONS.
surveyed said they would prefer to shop with
retailers who use automation to reduce food
waste (69%), reduce consumables such
as printed receipts (63%), improve energy
efficiency (58%) and provide sustainability
information regarding products (52%).
Retailers must understand local trends
As retailers scale up their use of automation
(nearly 21% of stores are currently
automated across areas such as in-store
navigation and order fulfilment, but this
is expected to increase to 36% by 2022),
the report highlights that they need to be
rigorous about understanding customer
needs and concerns locally.
While most consumers think automation has
the potential to address their pain points
in-store, there are both positive and negative
nuances at a country level which the sector
needs to accommodate in order to succeed.
For example, 43% of consumers said they
feel like an ‘unpaid sales assistant’ when
using a self-checkout.
Tim Bridges, Global Head of
Consumer Products, Retail and
Distribution at Capgemini
52
INTELLIGENTCIO
The research also found that retailers
underestimate customer concerns and are
often misaligned with their priorities. While
overall, 59% of customers said they would
avoid a store if it was using facial recognition
to identify them (specifically 53% in the UK,
60% in the US and the Netherlands, 66%
in Germany and 67% India), just 23% of
retailers thought this would be the case.
These contrasts were most significant in
France where just 4% of retailers believed
customers would avoid a store using facial
recognition, while 62% of consumers said
they would avoid these stores.
There are also differences in the importance
that retailers regard automation by retail
subsector. For example, nearly half of
grocery and apparel retailers (47% and
45%, respectively) said their leadership
considers automation a strategic imperative,
compared to just 21% of electronics
retailers, and to an overall average of 40%.
Tim Bridges, Global Head of Consumer
Products, Retail and Distribution at Capgemini,
said: “Automation provides a huge
opportunity for retailers to gain back some
of the ground they’ve lost to digital-native
competitors and protect the market share
they currently have through better efficiency,
more convenience and better sustainability.
Making the right investment choice and
acknowledging the need for a range of
deployments across different functions could
unlock significant potential across both
operational and customer-facing departments.
Even in our technology-centric world it’s rare
to find one investment opportunity with such
wide-reaching potential.”
Capgemini surveyed 500 senior executives
at the director level and above, spread across
the world. Retail sub-sectors included in the
survey were: electronics, grocery, home
improvement, fashion/apparel and quick
service restaurants.
Also providing consumer benefits for in-
store shopping are Wirecard and Orange
Bank, by enabling mobile payments for
even more French consumers. Wirecard,
a global innovation leader for digital
financial technology, and Orange
Bank, are expanding their successful
cooperation and now offering all Android
users in France convenient mobile
payment with Google Pay. Thanks to
Wirecard, Orange Bank has already
established itself as the market leader
for mobile payments in France – 17%
of such payments were made via the
Orange Bank App in 2018. The addition
www.intelligentcio.com