Carrefour Relaunches E-Commerce in Brazil

For the second time, French company, Carrefour, will launch e-commerce in South America's largest economy. At first, the new operation will include non-food items. The sale of food items is projected to start in 2017.

Following an unsuccessful experience between 2010 and 2012, the Brazilian arm of Carrefour, Grupo Carrefour Brasil, relaunched its e-commerce platform yesterday, July 26. Carrefour.com is the result of two years of investments of high tech and specialized equipment for the sector. The new e-commerce that includes a team of 300 employees will be run by Francisco Donato, former Walmart.com and Magazine Luiza manager.

With the new e-commerce platform, the Brazilian operation of the company becomes the only one in the world with all formats.

"The beginning of the e-commerce operation in Brazil reinforces our omnichannel strategy. We invest in high performance technological solutions and in qualified professionals to construct an innovative operation," said Charles Desmartis, GEO of Group Carrefour Brasil.

After observing how e-commerce functioned in Carrefour stores in France and Spain, Donato brought the European know-how and made adaptions for Brazilian consumers. In the beginning, the website will offer a variety of products from 12 categories divided between Home and Family, Tech and Electronics, Health and Well-Being and Kids.

"Our focus will be on Home and Family. Our research reveals that the image of Carrefour Brasil, our brand, is associated with Home and Family. We will sell electronics, because we need to sell electronics as well," explained Desmartis.

By the end of 2016, the website will increase its product offerings starting with its marketplace operation, including Automotive and Tools, Culture and Leisure, Fashion and Pets.

"We intend on being an Amazon. Our operation will be slim, but with quality," said Donato.

Food items are expected to be sold via the site next year.

"It's natural given that food sales is an enormous part of Carrefour. Besides this is something that is rarely explored in Brazil, and we want to be the leaders in this," explained Donato.

Looking to the long term future, the retailer is also betting on progressive integration of this platform with physical stores. This will make it possible for customers inside of the hypermarkets to acess the e-commerce site, integrating the channels and providing a wider variety of products. According to Donato, clients will be provided with many services that will make things easier like exchanges and returns and technical support of the e-commerce site inside the physical stores.

"By the end of the year we want to have 30,000 items available on Carrefour.com. In 2017, we want to have 200,000," said Donato.

In the first stage of the company's plans, the e-commerce platform with service the highly populated Southeast region of the country that includes Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

"First, we want to take a look at the performance of the operation in the Southeast and gradually expand to the South, Midwest, Northeast and North, respectively. This take place in the coming months," said Donato.

Carrefour.com will rely exclusively on a distribution center in Embu das Artes, Sao Paulo.

Read more at Supermercado Moderno (in Portuguese) Carrefour Relaunches E-Commerce in Brazil