Five Things Friday (EU)– Delipop folds, JD.com courts MediaMarkt, summer luxury slump, Picnic’s Paris push, France’s fast‑fashion clamp‑down

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello, Happy Friday, It's Augustand welcome to Five Things
Friday, European edition. Hello Alex, how you doing?

(00:21):
Hi, how are you? Yeah, I'm good.
Thank you. This is the first time you're
watching. My name's Alex.
I hope retailers maintain their thought leadership at the major
conferences across the globe. And I'm joined by my wonderful
Co host, Alex Wassant. Alex, what do you do?
I work for Business First, the French Trade Commission in
London and I help French retail technology companies to expand

(00:43):
in the UK but also British retailers to find innovative
solutions in. France plastic.
And so without any further ado, let's just jump straight in five
things Friday. Let's see what we have today.
So why don't we start with you, Alex?
Yeah. So today's first news is about

(01:04):
something we discussed in the 1st episode of Five Things
Friday. So we discussed the boom of the
Dr thru model in France and we mentioned as well the pedestrian
model. So this topic will resonate in
different ways since it is aboutBelly Pop, a startup that
offered robotic and multi brand grocery picker points, which is

(01:27):
unfortunately shutting down. So they have launched in 2021
and they allowed users to collect online grocery orders
from several retail. So this is different from the,
for example, the Luclaire model,which was its own brand model.
This one was for several retailers, including Carfur and

(01:47):
Tarmarche Monoprey, and they were using automated lockers
open from 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM. The idea was to create a more
efficient and shared alternativeto traditional pedestrian Dr
throughs. But in the end, the concept, the
concept didn't really scale. Dalipop only opened nine
locations and that they faced many obstacles including

(02:12):
regulatory push back from Paris,being confused with quick
commerce models. They also had a limited investor
interest and most importantly I think changing retail
environment. So they had originally aimed for
1000 locations by 2027 but the roll out never took off.

(02:33):
So I think this is. So I know you've highlighted two
or three different reasons on why they failed, but you think
that's more ultimately it's consumers not wanting to pick up
from lockers or I just love whatDr throughs I.
Think this is mainly a reminder that the if the environment

(02:54):
isn't ready, even promising ideas can struggle.
And this is not. I think the shared automated
pickup points make sense really,especially for reducing delivery
costs and traffic in cities. But between unclear rules and
rising competition from the other lockers and all the

(03:16):
delivery apps, I think it was just not the right timing for
them. So the concept may come back
later, but it will need to be stronger in better conditions to
succeed. Because for example, the look
like 1 was I mean the all the others are really successful as
I mean. So it's a shame to see that, but
hopefully it will come back. OK.

(03:38):
Well, thank you for that. So the next one was obviously
this, the articles from the Financial Times.
But I think it's an interesting development in Chinese
powerhouses trying to create footholds in Europe.
They did try to buy curries in the UK, but they didn't go ahead
with that. And to me that's AI think

(03:58):
they're probably got a European strategy in terms of how do we
buy a major and they'll and they've put a bid in for
Mediumark Saturn. For those who don't know,
Mediumark Saturn is one of the largest electronics retailers
across Europe with 1000 stores. The bid is around is it
mediumark Saturn, Liam, So they they're at Twinton.

(04:20):
Well, I mean, that's bigger thanI thought €22 billion in
turnover in last year, which I think makes them quite
significant. How do you compete with Amazon
in Europe? And I think this is a foothold
that they they they're trying toget whether or not regulators in

(04:40):
Germany approve this, I think itwill be an interesting one to
watch. Are we going to see more of
these in terms of Chinese companies trying to take a
foothold in the retail landscapelike moving on?
We've discussed this. So I've discussed this in in
different show, but they're missing their targets from a

(05:03):
wall from a, an earning perspective.
And one of the reasons this is invoked business that they sort
of comment on a few major brandssuch as Forangmo, Prada Group,
Burberry, Montclair, caring, obviously caring, owning lots of
large brands within the group. A luxury brands, shoppers from

(05:24):
the US and China are basically not buying luxury when they're
coming over. And tourist numbers are down in
general across Europe. Now, I don't know if this is an
outcome of the trade war. So hopefully it's just maybe
this summer that this happens too.
And it's not something we see year on year because I think
that will have detrimental impact on the economies that

(05:47):
depend on tourism. But it definitely is having an
impact on the European brands. And for those who will what, who
may not watch the Asia packed show, but on that show, I was
talking about the rise of Chinese luxury brands that are
serving their local market. So now you've got homegrown

(06:09):
brands. And the one that I was talking
about was was based in Shanghai.They came to Paris Fashion Week.
They launched at Paris Fashion Week.
They did incredibly well. And you know, you can buy their
garments through all of the luxury online platforms such as
Farfetch and all the others. But is this a sign of things to

(06:31):
come where Chinese consumers culturally more aligned with
luxury brands from from from home?
It's an interesting one to watchback over to you.
Thank you, Alex. So I think this third topic will
resonate with boom of ecommerce that we also mentioned in the in

(06:53):
the first episode or the second one.
Remember, you can edit this movie, but there's this Dutch
online supermarket called Picnic.
Very well, they're. Very cool.
They are they just opened a new hub in near Paris.
This is the 10th hub for the brand in the region.

(07:15):
It allows them to serve more than 500,000 households in
cities like Le Valois, Cologne. So it's really interesting to
see that there are expense expanding fast and this move
completes their roll out in their in de France region two

(07:35):
years after launching in the area.
So the concept is very simple. All the deliveries are free,
scheduled in 20 minutes and madewith electrical vehicles.
So there are no physical stalls,just a mobile app and a central
warehouse South of Paris. So the brand now covers 2
million households across the Paris region and continues to

(07:59):
grow fast with more hubs and jobs planned.
And it's also preparing to expand to other major cities by
2026. But they haven't revealed which
one yet, so I'm really excited to see which one is going to be.
And yeah, I think this is a great example of how smart
logistics and a clear focus on service can help retailers scale

(08:22):
fast. That model is very appealing,
especially for busy families. It reminds me of Okado here in
London. But we have to be mindful that
the competition of quick commerce is growing and the
challenge will be keeping the model both efficient and
sustainable at the same time without putting into traps of

(08:43):
the over delivery or unnecessarypackaging.
I remember seeing the C the CEO founder talk shop talk Europe
before, before Covic. So I don't know. 20/19/2018 And
the one thing, and obviously they set up in the Netherlands.
No, I don't know if they're exporting this to Europe, but

(09:05):
the one thing that they really, really, really made a big pay on
is that they are a local community based delivery
company, meaning that that driver who delivers on these
floats are going to they're going to know your name.
It's interesting. And, and maybe that was how they
started and now they are part ofthe quick commerce revolution.

(09:25):
But we feels what they're tryingto do and their network for
expansion was creating these network hubs that the drivers
can sort of service. And you know, like, I don't know
if this was a European thing, but in the UK we used to have
our milk delivered, our milk float like this.
And that's what they're trying to get back to and to create

(09:47):
that community. And that's for them was working
really, really well. And specifically for them, you
know, the ageing demographics such as, you know, people,
pensioners who are retired or people with disability, people
who can't go shopping, who may be alone.
And it was their sort of lifeline or their sort of
communal grocery delivery. So I thought it was an

(10:11):
interesting attack. I have no idea if that's what
they're going to use in Europe or they're just going to be a
quick promise fulfilment like Ocado.
Because Ocado to to me doesn't build a sense of community.
It's just delivery, right? It's efficient delivery and
efficient houses. Whereas this is less efficiency

(10:34):
and more community. But as I.
Said and sustainability as well.That's why the electric crush.
Yes, exactly. Because their principle was why
in I don't know how many 2 million people going to the
grocers or one electric van serving 250 people, 250,000
people at a time. So yeah, really interesting.
I didn't, I didn't even realise they'd moved to France now.

(10:57):
But yeah, great to see. OK, bringing it home for the
last one. Now.
This one's really topical in thesense of I, I always like
stories because I'm a bit of a sci-fi nerd.
I am a nerd. I have to admit.
I like stories that potentially give me a glimpse of the future.
And this is exactly that type ofstory.

(11:17):
And and this is in France and weaccord this is according to Mary
Claire at Dot co.uk. So I'm hoping it's true.
And I'm not just, you know, thiswas in July that this feature
for this article published by Lauren Cunningham basically
saying that France has just madeinfluencing fast fashion a crime

(11:38):
and a lot of eco warriors or people focused on sustainable
etcetera will go fantastic. That's brilliant.
But they've only focused on the Chinese brands.
So on Timu and Shin as being AI presume a criminal offence to be
an influencer. And so Fast forward to the
future where we are in a creatoreconomy, obviously the freedom

(12:02):
then to be a creator for whoeveryou want.
In this instance, you, you can'tpotentially be a creator for a
brand from another country. You can only support European
fast fashion houses such as H&M and Inditex.
So again, maybe there's nuances that I'm overlooking such as the

(12:24):
the products, the transparency behind the products and these
European brands are far more transparent.
So we know the types of ingredients that going on to
thing they're meeting European standards.
So I have to be fair in my assessment.
I can't tell it's just because they're Chinese.
No, because I understand the transparency on the goods.
How are the goods made? There's been lots of coverage of

(12:47):
goods being made with with really bad materials, but it's
super interesting to see the creator economy now being
impacted by these types of laws.So that brings US whirlwind
super fast on 15 minutes. We'll just be underneath 15
minutes. 5 things Friday, European edition.

(13:07):
Are you going to be on a beach anytime soon, Alex?
No, I'm afraid not. OK, we're going to be working
through the What's the weather in the UK like right now?
It's cold and cloudy, 20°, and seriously, I wish I was in South
of France. So this morning it was 37° in
Toulouse, where I'm from. So yeah, I wish I was.

(13:30):
I was there. But that's actually.
Yeah. To say on that bombshell, we're
going to call it. Thank you so much, Alex, and
until thanks for. Having me.

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