Home shopping in France: opportunities and threats - Study 2013 - Some ways to growth

1. The world of home-shopping:
imagination, motivations, hindrances
and prospects in view of the major
consumption trends and the
expectations of Generations X,Y,Z....
September 2013

2. The aim
 To forecast how home-shopping might evolve in France, and
identify possible growth sources.
 The methodological approach used for this study is to put the consumer at the heart of
our thinking, so that we shift from a strategy of supply to one of demand.
 We set out to “meet” women from 35 to 55 years of age in Paris and the Greater
Paris region, some home-shoppers and others not, in order to understand how
they relate to home-shopping (motivations, hindrances, expectations) and how
they see it evolving in future.

3. The new century has plunged us into a time of
unparalleled change
 The 21st century features radical shifts never experienced before:
 An ecological shift, bringing a whole train of climate changes with consequences
for the survival of entire populations
 An economic shift with changing energy availability and the realization that
capitalism in its current unregulated form, based on the use of limited raw material
stocks, is a model that cannot go on forever: if everyone lived the way people live
in North America we’d need 5 planets like Earth
 A digital shift, with ICT and its flood of instant information challenging current
political assumptions, not to mention economic ones (nanotechnology) and human
ones (the way we relate to others)
 A genetic shift, with our ability to tinker with the human genome
 These shifts are moving our landmarks, making us less confident in the future,
bankrupting ideologies and trashing grand projects and collective schemes:
 “The biological revolution which began with molecular biology and genetic
engineering will speed up … extending life expectancy,… and will lead to powerful
social and political tensions.” Joël de Rosnay, futurologist

4. These transformations mean we have to radically
rethink the way we live
 What we are now facing is a real crossroads, which raises fundamental questions
about the conditions under which a worldwide society could be fair and sustainable:
 Our world has to be re-established on foundations that are acceptable for
everyone … The big question, then, is about our capacity to recover a sense of
limits, which means doing without the fetish of economic growth and the ideology of
progress.” Paul Ariès, political scientist
 “We are leaving behind materialistic values focusing on material security.”
Pascale Hébel, Crédoc sociologist
 Against this background, the all-out consumption model which has been a feature of
Western society throughout recent decades is crumbling, all the faster because
consumers are realizing that unrestrained consumption does not automatically
mean happiness:
 Compare the “paradox of happiness” pointed out by Richard Easterlin, who showed
how the rise in real incomes during the 1970s did not necessarily lead to an increase
in well-being.

5. In France, the new century’s first decade has been
one of fear and disillusionment
 Spreading globalization has changed the situation by displacing the axis of economic
activity:
 The West is losing its economic monopoly (and its cultural one before long?)
 The emerging countries now account for over two-thirds of world growth
 The situation in France is very worrying: a massive public deficit, bottomless national
debt, constantly rising unemployment, and a balance of trade heavily in the red …
 French people’s morale is down as a result: most of them (61%) say they are
pessimistic about the future of French society (CSA Nov 2012). This feeling is
shared by an intelligentsia busily warning that society needs a new model:
 “Political action must be conceived no longer in terms of a revolution to come, but of
a catastrophe to be warded off – if indeed there is still time.” Jean-Pierre Dupuy,
philosopher

6. Losing their bearings, people idealise a past in which
“it all made sense”
 Loss of confidence in the future, caused by the crisis, itself causes a deep nostalgia
for an idealized past. Inventing an (imaginary) collective past with a halo of carefree
insouciance is one way of recovering some bearings in a world that shifts very fast (too
fast):
 The boom in antiques, the success of craft products, the return to local produce, the
popularity of iconic singers and groups from the 1970s or 80s
 Often it’s the time of one’s childhood which acts as the anchorage in which the
imagination takes refuge:
 Generation X loves to go antique-hunting: very keen on 1950s decor, crazy about the
icons of its childhood (Dorothée, Malabar…)
 Generation Y loves revisiting the 1990s (Batman, Spiderman…), manga, etc…

7. Now given these shifts in decor:
I. How do people relate to home-shopping: imaginations,
motivations, hindrances and frustrations?
II. What lessons can be learned? How are things going to
evolve?
Will home-shopping, in France, manage to catch the turning tide
and rebuild its original lead?

8. Find avenues for reflection and initial materials for an
answer in this study conducted with the help of
Sandrine Popovitch, Marketing, Prospective and
Innovation consultant.
 Presentation of results and discussion: €2,500 + VAT
 Presentation of results and half-day creativity session: €3,900 + VAT
 Las Vegas offer (valid until 26/9/2013): -20%

9. THANK YOU
Marie-Laure Barrau
DRC Founder & CEO
52 Boulevard Sébastopol
75003 PARIS
mlbarrau@direct-response-consulting.com
+33.(0)6.66.25.37.63