Carrefour and Cora start electrical retail assault with private labels and online catalogues

On a 900m-euro market, with sales plunging by as much as 50%,
hypermarkets are coming up with cheaper products than those of
specialised retailers and are trying to push their market share up
from the current 30%. Two of the biggest hypermarket networks on
the market, Carrefour and Cora, have stepped up their assault on
the segment of electronics and electrical home appliances despite
the ongoing crisis, during a period of 40-50% falling demand for
such products. “On this segment, hypermarkets have a pragmatic
approach: they particularly mainly sell products targeting the
large mass of clients; they bet on a small range of products, on
highly precise segmentation and on brands that are market leaders
on the respective categories,” comments Ionut Pascu, senior project
manager with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. Carrefour launched
Carrefour Home private label electrical home appliances several
months ago, which are cheaper than the established brands available
in the French network’s hypermarkets, while Cora has created an
online catalogue this year designed to promote the electronics and
electrical home appliances available in its stores.