The online store On Achète Français, the reference marketplace for Made in France, is growing steadily. Opened in 2020, the ecommerce site now has nearly 6,000 items in its catalog, and works with nearly 150 sellers who place their items on the marketplace.
On Achète Français was initially a simple idea that had been in the minds of the co-founders, Benoit and Carole Venessy, for several years. The idea of the online store is to be able to offer customers, on a single marketplace, a whole range of products made in France, and thus avoid excessive importation. The first lockdown in the spring of 2020 pushed them to take the plunge and open the ecommerce store in line with the values of local consumption and defense of made in France.
Benoit agreed to chat with us, to explain the rapid success of On Achète Français in a niche market and the central role of advertising campaigns in the company’s development.
A measured start, and a PrestaShop migration
During their first months as merchants, Benoit and Carole made the site grow slowly but surely. It is only in spring 2021 that the new Made in France marketplace reached a new level in its development.
The first few months allowed us to ask ourselves the right questions about the ecommerce solution we were using, which was a solution specifically adapted for a marketplace like ours. In April 2021 we told ourselves: ‘we’re making progress, but we’re not going to make it with this solution, we need to migrate.
Benoit Venessy
Initially built on the Kreezalid platform, On Achète Français was so successful that the decision to migrate to a more efficient and adequate platform to address the growth and ambition of the brand was quickly taken. This transition to PrestaShop – also Made in France – will be the beginning of a new era for the brand.
Besides the “huge” SEO benefits that followed the migration to PrestaShop (better crawl of the pages by Google), the marketplace team tested several advertising formats: ads on different social networks, Paid search, and also Smart Shopping Campaigns*, which allow to display your products on different networks, including Google Search, Display, and the Google Shopping tab. Following each campaign, a close observation of the results allowed Carole and Benoit to identify which strategies were the most profitable, and the brand then focused on paid search and Smart Shopping Campaigns*, which represent respectively 20 and 80 percent of the company’s advertising budget.
Following the transition to PrestaShop and the recurring focus on Smart Shopping Campaigns*, the team was introduced to the PrestaShop Marketing with Google module as soon as it was released.
Efficiently tracked marketing campaigns
When the site was opened to the general public, and while waiting to be able to count on traffic from search, several advertising means were put in place to promote the site’s visibility: advertisements on social networks (LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook), paid search and Smart Shopping Campaigns* via Google Ads. The first results were very clear: from a return on investment point of view, the Smart Shopping Campaigns* were systematically the most effective, and “the best way to generate qualified traffic. “
One of the advantages of Google’s Shopping tab is the fact that people who visit it are already engaged in a buying process, unlike ads on social networks, for example, which are seen more for image building, which has notably contributed to a significantly higher ROI for Smart Shopping Campaigns*.
Benoit Venessy
To manage these campaigns, the team can rely on the PrestaShop Marketing with Google module. “A module that is much easier to use than the previous solution,” according to Benoit. The module allows for a completely automated, easy to learn, and fluid use, “even if it took a little time at the beginning to manage shipping costs.”
Today our strategic choices are paying off: paid search and Smart Shopping Campaigns* are very complementary, they allow us to do the targeting we want, and most importantly, they are very profitable.
Benoit Venessy
3 key figures:
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60% of sales come from Smart Shopping Campaigns*
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80% of the brand’s advertising budget goes to Smart Shopping Campaigns*
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3% = conversion rate of Smart Shopping Campaigns*
An ambitious future for the brand and an even more effective advertising strategy
Smart Shopping Campaigns* now achieve a conversion rate of more than 3 percent, and are responsible for 60 percent of sales, which is proof of the success of this advertising strategy.
If more and more traffic comes from SEO, Smart Shopping Campaigns* are still the keystone of the company, which does not prevent Benoit and Carole from always seeking to improve their strategy:
Our advertising strategy, which is currently focused on Smart Shopping Campaigns* and paid search, will have to be adapted: Smart Shopping Campaigns* tend to automatically highlight the products that convert the most, which is a very good thing, but the downside is that some products lack visibility on this channel
Benoit Venessy
What the marketplace team wants is to be able to keep a maximum of automation and efficiency with the Smart Shopping Campaigns* while being able to put forward all the products in the catalog, including those that are not retained by the automation of the campaigns, in order to cover all types of customers, and to satisfy the greatest number of sellers who choose to sell their products on the site.
Another subject that the merchants are dealing with (and not only those behind the On Achète Français site) is the question of tracking:
“Our buyer population, who want to buy made in France products, is certainly more sensitive to privacy and cookie issues than other buyers, which certainly accentuates our difficulties related to purchases tracking. This generates some uncertainty as to where they come from, making ROI calculations for ads a bit more difficult.”
Benoit Venessy
On Achète Français has become one of the reference stores for Made in France. If the constraints linked to this niche market persist (entry-level products are more difficult to offer and products are at a higher prices than those produced abroad, etc.), they are not brakes for Carole and Benoit who are very ambitious for the development of their brand, which is living a beautiful story.
Soon, the site should offer a loyalty program to its customers as well as a mobile application. These are two more arguments to support the marketplaces sellers, in order to cover all the product categories of the store, beyond the best sellers that are food products and home and garden products.
PrestaShop Marketing with Google
Your potential buyers are already online looking for products like the ones you offer. Reach them on Google with PrestaShop Marketing in a few easy steps. Synchronize your product catalog with Google, activate free listings for your items, and create and manage your Smart Shopping Campaigns* and let Google’s smart technology optimize your campaigns on different networks such as Google Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Maps or Gmail.