If the French retail market has described 2022 as a “poker game” regarding digitalisation of promotional leaflets, retailers have laid their cards on the table last year. Digital and paper formats still co-exist today, but the focus has shifted. Retailers moved from indeterminate communication (unaddressed paper leaflets put in mailboxes) to a voluntary and targeted approach. While E.Leclerc and Cora grocery retailers made a radical U-turn (E.Leclerc decided to invest millions of Euros in TV advertising to publish an end to paper leaflets), rival Carrefour preferred to invest in digital advertising to invite customers to find promotional leaflets information via the app. “It seems that the decline of paper leaflets has given retailers real resources to promote digital devices more actively,” sums up Mathieu Lepoutre, Global Media Offers Director at Fifty Five.
In “Yes Ad” zones, opt-in caps at 15%
If French retailers are getting ready for digital leaflets, it is because the roll-out of Yes Ad nationwide is expected in 2025, following pilots since September 2022. “The market is almost certain that Yes Ad will eventually be rolled out on a national basis, and we expect that it will be in 2025”, said Romain Roulleau, CDO of Castorama France. In 13 areas, 85% of households no longer want paper leaflets in letterboxes. The retailers we interviewed all mentioned that the average rate of sticker adoption was between 13% and 15%. “This means that some areas have an opt-in rate of 5% and others 25%”, said a Marketing Director speaking on condition of anonymity. These low figures, which match with the 13% communicated exclusively by Adot to mind Retail in May 2023, should thus become the norm from 2025.
As far as e-shoppers users concerned, the switch to digital leaflet has gained ground gradually, with specificities depending on the region and type of customers. The French consumers, who are been used to paper catalogues for decades, have readily adopted PDF versions (with pages to slip), which record average read time from 2 to 3 minutes at food retailers, compared with a few seconds for a digital video ad. “It’s already an extraordinary reading time, and it’s certainly going to get longer in the future,” observed Mathieu Lepoutre.
However, the business models of leaflet distributors such as Adrexo and Mediapost have not changed. “To reach 15% of letterboxes, retailers have to pay the same price as to reach 100%,” added Romain Roulleau. It doesn’t make sense to send someone out just to reach one household out of seven. At Castorama, we have therefore completely stopped distribution in Yes Ad zones”. Most retailers in these areas have done the same.
Paper distribution almost halved but commercial operations rose
At Castorama France, the data obtained by mind Retail enables us to draw up a cumulative 3-year trend.
