The French e-commerce sector has crossed a milestone in recent years, driven by a continuous increase in the number of transactions. The average basket, on the other hand, is following an opposite trajectory: reduced to €62 in France in 2025, it reflects a more mature market where buyers are more price-sensitive. In this context, increasing online sales requires less focus on attracting additional traffic and more on enhancing the quality of each visit and the relevance of the offer presented.
AI-readable catalogs: an underutilized visibility lever
Generative artificial intelligence is changing the way consumers prepare for their purchases. According to a FEVAD-Odoxa study published in February 2026, 58% of online shoppers use AI before making a purchase, but only 27% during the purchase itself. Trust in these tools diminishes as the payment moment approaches.
This asymmetry has a direct consequence on the structure of online stores. Product sheets, technical attributes, availability data, and delivery conditions must be formulated in a way that can be correctly interpreted by conversational assistants. A catalog with incomplete or poorly structured data risks simply not appearing in the responses generated by these tools.
In practical terms, this involves standardized product descriptions, accurately filled schema.org tags, and real-time updated data feeds. Merchants who are supporting this transition, such as those referenced by E-Ecom, are working to make their catalogs “agentic,” meaning directly usable by AI-based recommendation engines.
E-commerce conversion rates: why traffic volume is no longer enough
The 2026 Digital Experience Benchmark from Contentsquare, based on 46 billion sessions and over 3,800 sites in 25 countries, reports a yearly decline in conversion rates despite an increase in the average basket on some international markets. Visitors browse, compare, and then leave the site without making a purchase.
Multiplying acquisition campaigns does not solve this problem. Contentsquare data points instead to the quality of incoming traffic and the consistency between the marketing promise and the actual experience on the site.
Three areas that impact conversion without increasing the advertising budget
- Reduce the number of steps between the product sheet and the order confirmation. Each additional screen in the payment tunnel represents a measurable friction point.
- Display reassurance elements at the checkout moment (return policy, delivery time, verified reviews) rather than only at the top of the homepage.
- Segment landing pages by search intent. A visitor who types in a specific product reference does not need the same page as a visitor exploring a category.
Field feedback varies on the relative weight of each lever: some merchants see a net gain by simplifying payment, while others do so by reworking their category pages. The common point remains the systematic measurement of journeys through behavioral analysis tools.
Legal obligations for online stores: what changes for e-merchants
A new French obligation directly concerns the transparency of online stores. Legal notices, general sales conditions, and information related to the right of withdrawal are subject to increased scrutiny. Sanctions for non-compliance can lead to significant administrative fines.
These regulatory developments are not trivial. They require merchants to review their sales conditions, pricing grids, and sometimes even their supply chain.
Customer loyalty in e-commerce: a more profitable trade-off than acquisition
When the average basket decreases and the cost of acquiring a new visitor increases, loyalty becomes the most direct lever to increase the revenue of an online store. FEVAD data shows that transactions are growing faster than overall revenue, meaning that customers are buying more often but spending less with each order.
Working on recurrence means moving away from generic loyalty programs. Here are some concrete ideas:
- Send post-purchase reminders based on the product lifecycle (renewal of consumables, compatible accessories) rather than calendar promotions.
- Leverage transactional data to identify high-value segments and offer them early access to new products or preferential delivery conditions.
- Implement satisfaction tracking after delivery, which feeds both return management and the collection of verified reviews.
Loyalty is not a flashy strategy. It relies on cumulative micro-improvements, measured order after order. An e-merchant who increases their purchase frequency by a few points more than compensates for the decline in the average basket observed in the French market.
E-commerce in France is in a phase where volume growth masks a tightening of profitability conditions. Merchants who are succeeding are those who structure their data for AI, measure every step of the purchasing journey, integrate new regulatory constraints into their model, and invest in retention rather than raw acquisition.
