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December 19 2008
Casino enters UK internet retailing market with Cdiscount.co.uk
The French retail giant is making its first foray into the UK market with the launch of a British version of its highly successful non-food online discounter
With a product range of over 90,000 non-food products at discounts of 20% to 50%, Cdiscount.co.uk will compete with everyone from Amazon to Tesco Direct, Play.com and Currys, fashion retailers and more.
The site is launching with a range of high impact offers including 15% cashback on all purchases, a free £9.99 bottle of French wine for each new customer and a reduction in shipping fees from £3.99 to £1.99 — and only £1 extra for overnight delivery.
The site also features a Deal of the Day and a potentially very popular service called 3discount, which lets customers opt to pay for items in three interest-free instalments.
In France, Cdiscount is a top ten retail website and offers electricals, leisure, homewares, fashion and computing as well as financial services, insurance, gaming microsites and a social networking platform.
"Cdiscount, which is majority-owned by Casino, claims that one in three online shoppers in France shop on its site and that it is 2.5 times larger in revenue terms than both Amazon's French arm and DSGi-owned Pixmania in France," reports Retail Week. "Last year, Cdiscount reported revenues of EUR 600 million (£481 million) and has set a target turnover of EUR 800 million (£641.3 million) this year. It represented 4 per cent of Casino's group sales last year, which were EUR 17.9 billion (£14.35 billion)."
"Cdiscount also operates German web site Discount24.de as part of a partnership with German home shopping group Otto, after buying 50 per cent of the business in July last year," Retail Week continues.
"The credit crunch has created a real opportunity for online retailers," says Cdiscount UK's online marketing manager Arfan Sabir. "Value for money is what really matters to consumers right now, and our launch campaign will be led by a series of very strong offers designed to knock the existing big players off the radar."
Cdiscount's UK search marketing contract has been awarded to Bigmouthmedia. "Bigmouthmedia's international reputation, together with their proven track record in the retail space, made them the natural choice of partner for the crucial opening phase of our launch in the UK," says Sabir.
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