French retail chain Monoprix strikes delivery deal with Amazon

The service will launch this year and means items sourced from Monoprix will be available in the Prime Now app and website through a dedicated virtual store.

Jean-Charles Naouri, president of Group-Casino said: “Thanks to this unique partnership between Amazon and Monoprix, Casino Group reinforces its omnichannel distribution strategy and gets even closer to its customers and their needs. This commercial partnership is a new milestone in Casino Group strategy to innovate for tomorrow’s urban commerce.”

“This commercial partnership, which further enlarges Prime Now service selection, will enable Amazon Prime customers to benefit from ultra-fast deliveries for their Monoprix orders,” added Frédéric Duval, country manager, Amazon.fr.

Thomas Cullen, analyst at consultancy Transport Intelligence said Casino’s Monoprix brand has agreed to establish what is effectively an Amazon storefront through a dedicated virtual store.

He explained: “The marketing strategy appears to be designed to focus on specific customers ordering small quantities or even single items for which Casino/ Monoprix think that Amazon’s website is ideal. Essentially what Monoprix is pursuing is an ‘omni-channel’ strategy.

“Presumably Monoprix will feed its products into the Amazon fulfilment centres in Paris and utilise the express network created by Amazon to deliver items within a few hours of them being ordered by customers. Bearing in mind that this channel will include the handling of fresh and frozen food products Amazon will presumably have to adapt its systems in Paris to handle this.

“Casino has also just agreed a contract for the e-retail technology provider, Ocado, to build an automated warehouse and transport system in the Paris region to serve Casino’s Monoprix brand. It appears that Casino’s strategy is for this network to support regular, larger quantity orders, whereas the Amazon interface will service single item orders bought on impulse. It is unclear how the Ocado designed system will interface with the Amazon network.

“In addition, the French retailer announced it was in discussion with Auchan Retail, another large French retail group, to establish some form of cooperation in purchasing. Casino explained ‘in today’s environment, with central purchasing divisions being restructured and new players emerging on the retail market, this strategic partnership would exclusively cover major national or international manufacturers in the food and non-food industries’.

“Essentially, incumbent retailers are consolidating in the face of competition by Amazon.”