Carrefour France launches its first tailored hypermarket

Carrefour has launched its new tailored hypermarket in Paris Auteuil. In renovating the Auteuil store, Carrefour eliminated 40% of its non-food offer, while stocking a larger range of food items. Its expanded online store still offers a vast range of non-food items, said Hypermarket Banner Director Alain Souillard. The hypermarket, which is located in an affluent area, eliminated the automotive, household appliances and DIY product categories, making way for fruit and vegetables (featuring a dozen exotic tomato varieties), organic products and wine with bottles from EUR2 (USD2.60) to EUR1,200 (USD1,563).

In the hypermarket, customers can even find a place dedicated to hyper-upscale delicatessen products, Fauchon. Furthermore, the retailer is testing in its Auteuil store an innovative scan-as-you-go price tallying system which company executives say reduces check-out lines. Carrefour is installing self-operated check-out counters in over half its French hypermarkets.

To define its new assortment, Carrefour conducted six months of study and analysed data left by the 20,000 loyalty card holders who shop at the Carrefour hypermarket. To boost sales in its hypermarkets, Carrefour will tailor its stores by the purchasing power of its customers, sales area and catchment area (city or urban location) in order to offer product ranges, assortments and merchandising adapted to each store. The procedure will be extended to Carrefour's entire hypermarket network by the next three years.

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