Carrefour: Hypermarket Reinvention

European hypermarkets account for 70% of Carrefour's total sales. However, sales at the format have fallen into negative figures. This brief explores the reasons behind the decline of the hypermarket and the strategies Carrefour is adopting to reinvent the store concept. Importantly it provides action points for retailers looking to revive their own large format stores.

Features and benefits

• Identify a variety of new ways to reinvigorate the layout of your hypermarket or supermarket by uncovering the recent strategies of Carrefour.
• Uncover product assortments and complementary services that can be used to revive sales in hypermarkets and other large format stores.
• Benchmark your company's performance against Carrefour by accessing key financial and operational data on the retailer.

Highlights

The cumulative factors of an aging population, smaller households and a rising urban population are resulting in a fall in out of town shopping. Consumers are increasingly favouring inner city convenience stores over hypermarkets due to heightened demand for top-up shopping at stores located in close proximity to shoppers' homes.Sales at Carrefour's European hypermarkets have been floundering since 2008 with dramatic sales declines throughout 2009. While sales of food categories have suffered, non-food has been the core contributor to falling revenues. However, sales at convenience stores have been consistently strong, buoying up the retailer's total turnover.The new Carrefour Planet store format has a rationalized non-food offer and a new format akin to a department store. The retailer has removed some categories and downsized others, such as electricals and furniture. However, a stronger focus in the female demographic has led it to expand its health & beauty selling space by 40%.

Your key questions answered

• How is Carrefour faring in today's retail climate and what are the consumer trends responsible for the overall change in performance of hypermarkets?
• How can I improve my store layout and what services should I offer to improve sales performance at my large store network?
• How can I engage shoppers when they are conducting their grocery shopping and how can I better position myself as a food specialist?
• Which product areas sold in hypermarkets are proving most resilient and which are damaging profit margins?
• Why is the revival of the hypermarket vital for Carrefour and what strategies is it adopting to turn around sales performance?

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