Baptiste Morin, edited by Laura Laplaud
How does the favorite brand of the French, namely Action, manage to offer such low prices? With an average price of 1.72 euros and a quarter of the products offered at less than one euro, these stores are very successful, especially in times of inflation.
Action is the most popular brand with the French, according to the company EY-Parthenon, which has unveiled the results of its annual study devoted to “French favorite brands”. This Dutch chain of hard-discount stores has only been established in France for ten years. The inflationary context inevitably continues to gain momentum. And for good reason, Action is a formidable economic model.
A quarter of products at less than one euro
It is possible to summarize Action’s economic model in one piece of data: 1.72 euros is the average price of a product in this store. A quarter of the properties on offer are for less than one euro. There is no doubt that this leads to great success among the French.
700 stores are present on the territory. Action is growing at the rate of 70 new stores per year, that is to say more than one per week. A good part of the products sold at Action comes from Asia but the secret of its success is not there, as explained by Yves Marin, specialist in mass distribution at the Bartle firm. “It’s a commercial concept that is crude. There is no music in the Action stores, there is no decoration, there are just gondolas and products,” he says.
France, the leading Action market
“It’s a purchasing concept since 95% of Action assortments are common to all European countries. It gives a very strong ability to negotiate by product”, he adds at the microphone of Europe 1 Enough to ensure the group’s profitability. In 2022, Action to achieve nearly nine billion euros in turnover, including three billion in France since France is its first market.