1. Can you sum up what are your occupation and C-Logistics activities for Cdiscount?

C-Logistics is Cdiscount transport and logistics subsidiary. We manage logistics and deliveries to the customers who made orders on the website Cdiscount.com. C-Logistics is also a third-party logistics provider on the e-logistics market. We are a specialist in e-commerce logistics who give logistics and transport solutions to other players and brands apart from Cdiscount.

2. You have participated in our CNE PACK FOCUS morning conference on the issues and opportunities of packaging for e-commerce. Can you give us:

• Cdiscount’s three major issues to move towards responsible logistics?
• Cdiscount’s three opportunities or challenges to have products that are packaged and delivered with a lower impact?

Packaging has always been a key issue for Cdiscount, with regard to the end consumer first of all. Packaging represents the first physical link between the customer and its online order. Customers are attentive to ecology, and it is crucial to consider their expectations. More generally, we intend to reduce the impact of our activities, including by reducing packaging.

For several years, we have chosen to use sustainable materials for our packages. We stopped using plastic inner packaging in 2015, and we use certified cardboard boxes and vegetal inks. We were the first e-seller in France to get 3D packaging machines that adapt the parcel to the size of the product. Thus, the volume of packaging has shrunk by 30%.

Not only do we use less material to conceive the package, but this action also directly impacts the lorry load. Loads are optimised since more parcels can be transported. This amounts to 6,000 fewer lorries on the roads every year.

We are also working on more virtuous shipping methods. We were a pioneer in using the high-speed rail to make express deliveries to our customers in four French cities. We are also working with hauliers to develop 100% green flows from our warehouses to our customers.

Cdiscount also counts on a wide network of pick-up points. There are over 30,000 pick-up points for small items and 600 points for bigger items.

3. What are Cdiscount’s long-term concerns that the CNE could investigate with working groups or any other form of communication (such as morning conference, etc.)?

At Cdiscount, our clients are directly involved in our strategy to reduce our environmental impact.

We gather in a same parcel the products that have been bought at Cdiscount and at the marketplace sellers who use our fulfilment service. We also suggest to our clients to not overpack the products unnecessarily. Today 98% of the clients to whom we suggest this method had adopted it, and we reckon that these two actions helped to avoid 1.3 million parcels in 2021.

In November 2021, we deployed the sustainable packaging solution of the French start-up Hipli. We let the consumer choose if they want their order to be delivered in Hipli’s packaging, which can be reused up to 100 times, when they are about to pay on our website.

As France’s e-commerce leader, our role is to highlight innovative solutions that meet both customer satisfaction and corporate social responsibility when it comes to deliveries.