ManoMano is banking on free shipping to boost sales
The French website offering more than one million DIY and gardening products continues to grow, notably by encouraging its sellers to offer free delivery. French market leader ManoMano also aims to strengthen its activities beyond its domestic market and become the number one player in Europe.
Who is ManoMano?
Founded in Paris in 2013 by Philippe de Chanville and Christian Raisson, ManoMano is an e-commerce website specializing in DIY and gardening products that acts as an intermediary between buyers and sellers offering their products on the platform. Initially known as MonEchelle.fr, the start-up quickly established itself as the French market leader. In 2018, ManoMano recorded significantly higher revenue than its direct competitor Amazon: €450 million compared with €360 million for the American giant. This can notably be explained by the fact that ManoMano, unlike Amazon, provides advice and support to guide buyers throughout their purchasing journey.
In 2019, five years after its launch, ManoMano already had 400 employees and reported 20 million visits per month as well as 2.5 million active customers.
The founders’ objective for 2020 was to reach €1 billion in revenue. ManoMano initially focused on growth rather than profitability and, to achieve this, the company also established operations in Bordeaux and Barcelona in order to attract employees with advanced digital expertise.
Accelerating international expansion
ManoMano had already raised €110 million in April 2019 to strengthen its presence in the European DIY and gardening market, estimated to be worth nearly €400 billion. International business accounted for 25% of its activity at the time. The company, aiming to increase this share to more than 50% by 2023, decided to raise a further €125 million in January 2020. Sales generated in Belgium, Spain, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom now account for one-third of the platform’s revenue. Germany and the United Kingdom are particularly attractive European markets, worth €62 billion and €45 billion respectively, compared with €32 billion for France. The French start-up’s objective is to dominate the European market and become the leader in every country in which it operates, where it is also recording growth of more than 200%.
In addition to its fundraising rounds, ManoMano launched the ManoMano Pro platform in March 2019 for building professionals, as well as Mano Fulfillment in November 2018, designed to provide logistics support to its sellers. Among other things, this service allows foreign merchants to sell their products in France. Mano Fulfillment has so far only been available in France and, since October 2019, Spain, but its founders would like to expand it to other countries.
New trend: free delivery
One of the strategies implemented by ManoMano is free delivery. In other words, shipping costs are included in the price of the products. For example, a product priced at €45 with an additional €5 shipping fee would instead be sold for €50 with free delivery. ManoMano states that customers appreciate this approach. For 55% of Internet users, shipping costs are a barrier to purchasing.
According to data collected by ManoMano, free shipping can boost sales, resulting in an average increase of 8%. ManoMano has therefore introduced several initiatives aimed at promoting products that offer at least one free delivery option. One of these initiatives consists of highlighting such products on the marketplace by displaying a “free delivery” label.
Conclusion
ManoMano quickly established its position within the French marketplace sector and has become the number one revenue generator for some merchants, ahead of Amazon.
ManoMano encourages merchants to include shipping costs in their product prices for a good reason: to boost sales and encourage consumers to make a purchase!
This is why, at Feed Manager, we recommend extending this strategy beyond the ManoMano marketplace to improve product visibility, as this criterion also tends to be valued on other marketplaces.
