Cnova 2021 Full-Year Financial Results – Long-Term Strategy On-Track: Expansion of Marketplace & Digital Marketing and Acceleration of B2B

Cnova N.V.  announced its fourth quarter and full year activity and unaudited financial results.

2021 Highlights

In 2021, the group continued to accelerate on its three strategic pillars while enhancing customer experience: growing marketplace revenues (+29% vs. 2019), digital marketing (+75% vs. 2019) as well as its B2B initiatives with Octopia (x3 vs. 2019) and C-Logistics.

Customer–centric approach was still at the heart of Cdiscount’s ecommerce platform strategy in 2021. Active customer base grew by +8% vs. 2019 and is more and more engaged: Cdiscount à Volonté (CDAV) loyalty program now consists of more than 2.5m customers (+20% vs. 2019) driving retention and repurchase. Customer satisfaction has reached a record-high level for both direct sales & marketplace with NPS reaching 52.9 overall, +8.4pts vs. 2019, thanks to a growing express delivery share and a “Say yes to the client” policy reaching 100% for CDAV members & new clients.

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The Marketplace, now representing 45.2% (+6.7pts vs. 2019) of the product GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume), is the main driver of Cnova’s profitable growth with GMV growing by +22% over the last two years. During the same period, revenues rose sharply at +29% to reach €193m. The number of sellers reached more than 13,000 with a record-high quality level (48.4 NPS, +10.9pts vs. 2019) supported by the development of the Fulfilment by Cdiscount and Cdiscount Express seller services.

Digital marketing revenues nearly doubled in 2 years, driving profitability thanks to Cdiscount Ads Retail Solution (CARS), Cnova’s in-house digital marketing bidding platform mainly driven by Sponsored products and Google Shopping.

The third pillar of the strategy, B2B development, also recorded a record-high 2021 period. C-Logistics and C Chez Vous launched 20 clients. Octopia, the tech-enabled ecosystem of marketplaces, experienced strong GMV growth while 12 contracts were signed with major e-merchants in 7 countries in just one year. A partnership with Ocado was just signed to integrate Octopia’s marketplace platform into Ocado Smart Platform (“OSP”) and allow OSP partners around the world to launch their own marketplace offering.

Emmanuel Grenier, Cnova CEO, commented:

« After an exceptional 2020, we continued in 2021 to successfully roll-out our strategic plan based on 3 pillars: marketplace expansion and digital marketing roll-out for the B2C ecommerce platform and the acceleration of B2B thanks to the sustained commitment of our teams.
B2C business GMV is benefiting from our record-high customer satisfaction and the dynamic marketplace. We significantly enhanced customer experience on the website and the mobile platform, leveraging on artificial intelligence innovation throughout the customer journey. Search engine as well as personalization of products and promotions will continue to be high priorities in 2022.
B2B activities experienced great commercial and delivery successes, as proven by our partnership with Ocado. 2022 will record a major step with the first full implementations of Octopia marketplace solutions and increased developments from C-Logistics.
At the same time, we are proud to have been recognised as a “Great Place to Work” by our employees. We also further strengthened our actions to reduce supply-chain impact on environment.