Kingfisher drives e-commerce growth with launch of new home improvement marketplace at Castorama France

Kingfisher is today announcing the launch of a home improvement e-commerce marketplace at Castorama France, the latest milestone in the rapid development of its marketplace offer.

The launch follows the success and rapid growth of Kingfisher’s marketplaces at B&Q in the UK, Brico Dépôt in Spain and Portugal and its Koçtaş joint venture in Turkey.

Castorama France will introduce over 500,000 new products from verified third-party merchants onto its e-commerce channels. This represents a sevenfold increase in the product choice available for the banner’s customers, complementing the c.70,000 products already available directly from Castorama.

All third-party merchants will be selected by Castorama experts and undergo a thorough verification process to ensure they meet Castorama’s quality and ethical standards.

The marketplace allows merchants to raise their profile through association with Castorama’s well-known and trusted brand and benefit from a presence on its high-traffic website, which attracts between 10 and 15 million visitors per month. Merchants will also be able to access retail media solutions offered by Kingfisher.

The marketplace leverages a scalable Kingfisher technology platform built in conjunction with partners at Mirakl, the industry’s leading enterprise marketplace platform. Kingfisher is preparing to launch a further marketplace harnessing this technology at its Castorama Poland banner later this year.

Marc Vicente, Group Digital Director at Kingfisher said: “The launch of Castorama France’s marketplace is a very exciting milestone in our e-commerce strategy. We know that choice is vital for customers in e-commerce, particularly in home improvement, and our marketplaces are enabling us to deliver a vastly expanded product offering, at pace.

“The launch is a great example of our Powered by Kingfisher strategy in action. With the support of the Group’s marketplace technology and expertise, Castorama France has been able to build a compelling offer, tailored for the needs of its customers.”

The first marketplace in the Kingfisher Group launched at B&Q in March 2022 and it has seen rapid growth since then. Kingfisher reported in its Q3 2023/24 results that marketplace sales represented 35% of B&Q’s total e-commerce sales in October 2023. Kingfisher’s second marketplace launched at Brico Dépôt in Spain and Portugal in November 2022, and it grew to represent 20% of the banner’s e-commerce sales by the end of October 2023.  

Kingfisher will provide a further update on the progress and performance of its marketplaces at its Full Year 2023/24 results on 25 March 2024.