Carrefour is one of the original French hypermarkets and a multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, France. The company operates hypermarkets, as well as grocery and convenience stores in over 30 countries.
Carrefour has been using Alcméon since 2017. Originally to answer customers’ requests on Facebook, Messenger and Twitter. The group has since become an indisputable pioneer of conversational. Winning the 2023 award “Customer service of the year” thanks to very good public and private messaging performances, and now also recognized as one of the most innovative big retailers for its marketing messaging innovationson apps like WhatsApp and Instagram.
Like most French retailers, Carrefour traditionally relied on printed marketing materials to let customers know about the latest sales and new products. However, this generates a lot of waste (50% of the catalogs are immediately thrown away). And as France started implementing new regulations to limit paper waste in 2022 (“OUI pub” experiment), it became clear that the group needed to find quickly a scalable alternative.
After announcing a company-wide goal to dramatically reduce paper catalog distribution (-80% in 2024!) and become a national leader in supporting environmental sustainability, Carrefour worked with Alcméon to develop a robust multi app approach to customer engagement that allows customers to receive regular content through marketing messages on Messenger and WhatsApp. After noting that Instagram is popular among its customers, especially younger shoppers, Carrefour expanded its outreach to include marketing messages in Instagram.
Average viewing rate (vs 3% for email)
Average time spent on catalogs
Amazing NPS for the whatsApp experience !
Through Messenger and WhatsApp, we’ve grown our contact list fivefold in about six months. We’ve found that 45 percent of shoppers receiving marketing messages through Messenger will view that content, and customers receiving flyers on WhatsApp rate their experience with a high +53 net promoter score. And customers receiving flyers through their preferred social media channel are more likely to stay engaged and spend more time browsing our content.
Arnaud Merzougui
Data & Social Media Project Manager – Carrefour
The company launched a campaign using QR codes in stores, ads on its website, as well as Ads that Click to Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram to connect customers with a marketing bot directly designed in Alcméon’s powerful bot building platform by Carrefour. When navigating through the bot, users are greeted with the option to subscribe to marketing messages, and are encouraged to choose their nearest store to personalize their experience and get informed about local deals. Each week, subscribers receive a new group of marketing messages and flyers, including the promotional offers of their favorite store. In addition to flyers for the current week’s specials, Carrefour sends marketing messages with next week’s deals, enabling customers to plan their grocery shopping in advance.
A multichannel approach — A steamlined and personalised experience on WhatsApp, Messenger & Instagram
When customers opt-in to marketing messages in Instagram, they also get updates whenever a live shopping event occurs – ensuring that they never have to miss the event as it happens. The company structured its approach to marketing messages in Instagram similar to its outreach through Messenger and WhatsApp, with customers accessing the virtual assistant through click-to ads and opting-in to regular messages. Offering shoppers a streamlined, unified experience across different channels allows Carrefour to target customers with different kinds of content, based on their preferred channel – such as sharing ads for contemporary fashion over marketing messages in Instagram or doing a holiday-themed “talking with Father Christmas” campaign via WhatsApp.
