03 Sep B.D.C. opens a new office in Paris
Since its creation in 2009, B.D.C. has steadily grown through its customers, its international projects and a strong team with high values of excellence, agility and proximity. Being present in Lille (French retailvalley), London and New York, B.D.C. is pleased to announce today the opening of its fourth office … in Paris!
Retail and digital experts, we are committed to being closer to our (Parisian) clients. Anne Wonner, senior consultant and previously in charge of the London office, is now opening B.D.C.’s Paris office. From the British capital to Paris, here are some questions we asked her.
ALREADY PRESENT IN LILLE (FRENCH RETAIL VALLEY), WHY B.D.C. HAS DECIDED TO EXTEND ITS PRESENCE TO PARIS?
Paris is the extension of our Lille success. For almost 10 years, we have been supporting retailers, pure-players and startups from retail tech in their international development and transformation. Jérôme Gayet, founder and CEO of B.D.C., has worked in digital retail for 20 years and is familiar with northern France. Coach of entrepreneurs, co-founder of the Institute of Connected Commerce (I.C.C.), professor at EDHEC (top French business school) and speaker, Jérôme started B.D.C. in Lille – heart of the French retail.
From the early years, we were lucky enough to count among our clients well-known French brands (having roots in the North of France) such as LaRedoute, Auchan, Boulanger, Damart, Jules, ADEO and many others. With an established reputation thanks to the trust of our customers, B.D.C. saw its Parisian customer base grow and the opening of a permanent Paris office seemed more than relevant.
Our clients in the capital are the Rocher Group (Petit Bateau, Yves Rocher, Dr. Pierre Ricaud), with whom we have completed more than 30 missions in 8 years, Linvosges, and Hermès among our most famous clients.
HAVING BEEN IN THE UK 4 YEARS, 1ST EUROPEAN E-COMMERCE MARKET, WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS THAT MAKE PARIS A KEY RETAIL CAPITAL?
The UK is an exciting and tremendous market because of its dynamism and high competitiveness. However Paris is not left out and many unique concepts are emerging. The birth of Station F, the emergence of many innovative concepts stores such as Outiz, the Parisian Drugstore by L’Oreal and Casino, Undiz Machine… We also find in Paris investment funds recognized in the tech industry, I think in particular about Blisce’s portfolio which includes disruptive companies such as Casper, BlablaCar, Adore Me or Kik (a chatbot service used by Sephora in particular).
MANY CONSULTING FIRMS ALREADY BEING IN PARIS, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO BE DISTINGUISHED?
B.D.C. was based on values of proximity, agility, subsidiarity and transparency. We define ourselves today like “architects of retail consulting” being a human-scale organisation (we are around 10 consultants). This allows us to work closely with our customers and with a lot of flexibility compared to large consulting firms. Subsidiarity refers to the actions taken on the ground by each consultant, because they are project leaders from A to Z. Finally, our transparency regading our retail and digital expertise allows us to build long-term relationships and trust with our clients.
Our luck: we are perceived as partners by our customers who recommend us very regularly, internally and externally. We are therefore more consulted than consultants and strive to create maximum value for our clients. Each mission then becomes a new challenge to meet the deliverables announced within the given deadlines.
WHO ARE YOUR CURRENT MAJOR CUSTOMERS AND ON WHAT TYPE OF PROJECTS DO YOU ACCOMPANY THEM?
We have customers in very different industries. We support retailers such as Hermès, Yves Rocher, Petit Bateau, Leroy Merlin, Linvosges, Boulanger and others, on issues of international development and / or digital acceleration.
We also collaborate with retail tech startups on international strategy and business development issues (ContentSquare, ITinsell, etc.). We organise about 20 customized Learning Expeditions each year in major retail capitals (Shanghai, London, New York, Berlin, Istanbul, etc.). During these learning trips, we establish an ad hoc program for our retailers with a logic of inspiration or development on site.
Since 2009, we have carried out missions in about 50 countries (Russia, China, South America, USA, …). More generally, we intervene on strategic issues for general management and also work on support in implementation (roadmap, governance, process, action plan, “quick wins” …). The topics are very varied: Artificial Intelligence and impact on the company, launch of new countries, launch of new business models, digital acceleration in key countries, 3-year strategic plan, digital coaching, competition benchmarks, improvement of the customer experience , transformation of organizations …
Our office is located at 24 rue des petites écuries, Paris 10e. Do not hesitate to get in touch with Anne (anne@bdc-retail.com).