On a 900m-euro market, with sales plunging by as much as 50%, hypermarkets are coming up with cheaper products than those of specialised retailers and are trying to push their market share up from the current 30%. Two of the biggest hypermarket networks on the market, Carrefour and Cora, have stepped up their assault on the segment of electronics and electrical home appliances despite the ongoing crisis, during a period of 40-50% falling demand for such products. "On this segment, hypermarkets have a pragmatic approach: they particularly mainly sell products targeting the large mass of clients; they bet on a small range of products, on highly precise segmentation and on brands that are market leaders on the respective categories," comments Ionut Pascu, senior project manager with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. Carrefour launched Carrefour Home private label electrical home appliances several months ago, which are cheaper than the established brands available in the French network's hypermarkets, while Cora has created an online catalogue this year designed to promote the electronics and electrical home appliances available in its stores.

On a 900m-euro market, with sales plunging by as much as 50%, hypermarkets are coming up with cheaper products than those of specialised retailers and are trying to push their market share up from the current 30%. Two of the biggest hypermarket networks on the market, Carrefour and Cora, have stepped up their assault on the segment of electronics and electrical home appliances despite the ongoing crisis, during a period of 40-50% falling demand for such products. "On this segment, hypermarkets have a pragmatic approach: they particularly mainly sell products targeting the large mass of clients; they bet on a small range of products, on highly precise segmentation and on brands that are market leaders on the respective