The average basket size for online purchases has decreased by 3% to reach 62 euros on average per order. For anyone considering launching an online business, this figure sets a framework: the growth in the number of transactions exists, but it does not mechanically benefit all players. Developing an online business requires understanding where the real margins and market blind spots are.
Agentic commerce and structured data: what AI changes for an online business
Agentic commerce refers to a model where AI assistants conduct searches, compare offers, and sometimes finalize purchases on behalf of the user. This trend alters the traditional purchasing journey.
For an entrepreneur launching an online activity, the direct consequence relates to the readability of commercial data. Product sheets must be interpretable by AI agents, not just by humans. This means clearly marked prices, structured delivery conditions, and standardized technical specifications.
A site whose pricing information is buried in images or non-indexable PDFs risks being ignored by these new intermediaries. To structure an online business, it is possible to access www.bertrandbarre.com and consult additional resources there.
Field feedback varies on the actual extent of this phenomenon in France. Agentic commerce remains nascent, but platforms that adapt their data flows now position themselves to capture traffic that their competitors will not see coming.
Marketplaces and direct sales: balancing dependency to grow your business
Marketplaces account for about a third of online product sales in France. For a new business, they offer immediate visibility without heavy advertising investment. The downside is well-documented: price competition compresses margins, and an algorithm change can drastically reduce visibility overnight.
Building a direct sales channel in parallel is not a luxury; it’s an assurance. A dedicated website with a content and SEO strategy allows for a gradual reduction in the share of revenue dependent on a third-party platform.
Criteria for balancing between marketplace and own site
- The net margin rate after commissions: on some marketplaces, cumulative fees (commission, logistics, internal advertising) absorb the profitability of low-value-added products
- The ownership of customer data: selling via a marketplace often means not recovering buyers’ email addresses, which blocks any direct loyalty strategy
- The ability to differentiate the offer: a standardized product will be compared to the cent on a marketplace, whereas an own site allows for the valorization of positioning, a story, and after-sales service
The idea is not to choose one or the other, but to measure the share of revenue exposed to platform risk and to reduce it methodically.
Profitability of an online business: recurrence and hidden costs
Acquiring new customers is expensive, and this cost increases as online advertising becomes more expensive. The profitability of an online business relies more on recurrence than on the volume of first purchases. Additional sales, subscriptions, loyalty programs: models that generate repeated revenue better absorb fixed costs.
Delivery and return costs are a common blind spot in business plans. A high return rate on clothing products, for example, can turn a profitable sale into a loss-making operation. Anticipating these items in the pricing calculation avoids unpleasant surprises at scale.
Second-hand and circular models
Second-hand represented 17% of online clothing purchases in 2025, and more than four out of ten online shoppers had bought a second-hand product in the year. This segment opens up concrete avenues: refurbishment, buyback, rental, or specialized marketplace.
These models have the advantage of often having a higher margin than selling low-priced new products, while meeting measurable demand. For an entrepreneur in the launch phase, testing a buyback or resale service can provide an initial revenue stream with limited stock investment.
Structuring your web marketing without diluting your resources
A common trap is wanting to be present on all social networks, publish daily content, and launch advertising campaigns simultaneously. It’s better to master one channel than to erratically feed five channels.
SEO remains the lever with the best return on investment in the medium term for an online business. Producing content that answers specific queries from your target audience generates sustainable organic traffic, unlike paid campaigns whose effect stops as soon as the budget ends.
- Identify the ten to twenty queries that your target audience actually types into Google, then create a page or article for each
- Structure product sheets with clear data (price, availability, features) to feed both SEO and agentic commerce
- Measure the customer acquisition cost by channel each month and reallocate the budget towards the most profitable sources, without waiting for the annual report
Email marketing, often neglected in favor of social networks, remains the channel with the most stable conversion rate for online sales. Collecting addresses from the launch, even with a modest list, allows for activating a direct sales lever without relying on a third-party algorithm.
Launching an online business in 2026 requires navigating a growing market but under pressure on margins. Available data shows that profitability is built on recurrence, mastery of logistics costs, and a gradual independence from third-party platforms. The volume of transactions is increasing, the average basket size is decreasing: the question is not to sell more, but to sell better.
