As de Carreaux & PrestaShop: an online store that breaks new ground

As De Carreaux is now the French leader in online tile sales, with the largest selection of tiles on the internet. However, the company did not develop its online business overnight and had to overcome some challenges to achieve this. Nevertheless, an effective tool, favorable timing, and a great deal of determination were enough to propel their undertaking to center stage, or at least, to get them on the stage. 

"The big picture"

Technological innovation is part of As de Carreaux's DNA: tailor-made products, virtual visits to showrooms, 3D previews of tiles in customers' homes, etc. Which is why the development of an online store came naturally for the company. This is what Sébastien Colombier, CEO of As de Carreaux explains: "We had a logistical challenge in addressing how to transport material that is heavy and, most importantly, very fragile. Nevertheless, we still took the plunge, which was for the best. Today, we like to say that our company is somewhere between a tile store… and a digital startup! In addition, at the time of launch, we had an advantage: there still weren't many competitors in this space." 

But when creating its online store, the company did not immediately turn to PrestaShop, continues Stéphanie Giron, Ecommerce Manager at As de Carreaux:

We opted for a CMS with someone who was specifically committed to its development. And then, disappointment: the system was a little restricted in its development features, so we decided to change to the PrestaShop CMS which, unlike our first choice, allows simplified content management.

A logistical challenge was overcome thanks to a simple, flexible CMS and… a good deal of courage!

As de Carreaux embarked on the digital adventure more than 11 years ago with one priority: to improve the page loading speed in order to offer a smooth user experience and make images the main focus. This is a step the company achieved with flying colors, even though they had to face some uncertainties when launching their ecommerce. The main reason for their concerns was the risk of breakage that selling tiles online entails, especially because of the fragility and weight of the product. But once that fear was overcome, success finally shone its light on the company director: “The biggest challenge really has been to change minds about it and democratize this type of online commerce.”

During the development of the ecommerce site in its version 2 with PrestaShop, Sébastien Colombier also reports having appreciated the richness of the modules available as well as the simplicity of implementation. These assets have undoubtedly opened up a large number of possibilities in the internal development of the website, thus offering a high degree of flexibility and adaptability that were more than welcome.

Offering samples before orders was also a nice conversion lever. Also, the development of our presence on social networks has helped to increase our presence with new customers who join our online community. The continuous improvement of our delivery services has also allowed us to establish a certain reputation, which has translated into effective word of mouth to recruit new customers. The continuous search for new progress levers contributes very clearly to the growth of our company; we will keep the key steps secret for now!, adds the CEO of As de Carreaux. 

PrestaShop Checkout, an asset for both the company and the customer 

In addition to having a quality online store, As de Carreaux has chosen PrestaShop Checkout. This decision was only natural since the payment solution is proving to be as versatile and easy to deploy as the application, with the added benefit of also offering a great deal of flexibility to the customer.

The updates don't have any unpleasant surprises, and are perfectly suited to our CMS. The commissions are interesting and enable significant savings, says Stéphanie Giron.

Thus, clearly a positive impact. "Today, a majority of the company's members use this solution: developers, marketing, ecommerce, and finance personnel, and especially customer service for daily order management," concludes the entrepreneur.

Visit the PrestaShop Checkout landing page to learn more about this all-in-one, secure, and easy-to-use online payment solution!