Gérard d'Aboville presents "Le Cargo" at the Nautic 2017

On Saturday 2nd December, on the opening day of the Paris Boat Show, Gérard d'Aboville and Fanny Adam presented LE CARGO, the first Marketplace dedicated to the sale and purchase of nautical equipment. Available in English and French, this website, which is currently being developed, has been nominated for the Nautic Innovation Awards in the Service category. After the Paris Boat Show, Le Cargo will be visiting the other main shows in Europe to reach English speakers and widen its international audience.

Le Cargo: a brand new concept for the world of boating and sailing

A Marketplace is a platform where all sorts of sellers get together, including professionals and private individuals. They can be very general (like Amazon) or highly specialised. This trend did not exist before in the world of boating and sailing. “In France, 16 million people are involved in activities linked to the sea. It is the country which has the largest number of enthusiasts as a percentage of the number of inhabitants. It was only logical that a Marketplace dedicated exclusively to water sports and leisure activities would appear in France,” explained Gérard D'Aboville. This platform, LE CARGO, which is the only one of its kind, is open to those in the trade and private individuals, and enables people to buy and sell nautical equipment that is brand new or second-hand. Thanks to a powerful search engine, and by using some very useful filters, the purchaser can find the article he is looking for in just a few clicks in the eight categories on offer: Pleasure boats, Decoration and old sailing vessels, Extreme sports, Diving, Dinghies and kayaks, Clothing, Books, Fishing. You can visit the website using your computer, tablet or smartphone.

“Unlike websites with classified ads, such as Le Bon Coin, purchasers and sellers benefit from a platform, where operations are totally secure and delivery can be monitored,” explained Fanny Adam. Le Cargo offers the purchaser the possibility of returning the article to the seller and getting reimbursed. Registration and posting advertisements are both free. Once the sale has been accepted, a commission (between 7 and 15 % of the price of the article) is deducted from the transaction price.

An increase in the number of articles and opening up to an international market - smooth sailing for LE CARGO

Launched last June, LE CARGO has really taken off. So far, more than 31,000 articles have been placed for sale on the website. “Since we started working on promoting the website, the number of products has been constantly growing. We hope to have between 35 and 40 thousand by the end of December. And we think we will reach 100,000 in six months from now. We are looking for new sellers to achieve this goal,” added Fanny Adam.

The development of the Marketplace also involves becoming a truly global website. All of the content on the website will shortly be available in English. After the Paris Boat Show, Gérard d'Aboville and Fanny Adam will be attending the Düsseldorf and London Boat Shows. They will then start a promising tour of America, including in particular the Miami International Boat Show in February. “It’s going to be fascinating to enter the American market. We really feel that LE CARGO is surfing on the crest of a wave,” declared a very pleased Gérard d'Aboville.