Description
Label Emmaüs is the online shop of the Emmaüs movement and other organisations of the social and solidarity economy. About 180 solidarity shops sell second-hand books, clothes, furniture, household goods, toys, refurbished smartphones and handmade objects there, collected and sorted by them, with more than 2.3 million listings.
Since 2016 it has been run as a collective-interest cooperative (SCIC). Emmaüs France is among its founders, and its members form five groups: founders, Emmaüs sellers, other sellers and partners, supporters, and employees, with one vote per person. It pays no dividends and reinvests all its income. Sellers must be social economy organisations with their own stock and premises, and a third of the cooperative’s employees are on work-integration contracts.
Since 2019 its digital school has trained about 450 people far from employment in e-commerce and web marketing, in Paris, Roubaix and Marseille, and 80 % of them found lasting work. A service fee of €0.59 to €4.99 is added to each order depending on the basket (August 2025), on top of shipping, which each shop sets.
Strengths
- Second-hand objects, so no new production.
- Every purchase supports jobs for people in difficulty, and the profits stay in the cooperative.
- A large catalogue of books and household objects.
Weaknesses
- Shipping costs and times vary from one seller to the next.
- Second-hand: condition and sizes are what they are.
- A service fee of up to €4.99 is added to each order.
Who it is for
People in France who shop online and want an alternative to Amazon.
Sources
- Label Emmaüs: Home, Notre histoire, Modèle coopératif, Vendre, Label École, checked November 2026