The business world in 2024 is not just a series of good technological news. Several B2C markets are experiencing a significant downturn, European non-financial regulations are now impacting SMEs through a cascading effect, and wholesale trade is barely recovering after a marked slump. The business trends of the year paint a contrasting landscape, where the caution of companies coexists with deep structural transformations.
CSRD and duty of vigilance: regulatory pressure descends on SMEs
The European CSRD directive, applied to large companies starting in 2024, is producing a cascading effect that is still poorly documented. Clients are requiring their suppliers, including mid-sized and small enterprises, to provide detailed carbon reporting, traceability of supply chains, and due diligence on human rights.
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An industrial SME supplying a CAC 40 group finds itself structuring a complete carbon balance sheet, not due to a direct legal obligation, but because its client imposes it contractually. This cascading diffusion transforms purchasing, finance, and IT practices well beyond the initial scope of the directive.
To follow business news from Blognet News, this regulatory movement is one of the key themes of the year. The CSDDD directive (European duty of vigilance) further strengthens this dynamic by expanding companies’ responsibilities across their entire value chain.
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- Carbon reporting becomes a commercial prerequisite, not just a legal obligation for large groups
- Purchasing departments are integrating non-financial criteria into their tenders, redistributing markets among suppliers
- IT tools for collecting and consolidating ESG data are becoming a full budget item for organizations that allocated nothing to this two years ago
Retail market and B2C consumption: visible sector declines in the numbers
French consumption shows very different dynamics from one sector to another. The garden and pet market experienced a sharp decline in 2024, with significant drops in segments such as garden furniture and watering products, according to the report presented by Promojardin in 2025.
This type of contraction illustrates a broader phenomenon. Business trends are not homogeneous across consumer sectors. While some segments related to customer experience or tourism maintain their momentum, others are being hit hard by consumers’ budgetary arbitrage.
Retail companies that are managing to stand out share a common trait: they invest in the quality of the in-store experience and in personalizing the customer journey. Brands that merely sell a product without added relational value are losing ground to online pure players.
Tourism and experiences: a market that is holding up better than average
The tourism sector stands out as a relative exception. Travelers favor differentiated experiences, and hotels as well as tourist sites offering segmented offers by customer type maintain their occupancy rates. The search for atypical locations and tailor-made experiences now shapes customer expectations, where standardized mass tourism is losing its appeal.
The tourism industry is far from a uniform recovery, but field reports converge on one point: companies that invest in a deep understanding of their travelers significantly outperform those that remain on an undifferentiated model.
Wholesale trade in 2024-2025: a fragile rebound after a low point
Wholesale trade experienced a decline in activity in early 2025, following a cautious year in 2024. Growth has become slightly positive again in the spring, according to indicators published by the CGI (Confederation of Wholesale and International Trade), but companies’ expectations remain very cautious.
This measured rebound reflects an underlying trend: wholesale companies are adjusting their stocks closely to actual demand, reducing their long-term commitments, and negotiating tighter payment terms with their suppliers.
Business climate in France: an indicator that stagnates
INSEE regularly publishes its business climate indicator. In 2024, it remained close to its long-term average without showing a clear upward trend. French companies report neither collapse nor improvement, but a form of wait-and-see attitude that weighs on investment decisions.
On the other hand, some promising sectors such as digital services or climate tech continue to attract funding. The gap is widening between industries undergoing active transformation and those experiencing the cycle without a differentiation lever.
Artificial intelligence in finance departments: an adoption rate that surpasses IT
The adoption of artificial intelligence in finance departments now exceeds the rate observed in IT services themselves. This turnaround is changing the hierarchy of technological priorities within companies.
The most common use cases involve the automation of accounting reconciliation, anomaly detection in cash flows, and predictive modeling of working capital needs. Financial AI is no longer a pilot project but an operational tool in a growing number of groups.
Field reports diverge on this point: while large groups are accelerating, SMEs struggle to recruit profiles capable of deploying these tools. The risk of a technological divide between company sizes is becoming clearer, without public support mechanisms yet having caught up with this gap.
The business world in 2024 is characterized by this coexistence of contradictory signals. Some markets are declining while others are undergoing profound transformations. European regulations are reshuffling the cards well beyond just large groups. And the adoption of AI in traditionally conservative functions like finance signals an acceleration that will not leave laggards unscathed.