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Produced by Huxiu Business Consumption Group

Author: Li Xiangxue

Editor: Zhou Yueming

Title image｜Visual China

In a few hours, the much-anticipated Paris Olympics will come to an end.

This 16-day sports event was full of topics. Controversy over the opening ceremony, complaints about the wrong national flag, and discussions about the highlights of various events kept the Olympics hot.

While attracting countless eyeballs, many Chinese companies also took advantage of the Olympics to make a lot of money. The e-commerce industry was particularly lively. Alibaba International told Huxiu that since the beginning of this year, the online export volume of merchants in the Olympic economy-related industries on Alibaba International has exceeded 7 billion yuan. Many merchants also saw a surge in orders during the Olympics.

In fact, not only during the Olympics, but also in recent years due to the continuous growth of the market, French e-commerce is becoming more and more attractive to Chinese practitioners.

France is the seventh largest e-commerce market in the world and the third largest in Europe. According to Statista data, the French e-commerce market is expected to reach US$72 billion by 2025, up from US$40 billion in 2017 and US$59 billion in 2021. According to the survey, there are 48 million e-commerce consumers in France, who place an average of 51 orders per year and spend an average of 3,000 euros per year on online shopping.

"If you have been lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, it will stay with you wherever you go in your life, for Paris is a moveable feast." In the words of writer Hemingway, Paris is a feast of spirit and culture.

In the eyes of Chinese e-commerce practitioners, the active French e-commerce market is also becoming a feast.

Diversified and decentralized e-commerce channels

The free and romantic qualities of the French are also reflected in their economic activities. Compared with European countries such as Germany and the Netherlands, their e-commerce market is more diverse, flexible and casual.

First of all, in terms of consumer preferences, industry insiders believe that consumers in countries such as Germany and the Netherlands pay more attention to practicality, while the French are more casual.

For example, German consumers pay more attention to after-sales service and whether the product is durable, but for French consumers, especially young people, other factors can be ignored if the product is low in price and looks good.

One example is that some e-commerce platforms that focus on cost-effectiveness have performed well in the French market.

For example, SHEIN has grown rapidly since entering France. Between January 2020 and June 2023, SHEIN's sales in the French market increased tenfold, and its average order amount remained stable overall at approximately 53 euros, higher than Zara's 43 euros and H&M's 37 euros.

"But products with these characteristics generally don't sell as well in Germany and the Netherlands as they do in France," an industry insider told Huxiu.

In terms of e-commerce channels, compared with European countries such as Germany, "France is also more fragmented and diverse." Karen Deng Huanxin, head of Asia Pacific marketing at LeSou, the largest cross-border e-commerce channel aggregator in Europe, told Huxiu.

According to statistics, there are about 200,000 active e-commerce websites in France, and the number of websites continues to increase every year, with a year-on-year growth of 11% in the past two years. These platforms cover everything from large international platforms to local specialty stores.

This is very different from the domestic e-commerce environment. In France, there are many vertical e-commerce channels, rather than concentrated on a few super platforms. For Chinese companies that want to deepen their presence in the French e-commerce market, it is particularly important to choose an e-commerce channel that matches their product characteristics and product temperament.

In terms of categories, the popular categories in the French e-commerce market are mainly fashion and clothing, cultural products, footwear, beauty and hygiene products, home decoration products, DIY gardening products and jewelry. Fashion and clothing products account for 60% of the market, while cultural products and footwear products account for 47% and 45% respectively.

From the perspective of categories, according to data from Alibaba International Station, since the beginning of this year, in addition to Olympic-related products, renewable energy, consumer electronics, furniture, packaging and printing, and beauty have become the top five industries exported to the French market, with their online transaction volume increasing by 50% or more.

In addition, "DIY home gardening, fashion cultural and creative products, smart small appliances and other categories also performed well," Deng Huanxin told Huxiu.

According to statistics, in the French e-commerce market, fashion and clothing products account for 60% of the market, cultural products and footwear products account for 47% and 45% respectively.

Many challenges

Of course, there are still many challenges for Chinese companies to expand into the French e-commerce market.

First of all, special attention should be paid to compliance issues.

According to industry insiders,At the beginning of this year, many Amazon sellers in the French market were shut down by the platform. Some were due to tax issues, while others were due to store qualification issues (for example, the legal person of the company did not match the actual owner).E-commerce in France has long passed the period of wild growth. If you do not pay attention to compliance, you are likely to suffer greater losses.

In addition, in recent years, the French market has placed more and more qualifications requirements on imported goods.

For example, France has high requirements for carbon footprint certification of photovoltaic modules in renewable energy, which is the main barrier affecting the entry of Chinese photovoltaic modules into the French market.

In addition, special attention should be paid to ESG issues in the French market.

Take packaging and printing products as an example. With the improvement of environmental awareness, there are strict environmental compliance requirements for packaging and printing products exported to the French market. All products sold in the French market must give priority to recyclable or biodegradable materials for packaging.

Not only that, the European Parliament has approved the PPWR (Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation) this year, requiring the reduction of packaging waste, increasing the proportion of recycled packaging materials, and gradually banning the use of disposable products in the hotel, food, and catering industries in the future.

“In France, Chinese companies should take the initiative to use ESG as a weapon rather than a sword against themselves."Industry insiders told Huxiu.

2024 marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France. In 2023, the trade volume between China and France has reached 78.9 billion US dollars, with France becoming China's third largest trading partner in the EU and China becoming France's largest trading partner in Asia. For Chinese companies, there will be more and more opportunities to go global in France, but only by maintaining a sense of localization and being willing to fully understand the French local market can they get a share of the French e-commerce market.

Huxiu has been paying attention to overseas expansion for a long time. In order to cope with the rapidly changing overseas environment, it has specially launched the "Overseas Periscope Club" to provide everyone with first-hand overseas expansion information and links to leading overseas expansion platforms. Scan the QR code in the picture below to learn more.

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