Shipping to France as a Business. What Do You Need to Know?

How much is postage to France? The costs depend on the volume of your parcels, their dimensions, and their weight, as well as the companies you work with (including final-mile carriers) and the exact pick-up points. What are the challenges regarding shipping to France? You have to follow strict packaging laws and provide reliable delivery services. Learn more about the French market in this article!

How Much Does it Cost to Post to France?

Let’s start with the financial aspects. How much does it cost to send a letter or a parcel to France?

You have several variables here that affect the price, namely:

• Parcel volume – How many parcels are you planning to send? In many cases, the more parcels you send, the less you pay per parcel.

• Your carrier – Every carrier offers different rates. Some might charge you for every parcel, while others might also expect a fixed monthly payment (in this case, the parcel fee is typically lower).

• Parcel dimensions and weight – Naturally, the size of the parcels also impacts the prices, with smaller goods typically being less expensive to ship.

• Packaging – France has strict packaging legislation in place that forces you to use a certain % of reusable packaging, and to register your packaging and pay a recycling fee – 80 EUR if your number of deliveries does not exceed 10,000, and a tailored fee if it does.

• Pick-up points and distance – Depending on where your warehouses are located, you might also see an increase in delivery costs based on the distance the courier needs to cover.

Shipping to France as a Business: Market Stats

We’ve explained how much postage to France is. Before we proceed with our tips on how to approach this market, we need to show you a few statistics and market trends since they are the basis for our guide. So, what do you need to know?

French Consumers Strive for Reliable, High-Quality Delivery

While consumers in the UK want express delivery, it’s different in France. Online shoppers and businesses in this country strive for reliability – they want to know that their parcels will arrive safe and sound on time. Therefore, catering to this need is one of the biggest logistics challenges in e-commerce.

This is why at Landmark Global, we are constantly investing in local infrastructure – we have to main hubs, one in Paris and another one in Lyon, which lets us cover the whole country effectively..

The French Purchase Using Computers and Paying with Credit Cards

What about the general trends? Surprisingly, French consumers are still quite conservative, preferring to make purchases on their computers (54%) rather than mobile devices.

What about payment methods? Most French online shoppers opt for credit cards (54%), with the second largest group choosing PayPal, Alipay or their equivalents (30%). Debit cards are also fairly common (12%).

French Delivery Insights

While we mentioned that French online customers prefer reliability, let’s look at their delivery preferences in more detail. What’s important here?

• Pick-up points:

  • 73% – at home, in the mailbox,

  • 63% – at home, at the door,

  • 63% – courier’s parcel shop,

  • 20% – post office,

  • 20% – parcel locker,

  • 19% – e-retailer physical store.

• Sustainability – French consumers prefer recyclable packaging (57%) or and want it to be reusable (53%).

• Parcel tracking – 81% of French online shoppers want to be able to track their parcels.

At Landmark Global, we cater to these needs – we offer your customers a plethora of PUDO points and a dedicated parcel tracking portal.

How to Ship to France?

We’ve established what the French customers seek, so now let’s get to planning your strategy. What do you need to do to enter the French market?

Prepare a Shipping Strategy

Consider what volumes of parcels you will send, how often, and where. Then, choose your logistics partner, sign the contract, and get ready to sell your goods. Consider a partnership with a reliable company that can offer you tailored solutions. For example, if you sell mainly through the Wish marketplace, use international parcel services for Wish merchants.

Also, remember that the partner has to have good coverage to meet the needs of French customers. That’s why we didn’t just purchase mailtin'POST – we also have a strategic logistic partnership with IMX to cover the northern part of the country.

Obtain a Packaging License

Register with a Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) and get your Unique Identification Number (UIN). This is essential to legally use e-commerce packaging. Additionally, you need to keep track of the packaging materials you use during each delivery.

Prepare Your Website

Ensure you have the preferred payment methods available (Credit Card, Paypal) and that the site is well-optimized both for PCs and mobile devices, with the former being a priority. Also, create a website in French – you should also invest in French customer service.

The Takeaway

As you can see, it is difficult to determine how much postage to France costs, without the exact information about your packages. Nevertheless, you know what the price depends on. Follow our tips and keep the market trends in mind – this way, we are sure that you will achieve success in the French market!

You might also read: E-commerce Packaging – Which Ones to Choose?