{"id":1138,"date":"2016-07-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.motionpoint.com\/?post_type=blog&p=1138"},"modified":"2016-07-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-07-29T00:00:00","slug":"market-spotlight-france","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.motionpoint.com\/blog\/market-spotlight-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Market Spotlight: France"},"template":"","blog_categories":[7,5,9],"resource_categories":[],"targeted_localized_audience":[],"document_categories":[],"class_list":["post-1138","blog","type-blog","status-publish","hentry","blog_categories-international-business-strategies-europe","blog_categories-international-business-strategies","blog_categories-marketing-strategies"],"acf":{"blog_short_description":"French consumers love shopping online, particularly on cross-border e-commerce sites. Learn how to woo them in this report.","news_inline_styles":"","blog_video_id":"","article_body":"

France is a market ripe for online engagement by expanding companies. With more than 35 million active online shoppers (representing over half of the country\u2019s population), France is currently the third-largest e-commerce market in Europe. Internet penetration is high at 86%, and Internet use has grown by 25%<\/a> since 2010.<\/p>\n

E-commerce growth remains on the rise: the e-commerce market totaled more than $42 billion<\/a> last year. It\u2019ll reach $53 billion in two years. French consumers spend about \u20ac1,600, or around $1,790, each year online.<\/p>\n

For newcomers who may not know, France has a large and affluent consumer base. Its residents love European brands specifically and quality goods in general, so cross-border e-retail thrives here. They most often buy<\/a> from German, UK, Canadian and American e-commerce sites.<\/p>\n

Nearly 70%<\/a> of the adult population owns a smartphone, so m-commerce is quite common. Infrastructure is robust; order fulfillment is predictable and affordable. <\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s plenty of competition hailing from within this market, which means companies must bring their \u201cA game\u201d as they expand to France. Nearly 140,000 French companies already have their own e-commerce sites, which may cover consumers\u2019 needs.<\/p>\n

According to an Ecommerce Foundation report<\/a>, French consumers may also be reluctant to shop cross-border because they fear a substandard customer service experience, and hassles with product returns.<\/p>\n

Smartly Serve French Customers<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

In fact, the French expect excellent service\u2014and that starts with being served in their preferred language. \u201cThe French language is key\u201d for e-commerce sites in this market, the report says. \u201cA website in a foreign language or badly translated into French has little chance of succeeding.\u201d This jibes with our experience. Time and again, we\u2019ve evangelized the importance of translation, and providing culturally-relevant<\/a> websites for global markets. And we\u2019re not the only ones beating this drum; this strategy just makes good business sense, writes one fintech blog<\/a>. \u201cConsumers respond well to being addressed in their own language and will value your company higher when you put in the effort to do so,\u201d it writes. Hire \u201ctranslators and proofreaders to make sure that your content is the best it can be,\u201d it adds. <\/p>\n

But back to France\u2019s high expectations for customer service. Companies with existing great customer service policies and flexible shipping and product-return solutions should have little difficulty wooing French consumers, the Ecommerce Foundation report says. But when their expectations aren\u2019t met, they\u2019ll happily split and buy from the competition.<\/p>\n

More tips from the report:<\/p>\n