France Online Shopping

Can you do online shopping in France?

France started slowly with the France online shopping revolution but now goes into overdrive as one of top countries where consumers are using online shopping to make their purchases.

In 2021, 41.8 million French people shopped online, which represents over 80% of internet users. The average online transaction in 2021 was around €62 and online shoppers tend to shop more frequently, approximately 50 times a year, for a total amount spent of around €3,100 in 2021. Online shoppers purchase are mainly clothing, which is 60%, cultural products amounting to 47%, toys and games are 45%, and shoes make 45%.

French prefer debit cards for online shopping

The French online shopping market includes purchases made from desktop PC, tablet or smartphone, both via website or apps. Only retail of physical goods is taken into account. In the French retail market, the online share is 17.5% and will increase by an average of 6.2% to 22.3% by 2027.

In France, most online shoppers prefer to pay with a debit card. Online banking, consumer credit and bank transfer are other popular online payment methods in France. When we considered our online shopping presence we looked for eCommerce software to start selling in Europe and internationaly.

We looked at Webador and Shopify and many other platforms that are presented as well optimized for cross-border ecommerce. At the end of the day, we started with a wordpress website using WooCommerce. We will let you know how it pans out later.

Cross Boarder Online shopping

Shopping abroad is also becoming more popular among the French, there is a growing share of cross border online purchases taking place. French internet buyers are proportionally more likely to buy abroad than the average European internet buyer. In 2021, over 35 % of French online shoppers bought from foreign e-merchants, and over 60% of e-merchants established in France received orders from customers abroad.

When French consumers were asked about their most popular online shops it was found that Amazon takes the top spot, while Rueducommerce.fr is at the other end of the ranking. These results are based on a representative online survey conducted in 2023 among 2,028 consumers in France.

Small French online shopping association takes the major players

So, when our small villaged based association decided to create an online shopping experience for both a French and International customers it took on quite a challenge. Brossac Braderie is diving into this unknown market using all the resources and experience at its disposal.

Its competitors are numerous for example for searching Brocants in France the results are About 22,700,000 websites and for Braderies in France the results are About 19,400,000 and for the old favorite of Vide Grenniers the results are About 10,300,000. So we have 51,000,000 yes fifty one million websites to compete against. So France online shopping has a new addition in the form of Brossac Braderie.