Selling in France
France is next door and feels familiar, yet it rewards the companies that treat it as a market of its own. Here is our field guide, written by a native French team that helps foreign businesses expand into France every day.
- 68.6 Mpeople in FranceInsee, 1 Jan. 2025
- €175.3 bnspent online in 2024Fevad
- £104.3 bnUK–France trade in 2025DBT / ONS
- ≈ 90 %of searches go through GoogleStatCounter
The market
The UK and France: a £100 billion relationship
France is the UK’s 5th largest trading partner. Over 2025, trade in goods and services between the two countries reached £104.3 billion: £48.0 billion of UK exports to France and £56.3 billion of imports. For a British company expanding into Europe, it is often the first stop: a short train ride away, wealthy and used to British brands.
But Brexit changed the rules. Goods now go through customs, and many UK sellers underestimate how French buyers judge a website: language, legal notice, prices including VAT, delivery conditions. The companies that succeed are the ones that build a French presence rather than a translated one.
The buyer
Meet the French buyer
- Particular about languageOne clumsy phrase or a text that “reads like a translation” is enough to lose trust.
- CautiousCompares, reads reviews and checks the legal notice before buying or asking for a quote.
- Formal in B2BVous, titles and precise email etiquette. Familiarity comes later, if at all.
- LoyalOnce convinced, a French customer tends to stay with a supplier for years.
How different are British and French business habits? Read our guide to cultural differences between France and the UK.
The regions
One country, many Frances
Paris is not France. Each region has its own dishes, words, accent and buying habits, and French people search with their own words. That is why we research keywords region by region when your market is local.
Paris & Île-de-France
Jambon-beurre, bistro lunches and terraces all year round.
Fast, direct, full of slang and verlan (words spoken backwards).
Head offices and decision-makers: almost a third of French GDP is produced here.
National keywords, but fierce competition: aim at precise, high-intent searches.
Hauts-de-France
Moules-frites, Maroilles cheese and the Welsh (a cheese-and-beer dish).
The Ch’ti accent; a floor cloth is a “wassingue”.
Logistics hub between Paris, London and Brussels, with a strong Belgian influence.
Cross-border searches: many buyers compare French and Belgian offers.
Alsace & Grand Est
Choucroute, flammekueche and bretzels.
Alsatian dialect and German-sounding names; many locals speak German.
Home of the European Parliament, with a local law inherited from history.
A natural bridge for German companies: bilingual pages can work here.
Brittany
Galettes, crêpes, cider and kouign-amann.
Breton place names and a fierce regional pride.
Agri-food, cybersecurity and a “made in Brittany” reflex.
Regional labels and local references build trust fast.
Lyon & the Alps
Bouchons lyonnais, quenelles; raclette, fondue and tartiflette in the Alps.
A child is a “gone” in Lyon; a floor cloth becomes a “panosse”.
France’s second economic region: industry, pharma, winter sports.
Strong B2B demand: technical pages written in native French make the difference.
Provence & the Riviera
Bouillabaisse, aïoli, pastis and socca in Nice.
The sing-song southern accent: “peuchère”, “fada”.
Port, tourism and a warmer, more personal way of doing business.
Seasonal peaks: prepare summer campaigns in spring.
The South-West
Cassoulet, canelés, duck and wine.
It is a “chocolatine”, not a “pain au chocolat”, and a bag is a “poche”.
Aerospace in Toulouse, wine in Bordeaux, rugby everywhere.
Regional words change the keywords: test both forms before choosing.
Normandy
Camembert, cider, calvados, and butter or cream in almost everything.
The famous ‘p’têt ben qu’oui’ (maybe yes, maybe no): a Norman rarely commits at first.
Ports of Le Havre and Rouen, energy and agri-food, one hour from Paris.
Buyers are cautious: detailed product pages and clear prices reassure them.
Nantes & the Loire Atlantic coast
LU petit-beurre biscuits (born in Nantes), muscadet, rillettes from Le Mans.
Close to standard French; Nantes still debates whether it belongs to Brittany.
Shipbuilding in Saint-Nazaire, aerospace and a lively start-up scene in Nantes.
Local references and case studies convert well in this proud region.
The Loire Valley
Tarte Tatin, goat’s cheeses and Loire wines.
Touraine is said to speak the ‘purest’ French.
Pharma and the ‘Cosmetic Valley’ cluster, agriculture and château tourism.
Neutral French works well here: a good test market for national campaigns.
Burgundy & Franche-Comté
Bœuf bourguignon, Dijon mustard, comté and escargots.
A rolled ‘r’ can still be heard in the countryside.
Wine, agri-food and precision industry, from Burgundy’s vineyards to the watchmakers of the Jura.
Terroir and origin labels matter: show where and how your products are made.
Corsica
Figatellu, brocciu cheese and chestnut flour.
Corsican, close to Tuscan Italian, is taught at school; road signs are bilingual.
Tourism, very seasonal, and a strong preference for local players.
Searches peak before summer: publish and advertise in spring.
Hover over or tap a region to see its main city and population.
Words
Say it like a local
The law
What French law requires on your website
- Toubon law (1994)Advertising, product descriptions, instructions and consumer contracts must be in French.
- Mentions légalesPublisher identity, address, registration number and web host.
- Terms of sale (CGV)Mandatory for consumer sales, including the 14-day right of withdrawal.
- CookiesThe CNIL is strict about consent: no tracking before the visitor agrees.
- B2B payment termsCapped by law, generally at 60 days from the invoice date.
Payments
Paying and the retail calendar
Bank cards dominate, especially France’s own Carte Bancaire network. PayPal is widely used, and paying in three or four instalments is common online. In B2B, bank transfer remains the norm. Always show consumer prices including French VAT. Selling on Shopify? Shopify Markets lets you add a French version with prices in euros; just make sure the French pages are written for France, not machine-translated.
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
Peaks: winter sales (Jan), summer sales (late Jun–Jul), la rentrée (Sep), Black Friday and ChristmasAugust: much of France is on holiday
Search
Google, ChatGPT and French search
Google handles around 9 in 10 searches in France; Bing and Qwant share the rest. But French buyers increasingly ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Claude which supplier to choose. To appear in those answers, your company must be described clearly and consistently, in French. That is what we call GEO.
Our expertise
More than a translation: your partner in France
We are a French team based in Greater Paris, and helping foreign companies grow in France is what we do every day: market studies, French websites, SEO, Google Ads and visibility in AI assistants. We know the market from the inside, down to its regional quirks.
Before you invest, we can map your market: competitors, prices, targets, standards and the words French buyers use. That is exactly what we did for PrintPunk.
A bilingual French–German market study for entering France: trends, competitors, target customers, pricing and applicable standards, so the company could decide where and how to launch.
A German maker of reusable cups and event tableware. Since September 2025 we have handled its French SEO: technical audit, keyword research on about 1,500 French terms and rewriting of the French copy.
Is your website ready for France?
Take our free check in 2 minutes: a score out of 100, your strengths and your three priorities for the French market.
Take the checkFAQ
Your questions – Selling in France
Do I have to translate my website into French to sell in France?
Can I sell from the UK to France after Brexit?
How big is the French e-commerce market?
Is Shopify a good way to start selling in France?
Do you carry out market studies for France?
Which search engine do French people use?
Sources: Insee (population on 1 January 2025), Fevad (e-commerce 2024), StatCounter (search engine market share), Department for Business and Trade (UK–France trade, June 2026), Insee (regional GDP).
