Online marketplaces in France are booming—in 2023, the French spent EUR 160 billion online. That’s not the only thing making the country attractive to e-commerce businesses. On average, the French import goods more than other Europeans and shop online an average of 54 times a year—that’s more than once a week.
Knowing where to start in a new market can be overwhelming. We’ve put together a list of the best online marketplaces in France for sellers looking to expand.
What to consider when expanding into France
There are three main things you need to consider when you’re planning to expand into France:
– Localisation
– VAT
– Shipping
Localisation for French marketplaces primarily focuses on translations and payments. If you’re not a proficient French speaker you might want to enlist some professional help with things like product descriptions.
One of the benefits of starting on a marketplace is that some of the hard work is already done for you. You won’t need to add additional payment methods to your store for example. All the marketplaces we’ve listed give French customers access to their favourite ways to pay, like Carte Bancaire (CB).
Each country has a unique set of expectations when it comes to shipping. For example, the speed of delivery is more important than reliability to French shoppers. Local logistics providers might be your best bet for meeting these standards. However, some marketplaces operating in France offer logistics support to sellers. Make sure to factor this in when you’re deciding which marketplaces to start with.
Founded in December of 1998 by three brothers, CDiscount has been a major player in France’s ecommerce market for the last 25 years. It has 23 million unique users a month, making it one of France’s largest ecommerce platforms and consistently placing in the Top 10 marketplaces for traffic.
Reasons to sell on CDiscount:
CDiscount’s fulfilment services don’t just cover mainland France, but also Corsica, Monaco, Spain, Italy, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg.
The CDiscount API can help you automate things like updating offers and managing orders.
You can join the IMN (International Marketplace Network) through CDiscount, and sell on Marketplaces in other European countries with a single account.
Originally a member-only buying club, Fédération Nationale d’Achats des Cadres (National Purchasing Federation for Cadres) is a household name in south-west Europe. It has taken the rise of Temu and Shein to knock Fnac out of the top ten for total ecommerce sales in France. Despite losing their ranking, the marketplace still reports 36 millionactive users.
Fnac specialises in entertainment media and consumer electronics but has a wide variety of goods on the site.
Reasons to sell on Fnac:
Fnac and its parent group Groupe Fnac Darty have long, established histories in France. Selling on Fnac’s marketplace allows you to tap into the brand trust that the business has been building since 1954.
If you’re selling electronics or entertainment, Fnac is the go-to for these categories in France.
Selling on Fnac gives you the ability to have your products appear on Darty, Fnac’s sister site, increasing your visibility.
Pierre Omidyar may have founded eBay in California, but he was born in Paris. The platform itself is still a heavy hitter in France at 38 million monthly visits. By 2020 more than 500 million items had been sold on eBay.fr, and in 2025 eBay will celebrate 25 years in France.
Reasons to sell on eBay.fr:
If you already sell on eBay you can set your products up to appear for French customers without having to make another account.
Unlike some other platforms, there are very few limits to what you can list on eBay, and products in specific niches do well on the marketplace.
The second-hand market is booming in France. Over 60% of people have purchased second-hand clothes. If you sell vintage or antique, eBay is a must for you.
Rebranded in 2018 from PriceMinister, Rakuten France is a subsidiary of Rakuten Group, Inc. Rakuten’s most notable feature is its loyalty program, which wins the marketplace 13 million buyers a month. Rewards include cash back, points and discounts.
Reasons to sell on Rakuten.fr:
If you’re just starting out in ecommerce, or in France, Rakuten offers a starter plan: Slightly higher commission fees in exchange for no monthly fee.
The cashback incentive in Rakuten’s loyalty programme is funded by the platform, not sellers. You can benefit from the 40% bigger shopping basket without fronting the cost.
Unlike Amazon, Rakuten doesn’t compete with sellers – they don’t sell products on their platform.
Of course, what list of marketplaces would be complete without Amazon? It is the biggest marketplace in France – in December of 2023, it had just over 50% of France’s total traffic to marketplaces. For comparison, eBay.fr, which we featured earlier in this list, was in 3rd place with 6.8%.
Reasons to Sell on Amazon.fr
There’s a lot of competition on Amazon (including with Amazon itself) but it’s also where France goes to shop online, by a considerable margin.
If you’re already an Amazon seller, expanding into France is easy. Plus, you have lots of options for doing so – from single-country FBM to FBA Pan-EU.
You can sell to all of Amazon’s European stores from one account, giving you access to an even wider customer base.
What marketplace should I sell on in France?
When it comes down to it, only you will know which marketplace is best for your business. When you’re thinking about which marketplace to sell on, consider who your target market is, where they’d be looking for your product and what your plans are. For example, if you want to expand past France, then marketplaces with international storefronts might be the best fit.
Just remember! No matter which platform you choose you need to plan for localisation, VAT and shipping. The tax part doesn’t need to worry you – we’ve got loads of information on VAT in the EU for ecommerce sellers, like our EU VAT guide.
