Is it worth expanding to Amazon France? Earnings and potential

How many customers does Amazon France have and what is its market share?

Amazon France accounts for almost half of all traffic in the French e-commerce market: 48.73%, according to an Arvato report. Every month, the platform reaches 36.9 million unique users, or 57.6% of all French internet users (La Fevad barometer data).

That makes Amazon.fr by far the largest single online sales channel in France, with more than 133 million visits a month. By comparison, the runner-up, AliExpress, has 13.97% of traffic, while local player Cdiscount has just 5.90%.

For sellers, this means one thing: Amazon.fr is where you’ll find the largest, most concentrated group of French shoppers in one place. You don’t have to build traffic from scratch or persuade customers to try a new platform, because they’re already there and already buying. The whole game is about making sure your listing, not a competitor’s, is the one that lands in front of them. You don’t need expensive brand campaigns to get noticed: good visibility in search results and a competitive offer are enough, and that’s exactly what professional Amazon sales management focuses on.

Does Amazon.fr face real competition in France?

Yes, Amazon.fr does face real competition in France, even though it dominates in terms of traffic. Its biggest rival by visits is AliExpress (13.97% of traffic), followed closely by local player Cdiscount (5.90%) and eBay.fr (7.24%).

Things get more interesting when you look not at traffic but at actual purchases in specific categories. In fashion, Amazon accounts for only 24.8% of shoppers, while Vinted has 18.2% and Shein 16.6% (La Fevad data). This shows that Amazon’s dominance isn’t the same across all categories.

For sellers, this is an important pointer: if you sell fashion, Amazon.fr is just one of several channels worth your attention, not the only one. In categories such as electronics or cultural products, Amazon holds a much stronger position, and there its lead is indisputable. It’s worth checking this before you decide how much budget and attention to devote to Amazon alone and how much to other channels. Diversifying your sales channels can matter more here than in other European markets.

Who are the French customers shopping on Amazon.fr?

The French customer shopping on Amazon.fr is used to a high standard of service and has little patience for shortcomings in a listing. More than 80% of French internet users shop online regularly, so this is neither a niche nor an experimental market.

French shoppers expect three things: fast delivery, efficient after-sales service and complete product descriptions in French. The last one sounds obvious, but it’s where Polish sellers most often go wrong. An automatically translated listing with language errors is a sure way to scare off a customer who has dozens of local alternatives at their fingertips.

What sells best on Amazon France?

The best-selling categories on Amazon France are those where the platform is strongest: cultural products (where Amazon accounts for 47.8% of shoppers), electronics and household goods. These are the categories in which trust in the Amazon brand and efficient FBA logistics make the biggest difference.

Fashion fares worse: there, Amazon shares the market with Vinted and Shein, so competition for customers is much fiercer. If you sell clothing, you have to reckon with the fact that a French customer is just as happy to browse a second-hand platform as Amazon.

For sellers, this means one thing: if your products fall into electronics, household goods or cultural products, you’re on solid ground on Amazon.fr. If you sell fashion, plan to diversify your channels from the outset rather than relying solely on Amazon. It’s worth checking this early on, while planning your product range, rather than discovering it only after the first few months of sales.

How much does it cost to sell on Amazon France?

Selling on Amazon France costs the same as selling on Amazon’s other European marketplaces under a single account: referral fees of 7% to 15% depending on the product category, the Professional selling plan fee (approx. €39 a month), and storage and order fulfilment costs under the FBA programme.

On top of that come fixed costs that sellers often forget about at the start: translating listings into French, a PPC advertising budget and VAT OSS registration. The standard VAT rate in France is 20%, with reduced rates of 10% or 5.5% depending on the product category.

Your real break-even point has to be calculated individually: if the margin on a €50 product is 20%, you make €10 per unit. With fixed monthly costs of around €3,000 (advertising, account management, integrations), you need to sell at least 300 units a month just to break even. Only above that threshold do you start making real money, rather than simply maintaining a presence in the market.

Is it hard to expand to Amazon France if you already sell on Amazon DE?

If you already sell on Amazon.de, expanding to Amazon France is much simpler than starting from scratch. In Europe, Amazon works on a single European account model, so you can migrate your listings to Amazon.fr without opening a new account or repeating the entire setup.

It’s a big time-saver, but it doesn’t exempt you from the formalities. You still need to register for VAT OSS if you ship products directly from Poland, and to prepare your listings in French, because an automatic translation of the German version of a listing almost always looks artificial and lowers conversion.

In practice, this means the technical side of expanding to Amazon France is a matter of days, not months. The real work only begins with localising your listings, pricing and advertising strategy, because these determine whether a French customer will even notice your product among hundreds of similar ones.

Where should you start when selling on Amazon France?

When it comes to selling on Amazon France, start with a realistic analysis of your potential rather than jumping straight into uploading listings. Below are the steps we follow at Raise Your Sales when clients enter a new foreign market.

1. Check the sales potential of your products in the French market and calculate your break-even point.
2. Translate and localise your listings into French, taking local shopping habits into account.
3. Register for VAT OSS and check the VAT rates that apply to your product categories.
4. Set up your account and choose a sales model: FBA, FBM or Vendor, depending on your portfolio.
5. Launch PPC campaigns focused on sales rather than on building brand awareness.

You can handle each of these steps yourself, but in practice most mistakes happen precisely at the stage of localising listings and calculating the break-even point. That’s where money is most often lost at the start, before the first campaign has even gone live.

Summary

If you already have experience on other European Amazon marketplaces, expanding to Amazon France is a natural, technically simple next step. If you’re starting from scratch, it’s worth first checking where your product fits into this balance of power before you invest in translations and advertising.

Wondering whether your products have potential on Amazon France? Let’s talk: we’ll check it together during a free consultation and show you where to realistically start when entering this market.