08/08/2018
Shopping in the UK becomes quite common in France
Relations between the UK and France had their ups and downs throughout the history, but there was a constant connection between the two nations. This translated to the digital era, and in the last few years, it becomes apparent that despite all the differences, there are certain trends that show that French actually really appreciate certain segments of the British approach to life.
Shopping abroad
Ever since online sales became possible, the world has become a much smaller place than it used to be. Everything can be bought from virtually anywhere so it is now much easier to shop where you actually want.
In the case of French people, it turned out that a huge portion of them (25%) actually like shopping in the UK! In the past quarter, every fourth Frenchmen who made a purchase online has been shopping on UK websites. On average, these shoppers have spent around GBP 50 per session.
Why shop in the UK?
The reasons behind this trend are various, but it turned out that the French people generally appreciate the quality of goods that are being offered on the UK market and that they prefer it to the same goods offered in France.
Also, a huge majority (over 75%) claims that they prefer British brands as such, and even higher percentage claims that the uniqueness of British character translated to certain goods is something they appreciate very much.
What do they shop for?
Although the French people are shopping pretty much everything in the UK, the best-selling categories of products include footwear, clothes, and books. DIY equipment and various accessories are also extremely popular.
The favorite delivery method is still directly to their home address, but proportionally, they are more inclined towards receiving their orders in convenience stores than the shoppers from the rest of the world. This discrepancy is not so small, as the average on a global scale for this method of delivery is just 5%, while French rely on it in 17% of the cases.
It is also noticeable that the French are somewhat lagging behind the world trends when it comes to mobile shopping, but that they do spend on average more shopping online than it is the case with the world average.
All of this indicates that the UK retailers operating in niches that could be potentially interesting to French people have a real chance at generating significant revenue in this way. The only thing they really need to pay attention to is to adapt their offer to the shopping habits in France, as the approach is significantly different than the one suited for the UK market.