10 Ways to Target French-Speaking Markets

by Bill Dunlap, Euro-Marketing Associates
Web Commerce Today, Issue 15, October 15, 1998

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The French market is a nice target market for an e-commerce site, for several reasons. France's economy is the 4th largest in the world, and after many years of being in a slump, it is picking up quite well. The French are spending again. And for over a year, the French government has been pushing very hard to encourage its people to go online. Secondary education has been totally wired, so that 80% of high schools and 60% of grade schools are online. (This puts France in the top 2-3 nations worldwide for online schools, and gives a higher score for high schools than even the U.S.)

There are 2.9 million people in France online (http://www.nopres.co.uk/internet/surveys/in08.htm) and predictions for 4 million by the end of 1998, and even 10 million by 2002. (France's population is 55 million.) There are French-speaking minorities in Belgium and Switzerland that together add 0.3 million to France's 2.9 million, but you should obviously focus your efforts on France.

Actually, as long as you are taking the trouble to sell online to the French, why not market to French-speaking people in North America as well? Nearly 9 million people in Canada (in Quebec) and another 1.9 million in the U.S. (according to the 1990 U.S. Census) use French as a primary language. Using Nielsen's figure of 35% (North Americans online), this gives 3.8 million French-speakers online in North America. If you are already in North America and targeting France already, it is all that much easier to sell to, deliver and provide after-sales service to these French-speakers in the U.S./Canada.

To get a sense of the top French Websites, there are several nice portal sites into the French Web that are interesting to explore:

• Wanadoo (France Telecom's Internet access, http://www.wanadoo.fr)
• Voila (large index portal, including French telephone directory, http://www.voila.fr)
• Nomade (large index that offer a range of topics, http://www.nomade.fr)
• Club Internet (Grolier Multimedia's Internet access, http://www.club-internet.fr)
• Imaginet (large ISP, http://www.imaginet.fr)
• Carrefour (large Quebec portal, http://www.carrefour.net)

Here are ten things you need to do to get into the French-speaking market:

1. Language is always an issue in the French-speaking world (whether in Europe or in N. America), and one should take care to localize pages in French, at least the important pages of a Website. Be sure to translate the navigation images on your Home Page too.
2. Prepare your META tags for French and Quebec indexes and search engines. Like most other countries, the French and Quebecois use their own indexes in French (plus a few American ones who have a French interface, such as Altavista, Yahoo, Excite, Lycos). And when they make a search for a word, it's in French, not English -- so make sure that your keywords and title are in French.
3. Directions. For products that have a manual or a sheet of directions, the vendor must furnish a French translation in order to sell his product. If not a full translation, at least a one-page summary of directions.
4. Is your product approved for sale in France? Some technical products must go through an approval process before being sold (especially telecom products). French authorities will not bother if you are selling only a small quantity, but once your French sales grow large, these approvals will have to be taken seriously.
5. VAT Issues ("value-added tax") is around 20% in French-speaking Europe, and only European companies can receive a refund for VAT. No matter which country you selling from, if you sell to individuals, they cannot claim VAT back again. So the landed price to your client will include an additional 20% on top of the transport and also duty (count 5% for duty). Still, even after Europeans pay the cost of product, transport, VAT and duty, they often wind up still saving 25-35% by purchasing from American sources, over the retail prices charged in Europe. So there is a reason for your French customer to buy over the Internet.
6. Repair and after-sales service. It is good to centralize all issues for post-purchase in one location, and Ireland is becoming quite popular for dealing with all of Europe. Salaries and international phoning are low in Ireland, which has been so successful at establishing itself as a base for high tech firms, but doesn't seem to be settling for just software and hardware. According to a recent article in "The Irish Times," they're positioning themselves to be the European e-commerce center.
7. Have a toll-free number where French people can call a French-speaking person for more information. That number can terminate in Ireland or the U.S., but it is important to have someone to call: it establishes credibility with the customer. So far, the French are quite used to e-commerce, using their Minitel system, but they are not familiar with ordering from another country using the Web.
8. Quebec vs. France toll-free numbers: is there a difference, when you're selling online to both? The main difference is in receiving phone inquiries from one or the other. The French "0800 + ..." is extremely different than the Quebec "800 + ...". The Quebec toll-free number is integrated into the North American toll-free 800 numbers, while the French toll-free number has to be acquired from France Telecom. Either one can be programmed to terminate anywhere in the world. The main point is that the prospect should not have to worry about paying for the call. It is good to have both, in order to take both markets seriously. They could even terminate at the same person's line (a French-speaking person, of course).
9. Quebec vs. France after-sales service. If you sell products online, there will be different repair procedures in Europe than in Canada, depending on which side of the Atlantic your company is located: who is going to assume responsibility on the other side of the Atlantic?
10. Promote your Website in the French-speaking world. There are several excellent Website promotion agencies in France, but they are much more expensive than you are used to. The main reason why they charge so much money is that they are accustomed to working for large accounts who have mammoth budgets, where they can charge triple or quadruple what is usual in the U.S. Of course, they will also throw in a good deal in the way of studies: about the META tags, about the competition and their use of their Website, verifications of the index registration, etc. In short, their life with large accounts has showed them many ways to justify charging outrageous prices. Also the French have been trained since early age to study something first before acting -- whereas an American would try one thing, and if that doesn't work, try something else, the French are infinitely studious and given to discussion the millions of ways of doing something, and why something would or would not work. This is part of their culture: they did produce Descartes, after all. This ends up costing the Website promotion customer quite a bit, so be forewarned!

All this being said, I encourage you to go after the French-speaking market. It is a large, lucrative market that needs patience at first, but nearly always yields generous fruit after working out the initial bugs.

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Bill Dunlap (bill@euromktg.com) is the president of Euro-Marketing Associates (http://euromktg.com/), and specializes in helping US companies market to Europe and Asia.

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