Frequently asked questions

You create a free account and receive an address in France with a personal code. You order from any French site using that address. We receive your parcels, keep them free for 45 days, and when you're ready, we consolidate everything into one box, weigh it, and quote you the exact price — you pay, we ship. The four steps in detail →

Nothing. No subscription, no entry fee, no minimum. Receiving your parcels and storing them for 45 days is free — the only payment happens when you decide to ship, and it's stated to the cent before you confirm.

It's your warehouse identifier — how we recognise your parcels among everything that arrives every day. Write it into the delivery address of every order, ideally on the “address line 2” field: FrenchShopper — FS-4B29X7. Without it, an incoming parcel can't be matched to anyone. Your code is shown in your account, and it never changes.

It's recoverable, on one condition: declare the parcel in your account with its tracking number as soon as the seller ships it. The tracking number lets us identify the parcel on arrival even without a code on the label. If you neither added the code nor declared the tracking, write to us quickly at contact@frenchshopper.com with the recipient name and the carrier — we'll match it by hand.

All of them. Sézane, Sephora, Vinted, Fnac, Amazon.fr, small independent shops… If a site delivers within France, it can deliver to us. You pay the merchant directly — we take nothing on your purchases. Need inspiration? Our directory of 80+ stores →

Declare your orders in your account with their tracking number: we follow them automatically to the warehouse, and you're emailed the moment each one arrives, with its weighed weight. Your account shows at any time what's expected, what has arrived, and what's ready to go.

Not on arrival: your parcel stays sealed while it waits at the warehouse. It is opened in two cases. If you request it, with photos — €5 per parcel, photos online within 48 business hours; nothing to pay at request time, the amount is simply added to your shipping invoice. And when several parcels are consolidated into one shipment: taking them out of their boxes is precisely what shrinks the volume, and therefore your shipping price. We use that moment to check the contents comply with transport rules — we're the ones named as sender and certifying it to customs. No photos are taken on that occasion.

45 days free per parcel, from the day it arrives — enough to finish your shopping before consolidating everything. Beyond that, €1 per day per parcel, added to the shipping fee on the day you ship; nothing is charged in between, and the meter stops the moment you click “Finalise my parcel”. We email you 5 days before the free period ends, then again when it expires. A parcel left without news for more than six months after the free period ends is considered abandoned, after a final 30-day notice (article 6.2 of the Terms of Sale, in French).

Yes. You create the return on the seller's site (only you can — it needs your account and order number), then email us their prepaid return label. We print, stick and drop off: €15, storage due included — plus the opening + photos option if you had requested it without settling it yet — exact amount shown before payment. If the seller provides no prepaid label, we can't process the return: we then refund our handling fee (the €15 and the storage paid with it), and your parcel stays in stock. Your item's price never goes through us — you paid the seller, and its refund is between you and them, under their return policy.

Yes — and it's not our call: air-transport regulations prohibit aerosols, perfume in quantity, batteries shipped on their own, alcohol depending on destination, among others. The list, explained simply →. In doubt about a specific item, write to us before ordering.

On the finished box, really weighed and measured — never on an estimate. The price includes shipping, insurance (passed on at its exact cost, no margin on our side), packaging, consolidation where relevant, and storage if you went past the 45 days. We notify you as soon as the box is weighed: you then choose your delivery among several carriers, each with its lead time and exact price — and nothing ships until you've paid. To get an idea beforehand: the calculator, with each carrier's real rates for your city.

It's where the service earns its keep. Five orders shipped separately means paying international shipping five times; consolidated into one box, it's a single shipment plus €2.50 per item from the second one. On clothing, consolidation often cuts the total cost by half or two-thirds.

You do. Depending on the destination: Colissimo, Chronopost, DHL, FedEx, UPS… At payment time you see every offer with its price and lead time, and you pick the trade-off that suits you — economy or express.

Paid on a business day before 3pm (Paris time), your parcel leaves the next business day. Paid after 3pm, it leaves the business day after that. The departure day is shown before you pay, and you then track the parcel to your door with the carrier's tracking number.

243 destinations — nearly the whole world, and French overseas territories aren't a special case: Guadeloupe, Réunion, New Caledonia and the rest are destinations like any other here. Enter your city in the calculator: if it shows a rate, we deliver.

That depends solely on your country's regulations — these charges are set by your local authorities, never by us, and they're the recipient's responsibility. Where it matters for your destination, we flag it in the calculator and before payment. Within the European Union, no customs at all: France is part of it.

The United States suspended its “de minimis” exemption in 2025: every incoming parcel is now subject to duties, whatever its value. This isn't specific to our service — it applies to every international shipment to the USA, whoever the sender.

We do — from the descriptions and values you provide for each parcel in your account. We produce the declaration and the proforma invoice, in French and English, and attach them to the parcel in a dedicated pouch. You have no form to print or sign.

Yes, by default, with no box to tick — every shipment leaves covered up to the value you declared. One rare exception: a handful of destinations no carrier insures (some remote islands, countries under restrictions). We tell you clearly before you pay, and shipments only go there with your explicit consent. Insurance is passed on to you exactly as the carrier bills us: we earn nothing on it, and its amount is visible line by line before payment. If something goes wrong, we build the claim with the carrier and the insurer, and pass the compensation on to you as soon as it's received — no paperwork on your side.

Write to us at contact@frenchshopper.com as soon as possible — ideally within 48 hours, and at most within 7 days of delivery (or as soon as tracking stalls abnormally). For a damaged parcel: photograph the box before emptying it, the inner packaging and the affected item, and keep everything — the insurer requires being able to examine them and rejects claims without the packaging. We open the case with the carrier and the insurer, and keep you posted at every step; we do the fighting, not you.

Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Link, via Stripe — we never see or store your payment details. Prices can be displayed in your currency using the selector at the top of the page; the charge is made in euros, at the real exchange rate, with no surcharge from us.

Yes — your account has an address book, and you choose the destination when paying for each shipment. Handy for a gift, a second home or a stay abroad.

Yes, free of charge, as long as you haven't paid. Your parcels simply go back into storage and the storage meter resumes. After payment, write to us quickly: as long as the box hasn't been handed to the carrier, we can still stop everything.

Write to us at contact@frenchshopper.com or via the contact page — we reply within 24 hours, in French or in English.