For Dutch webshops selling to France
A parcel of Union goods from the Netherlands to mainland France needs no customs declaration. Zineps imports the order, applies a mainland France rule on your own PostNL, DHL, DPD, GLS, UPS or FedEx contract, and sends tracking updates. Returns come back through one portal.
Lyon · Rule applied
Rotterdam · Rule applied
Pointe-à -Pitre · Waiting for review
Example queue. Orders, carriers and statuses are illustrative, not a live account.
A parcel of goods already in free circulation, sent from the Netherlands to mainland France, stays inside the EU customs union, so it needs no customs declaration and no import duty. VAT is a separate question: above an EU-wide line of €10,000 a year, excluding VAT, the French rate can apply. Zineps imports the order, applies a France carrier rule and creates the label on your own contract.
General information from the sources below, not tax advice and not legal advice. The €10,000 line applies only in the cases the European Commission page describes: one EU country of establishment, the current and the previous calendar year, and distance sales dispatched from that country. It does not cover goods shipped from stock in another EU country, B2B sales with a VAT number, excise goods, a marketplace that accounts for the VAT, or French overseas departments and other overseas territories. On the Commission's territorial-scope table, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Réunion, Mayotte and Saint-Martin are in the EU customs territory and outside EU VAT and excise, so goods sent there need export formalities. Other French overseas territories on that table are outside the EU customs territory. Monaco is treated as French territory for customs, VAT and excise. Corsica is metropolitan France for customs, with further rates for some supplies.
Sources for this page:
The carriers you already use, with a France rule on top
Zineps is shipping software for webshops in the Netherlands and Belgium. Label creation, tracking updates and the returns portal sit beside PostNL, DHL, DPD, GLS, UPS and FedEx, so mainland France is one more destination rule in the same queue rather than a second carrier portal with copied addresses.
The problem
France is a large consumer market, and the first French orders often ride on the Dutch carrier setup. Union goods to mainland France need no customs declaration, but someone still has to choose the carrier, watch the €10,000 EU VAT line and give a return a label without an email thread. Overseas departments are a separate check. Zineps does not do VAT or packaging.
The carrier set up for the Netherlands also takes the French parcels, because changing it per country means changing the shop. Nobody compared PostNL, DHL, DPD or GLS on French lanes, and the exception is made by whoever is packing that day.
Under the EU line of €10,000 a year, excluding VAT, home-country VAT can stay for a seller established in one EU country. Above it, the customer's country sets the rate, which in metropolitan France is 20% for most goods. The shop, the accountant and the warehouse can each assume someone else is watching the total. Zineps does not calculate it.
For many online purchases, an EU consumer can withdraw within 14 days of delivery. Some goods are excluded, and return postage sits with the consumer unless the shop says it pays. Without a portal the French customer emails, and the label is made by hand.
The €10,000 line
Since 1 July 2021 one EU-wide threshold of €10,000 a year, excluding VAT, covers intra-EU distance sales of goods to consumers plus cross-border TBE services, when the seller is established in only one EU country and the total stays under the line this calendar year and the previous one. Above it, the customer's country sets the VAT, and the Union One-Stop Shop can report that in one return. Goods shipped from stock in another EU country sit outside the line. Zineps does not calculate VAT.
Under €10,000 a year
While the threshold still applies, home-country VAT can stay on distance sales dispatched from the one EU country where you are established. TBE means telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services, and those supplies count toward the same line. The shipping work is the carrier: a rule sends French orders to the carrier and service you chose, by destination, weight or the promise made at checkout. Zineps does not decide whether you are under the line.
Above €10,000 a year
Above the line, the customer's country sets the VAT on distance sales to consumers in metropolitan France. The French Ministry of the Economy lists a 20% standard rate, reduced rates of 10% and 5.5%, and a particular 2.1% rate there. Corsica and the overseas departments use other rates on that page, and a parcel to those departments is not this €10,000 case. Which rate your products fall under is for your accountant. Zineps keeps mainland French orders easy to pick out. The OSS return stays in your accounting tools.
What you get
Zineps imports orders, applies carrier rules by destination country, creates labels on your own carrier contracts, sends tracking updates and runs the returns portal from one queue. VAT calculation, OSS filing and packaging-scheme registration stay with your shop and accountant. They are not shipping features, and this page does not claim them.
Orders from Shopify, WooCommerce, bol.com and Amazon land in one queue, so a French label starts from the order instead of a copied address.
A rule sends parcels for mainland France to the carrier and service you chose, by destination, weight or the promise made at checkout. Overseas departments and other overseas territories stay off that rule until your team reviews them. Changing the rule does not mean changing the shop.
Create the label for PostNL, DHL, DPD, GLS, UPS or FedEx from the same queue. Which services each carrier offers to France is confirmed with the carrier.
When the label is created, the tracking update goes to the customer and back to the shop. Support stops reading a carrier page out loud.
The customer starts the return, a label is created, and your team sees the status next to the original order. Return options from France depend on your carrier contract and are reviewed on a demo.
Bring the contracts you already have. Rates, French service levels and delivery options come from your contract, not from Zineps.
Tracking updates
Your shop
Order #10482
Tracking update sent. Example status, not a live order
Example tracking update sent to the shop and the customer.
Getting started
Shipping to mainland France in Zineps starts when orders are imported from your webshop. A carrier rule decides which carrier and service a French parcel gets, Zineps creates the label on your own contract and sends tracking updates to the customer, and returns come back through the same portal. VAT stays in your shop and accounting. Overseas addresses wait for review.
01
Shopify, WooCommerce, bol.com or Amazon. Orders are imported into one queue.
02
Bring the carrier accounts you already use. Check with each carrier which services they offer to France.
03
Decide which carrier and service a French parcel gets, and which orders wait for review before they ship.
04
Labels are created, tracking updates go out, and the returns portal stays on the same queue.
How a French parcel gets its carrier
A carrier rule decides what happens to a French parcel before anyone opens it. The example below illustrates that logic for a Dutch webshop. It is not a live account, not a customer result and not a statement about what any carrier offers.
Example rules
The same queue as your other destinations
Say a Dutch webshop sends some of its parcels to mainland France. Today the carrier is whatever the shop was set up with for home orders. With a rule, the order is imported, matched to mainland France and sent to the carrier and service you chose after comparing, for example, DPD and DHL on those parcels. An address in Guadeloupe, Réunion or French Polynesia is not on that rule, so it waits for review.
Tracking updates go to the customer from that same queue. If the parcel comes back, the returns portal is the one your team already uses. Which services apply to your carrier account is reviewed on a demo.
01 IfNetherlands, home delivery
ThenPostNL
02 IfMainland France, standard promise
ThenThe carrier you chose
03 IfGuadeloupe, Réunion or French Polynesia
ThenWaits for review
04 IfCustomer starts a return
ThenReturns portal, same queue
Review. Orders outside the rules, including overseas departments and territories, wait for your team. Example rules. Your rules are set with you on a demo.
Example rules, not a live account. French services and delivery options are reviewed on a demo for your setup. This page is not tax advice: check VAT, OSS and packaging obligations with your adviser and the sources above.
Works with the carriers and shops you already use
Zineps connects shipping to mainland France with the carriers and webshops already named on this site, for merchants in the Netherlands and Belgium. The carriers are PostNL, DHL, DPD, GLS, UPS and FedEx. The webshops and marketplaces are Shopify, WooCommerce, bol.com and Amazon. Which services each carrier offers to France is confirmed with the carrier and reviewed on a demo.
International cluster
Related pages
FAQ
These answers cover a parcel of Union goods from the Netherlands to mainland France, the €10,000 VAT line, metropolitan VAT rates, overseas departments, packaging, a carrier rule and the transit estimates carriers publish. What still depends on a contract or an adviser is said so.
01
A parcel of goods already in free circulation, sent from the Netherlands to mainland France, stays inside the EU customs union, so it needs no customs declaration and no import duty. VAT is a separate question: above an EU-wide line of €10,000 a year, excluding VAT, the French rate can apply. The conditions are in the VAT answer below. Zineps imports the order, applies a France carrier rule and creates the label on your own contract. This is general information, not tax advice.
02
Shipping to mainland France in Zineps starts when orders are imported from your webshop. A carrier rule decides which carrier and service a French parcel gets, Zineps creates the label on your own contract and sends tracking updates to the customer, and returns come back through the same portal. VAT stays in your shop and accounting. Overseas addresses wait for review.
03
Zineps connects shipping to mainland France with the carriers and webshops already named on this site, for merchants in the Netherlands and Belgium. The carriers are PostNL, DHL, DPD, GLS, UPS and FedEx. The webshops and marketplaces are Shopify, WooCommerce, bol.com and Amazon. Which services each carrier offers to France is confirmed with the carrier and reviewed on a demo.
04
For mainland France it depends on where you are established, where the goods ship from, and your total. Since 1 July 2021, a business established in only one EU country can charge that country's VAT on intra-EU distance sales of goods to consumers, together with its cross-border telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services, while that combined total stays at or below €10,000 a year, excluding VAT, in both the current calendar year and the previous one. Above that line, the customer's country sets the rate. The French Ministry of the Economy's page of 15 January 2026 lists, for metropolitan France, a 20% standard rate, reduced rates of 10% and 5.5%, and a particular 2.1% rate. The same page lists further rates for some supplies in Corsica, a standard rate of 8.5% in Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion, and says VAT is provisionally not applicable in French Guiana and Mayotte. A parcel from the Netherlands to those departments is outside the EU VAT territory, so it is not this €10,000 OSS case. Saint-Martin is outside EU VAT on the Commission table. You can register in France or use the Union One-Stop Shop and file one return at home for the distance sales the scheme covers. You may also choose destination VAT below the line. Goods dispatched from stock in another EU country are outside the threshold. Sales to a business with a VAT number, excise goods and cases where a marketplace accounts for the VAT follow other rules. This page is not tax advice.
05
Not for goods already in free circulation sent to mainland France, including Corsica. The Netherlands and metropolitan France are both in the EU customs union and the EU VAT territory, so an ordinary commercial parcel between them needs no customs declaration and no import duty. Monaco is treated as French territory for customs, VAT and excise. That is different from a parcel to the UK or Switzerland. It does not cover excise goods or goods that are not in free circulation. Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Réunion, Mayotte and Saint-Martin are in the EU customs territory and outside EU VAT and excise, so goods sent there from the Netherlands need export formalities. Other French overseas territories are outside the EU customs territory and need a customs export. Keep those addresses off the mainland carrier rule until the paperwork and the contract have been checked. Zineps does not file the declaration. The VAT answer still applies to metropolitan France.
06
They can. France runs a producer-responsibility scheme for household packaging, and Citeo is one approved eco-organisation. Whether a Dutch webshop has to join, and whether it needs a representative in France, was not confirmed against an official text on 4 November 2026, so this page states no threshold and no fee. Ask Citeo and your adviser. Zineps does not handle that registration.
07
No single carrier is best for every French parcel. PostNL, DHL, DPD, GLS, UPS and FedEx are the carriers Zineps connects. La Poste's Colissimo is not among them, and neither are Chronopost and Mondial Relay. Zineps does not pick a winner. A carrier rule compares the contracts you brought on the same mainland French orders. Prices, transit times and delivery options come from those contracts, so check them with each carrier.
08
Zineps does not set or guarantee a transit time. Carrier pages checked on 4 November 2026 publish estimates, and the carriers say those estimates can change. PostNL lists 2 to 4 days for a tracked parcel or package to France and 1 to 6 days for its express service, and that France row includes overseas territories, so it is not a mainland-only figure. DHL eCommerce's Europe sheet v1.0/2026 lists 2 to 3 days for DHL Europlus and 3 days for DHL Parcel Connect to both France North and France South. France South on that sheet includes department 20, which is Corsica. The sheet says those times are not guaranteed, that they leave out customs clearance where it applies, and that islands and some territorial areas can take longer. DPD's public online shipping service lists 3 days to a French home address and 4 days to a DPD parcel point, as an expected average from driver pickup, with a longer time for islands. GLS, UPS and FedEx publish their own times. A business contract can differ, so check it before you promise a date at checkout.
09
Only the options on the carrier service you actually buy. Zineps does not add delivery options and does not choose a pickup point for you. It creates the label for the service on your contract and sends the tracking update. Which menu your PostNL, DHL or other contract includes, including any pickup point or parcel locker, is reviewed on a demo.
10
The Zineps returns portal is the same portal as for other destinations. The customer starts the return, a label is created, and your team sees the status next to the original order. For many distance contracts an EU consumer can withdraw within 14 days of delivery. Your Europe lists exceptions, including perishable and personalised goods, and says the consumer pays the return postage unless the seller offers to pay or failed to say so before the purchase. A longer window is your shop's policy, not a Zineps setting. Which return services your carrier contract includes from France is reviewed on a demo.
11
A demo walks through order import, a mainland France carrier rule, label creation and tracking updates on your shops. It also compares carrier options for French lanes on the contracts you bring, and which overseas addresses should wait for review.
12
No. A parcel of Union goods to mainland France, including Corsica, needs no customs declaration, and Monaco is treated as France for customs and VAT. Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Réunion, Mayotte and Saint-Martin are in the EU customs territory and outside EU VAT, so a parcel from the Netherlands needs export formalities. Other French overseas territories are outside the EU customs territory and need a customs export. Those addresses should wait for review instead of using the mainland France rule. Zineps does not file the declaration.
Bring your shops and your carrier contracts. We will walk through order import, a France carrier rule, labels and tracking updates.
A few details about your shop and your French orders, and we will get back to you.
