E-commerce logistics in Hauts-de-France
To meet today’s challenging delivery deadlines, your business needs both centralized distribution centers and cross docks near your consumer markets. Hauts-de-France has everything you need for optimum product distribution—in Europe and around the world.
E-commerce logistics in Hauts-de-France
To meet today’s challenging delivery deadlines, your business needs both centralized distribution centers and cross docks near your consumer markets. Hauts-de-France has everything you need for optimum product distribution—in Europe and around the world.
The e-commerce revolution
E-commerce has turned the logistics industry. From pallets to parcels, the entire sector has diversified, bringing fundamental change to the market. Once viewed as a cost center, logistics is now seen as a vital selling point for online retailers.
Keeping pace with these changes requires:
- reinventing the relationship between online sellers and logistics providers
- modernizing infrastructures to meet new warehouse needs
- working with integrators and other cloud robotics specialists to automate warehouses and boost agility.
Major logistics hub for leading e-commerce players
From mail-order sales to e-commerce
Hauts-de-France was the birthplace of distance selling, and its retail expertise made it fertile ground for the growth of e-commerce. Leading players in the region—including La Redoute, 3 Suisses and Damart—easily went digital on a massive scale, thanks to the service providers and logistics infrastructures who sped their transformation, creating an ecosystem that has attracted many international contenders.
E-commerce players in Hauts-de-France
Prominent retailers and a wide range of pure players have made the strategic choice to locate their European distribution centers in the region.
Did you know? Some 45% of Amazon’s French warehouse space is here in Hauts-de-France.
Take your place in a strategic nerve center with easy access to your markets
Do you sell primarily to markets in the Paris Region, the UK or the Benelux? When you locate in Hauts-de-France, you’re in the heart of it all—and you’re ideally positioned to optimize your logistics costs.
Save on logistics costs!
Close to customers
Put your business in the heart of Europe’s #1 consumer market.
Within a 300-km radius of Lille you can:
- reach 78 million consumers directly
- penetrate an unparalleled market with €1,500 billion in disposable income
- quickly access five major European capitals— Paris, London, Brussels, Luxembourg and Amsterdam.
Access and markets in Hauts-de-France
The infrastructures you need
Choose from a wide range of transport options
Facing new delivery challenges? In Hauts-de-France, there’s always a solution. Ship via drone, truck, train, barge and more, depending on your volume. Match your transport to your need:
- 1 package = 1 drone
- 1 container = 1 truck
- 5 containers = 1 train
- 300 containers = 1 barge
Build a green supply chain for your brand
Today’s brands are under increasing pressure from consumers to build ecodesign into their products and to make shipping as green and flexible as it can be.
Hauts-de-France can help you meet this challenge. In our region, you have real choices when you’re ready to ship. We look beyond road transport to alternative solutions including inland waterways, rail and clean vehicles. Today more and more companies are making the “modal shift”, rethinking their transport choices to make shipping more eco-friendly—and more efficient, too.
Get the right e-commerce logistics solution for your business
Subcontract to a service provider
Hauts-de-France is home to many French and international 3PL companies ready to meet your transport needs.
Develop your own logistics operation
In 2019, Hauts-de-France saw particularly strong demand for land and buildings from the French logistics industry, accounting for 23% of the national total.
Our region has some 13 million sq m of warehouse space—that’s 16% of available capacity in France.
And we can offer you a wide range of real estate solutions in business parks that are ideal for growing your logistics operations:
- large tracts of available land
- direct connections to transport infrastructures
Need to solve an e-commerce problem? Want to manage your own logistics?
Choose a turnkey multimodal logistics park
Consider these two specialized multimodal sites with high added value.
e-Valley
- 700,000 sq m of secure, fully equipped warehouse space in Europe’s biggest e-logistics park, with scalable units starting at 6,000 sq m.
- Bonded warehousing with deferred customs duties and VAT payments are deferred, allowing rigorous cash flow management.
- Fast access to major European roads: 1h to Lille and 2h to Paris via A1, 1h30 to Brussels and 3h to Cologne via A2.
- Close to Europe’s largest ports (1h30 to Calais via A26, 2h to Antwerp via A2).
- Direct rail link to the future Seine-Nord Europe Canal linking the Oise River in Compiègne to the Dunkerque-Escaut canal near Cambrai. Set to open in 2028 this new “Vb” class canal will be a high-capacity transport corridor, handling barges that can carry up to 4,400 metric tons of cargo—the equivalent of 220 trucks.
- Shared services: 85,000 sq m of office space, a call center, photography studios, a hotel and a restaurant, as well as specialized service providers for transport and e-commerce logistics, service stations and packaging manufacturers.
- Easy management of customer returns: the e-Valley complex includes Out’Net, a retail center where returns will be refurbished and sold to the public at a 50% discount.
Delta 3
- a 400-ha site with 520,000 sq m of logistics buildings in operation. Another 240,000 sq m are under development, with 50,000 sq m set for delivery in 2020.
- a trimodal site linked to:
- Highways—access via A1 E17 / A26 and A21
- Rail—the Lens-Ostricourt line and the Lille-Paris line (B+ loading gauge)
- Waterways—access via the high-capacity Dunkerque-Valenciennes canal. Delta 3’s 250-m inland terminal includes a rail-road-waterway gantry crane that can handle 20 moves per hour
- Transport service providers including Novatrans, Rail Link Greenmodal and Danser
- a 2,500-TEU container storage area – a shared services center with:
- 2 service stations
- a tractor trailer/HGV parking facility with 150 spaces
- Campus Euralogistic, a training center for transport and logistics
- a restaurant
Keep shipping costs under control
When you choose Hauts-de-France, you save on shipping costs. Take a look at these sample costs to ship ten 80×120 Euro-pallets (before environmental and diesel fuel taxes) from Lille:
- €198 to Paris
- €395 to Lyon
- €628 to Marseille
Ready to centralize logistics for your large-scale e-commerce business?
Speed up the paperwork
Tired of permitting delays? We can help. We know the French system. With NFI by your side, you can get the government authorizations you need in record time, including building permits and (à compléter)
Case study: Amazon’s 95,000-sq m facility in Douai
With help from Nord France Invest, Amazon optimized its construction timeline:
Don’t miss this opportunity to locate in France’s #1 logistics region
Learn more about tapping into our qualified labor pool, leveraging our R&D capabilities and launching your business in Hauts-de-France.
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