How Cinta Works: From ‘I Miss You’ to a Local Gift Delivered in a Few Clicks
How Cinta makes sending a gift abroad finally simple
Sending a gift abroad from France can feel heavy: shipping costs, delays, customs forms and the fear that the parcel will never arrive all drain the joy out of the gesture. With Cinta, you skip international shipping entirely and still send a meaningful local gift to someone you love in a city like Lille in just a few clicks. Cinta is a curated marketplace that connects you to trusted local shops near your recipient so the gift is prepared in their city instead of crossing borders in a box.
If you have ever thought “I want to send a gift to Lille but I do not know the address, the language or which shops to trust”, Cinta is built exactly for that situation. The experience is designed to be as simple as sending a message, while keeping the emotion of a tangible surprise delivered right into your loved one’s everyday life.
Step 1: Choose the city where your loved one lives
You start on the Cinta homepage by entering the city of your recipient, for example Lille, France. This tells our platform to show you only local gift ideas available around them, from hand picked bakeries, florists, concept stores, wine shops and experience providers that match Cinta’s quality criteria. You do not have to google “best gift shop in Lille” or scroll through dozens of websites in another language because the curation work is already done for you.
If Cinta has not launched yet in your loved one’s city, you can still register to be notified and discover which future cities and countries will join the Cinta gift marketplace next. This lets you plan international gifts in advance and keeps you connected to people who might move again in the future.
Step 2: Browse a curated selection of local gifts
Once you choose Lille, you land on a page with all the gift listings available in that city. Each listing shows clear photos, a detailed description, the local price and the name of the Lille shop that will prepare the order, so you know exactly what you are sending and who you are supporting. This is where Cinta is different from a generic marketplace: you only see a short, high quality selection rather than hundreds of random results.
In Lille, you can already find gifts like artisan breakfast boxes, fresh pastries, flower bouquets, gourmet chocolates, wine or beer selections, café experiences and home decor items chosen to feel warm and local. To see what is live right now, you can visit our Lille gift listings on Cinta and explore how it feels to send a local gift instead of an international parcel.
Step 3: Personalise the gift with your words
After you select a product, you can add a personal message that will travel with the local gift. It might be a simple “good luck for your exam”, a long paragraph about how much you miss them or an inside joke that only the two of you understand, but this text is what transforms a croissant, bouquet or tasting into an emotional connection. Cinta keeps the personal message central because the goal is not only to deliver an object, but to deliver a feeling.
Depending on the Lille vendor, you can also indicate delivery preferences such as morning or afternoon, home delivery or in shop pick up, and sometimes small add ons like a card or an extra treat. These options help you adapt the gift to the rhythm of your recipient’s life and avoid missed deliveries or awkward timing.
Step 4: Pay securely on the Cinta platform
When your message and options are ready, you pay directly on Cinta through trusted payment providers instead of being redirected to multiple external websites. This is important for international gifts because it removes issues with foreign payment systems, different currencies and unknown platforms that can break trust. You see the total price of the local gift in Lille plus Cinta’s transparent service fee, which makes it easy to compare with traditional international shipping.
Our economic model is based on a commission shared between Cinta and the local shop, which allows us to keep the experience sustainable for senders, recipients and vendors. You receive a clear order summary by email with the name of the shop, the city, the expected delivery date and your personal note, so you can always come back to the details later.
Step 5: Cinta coordinates delivery with the local vendor
Once your order is confirmed, Cinta contacts the Lille vendor to prepare the gift and organise the delivery or pick up according to your choices. This coordination is where a lot of the hidden complexity of international gifting usually lives: confirming addresses, making sure the timing works and handling questions. Instead of you juggling phone numbers and time zones, our team and our tools handle this directly with the shop and, when needed, with your recipient.
If you do not know the exact address of your loved one, Cinta can still help. With their consent, we can reach out via phone or message to confirm where they want to receive the gift and when, without revealing the full surprise. Many people today have contacts saved only as Instagram handles or WhatsApp numbers, and Cinta is built to work in that reality.
Step 6: Your loved one receives a local gift in Lille
On the selected day, your loved one receives the gift prepared by a real shop in Lille: a box from a local bakery, a bouquet from a nearby florist, a package from a chocolatier or another partner. For them, it feels like you suddenly appear in their day through something physical that belongs to their city, not just another anonymous parcel on the doormat. The emotional impact is stronger because the gift is rooted in their new life, while still clearly coming from you.
“Here, this breakfast or bouquet is from someone who thinks of you from far away.”
That feeling is at the heart of Cinta: turning distance into a concrete, local gesture that shows you are present, even when you cannot share the moment in person.
Step 7: You both get clarity and follow up
Cinta aims to remove stress, not add to it, so we are building tools that give you a clear view of what is happening with your gift. You can see when the order is being prepared, when it is out for delivery and when it has been delivered, instead of refreshing international tracking pages that often feel opaque. If something goes wrong with the product or the delivery, our support team works with the Lille vendor to find a solution that respects both you and the recipient.
Over time, this feedback loop helps us refine which local partners we work with and how we design our experience in each city. The goal is to make Cinta the most trusted way to send a local gift abroad for long distance couples, families, friends and anyone who wants a simple but meaningful way to stay connected.
Why Cinta is different from traditional international shipping
When you send a gift with Cinta, you are not sending a box across borders, you are activating a local shop near your loved one to create something in your name. This means less money spent on shipping and customs, less time lost on paperwork and carrier comparison, and less environmental impact from transporting parcels internationally. At the same time, it means more trust in selected local partners, more relevance to your recipient’s everyday life and more emotion when they receive the surprise.
- Less stress because Cinta handles logistics and vendor coordination for you.
- Less waste because there is no unnecessary long distance packaging and transport.
- More meaning because the gift is part of your loved one’s real city and routine.
- More support for independent local businesses in places like Lille.
Try Cinta with someone you love in Lille
If someone you care about lives in Lille right now, Cinta is ready for you to try this new way of sending affection abroad. You can start by browsing
our Lille listings , choose a small everyday gift like a breakfast, a bouquet or a café moment, and let us coordinate everything with the local shop.
For us, every order is more than a transaction: it is a small bridge between two people in two different places. Cinta exists to make that bridge as simple, beautiful and sustainable as possible so that saying “I miss you” or “I am proud of you” can always become a real, local gift.
