The French Connection retail model is famous for its mix of independent retail stockists, French Connection owned stores, and franchise stores which are owned and operated by independent retail businesses.

Although the franchise stores are similar in appearance to stores operated by French Connection, the franchisee does have a certain amount of choice about which ranges to buy, how to merchandise the store, and which IT systems to use. Touchretail have been by far the most popular choice of franchisees, which has led to the development of specific software modules for French Connection by Touchretail.