2022: Almost 75% of Belgians shopped online

In 2022, 74.8 percent of Belgian consumers shopped online. This is a higher share than the European average of 68 percent. While Belgians prefer shopping locally, when they do place cross-border orders, these are usually in other countries within the European Union.

These data come from the first edition of the Belgian Digital Economy Overview, which was presented by the Belgian Federal Government Economics department. The research tried to create an overview of the digital landscape in Belgium.

Clothing often bought online

According to the data, consumers most often bought clothes online (41.8 percent). This was followed by the bookings of holiday accommodations (23.4 percent) and tickets for cultural events (21.7 percent).

81.76% of Belgians prefer shopping at local sellers

Last year, 81.76 percent of Belgian online shoppers said that they prefer shopping at local sellers. However, almost 4 out of 10 (39.4 percent) also bought products from sellers in other European countries. This was 22 percentage points higher than the European average of consumers who shop cross-border.

Ecommerce share of SME sales was 16.7%

When looking at ecommerce on a corporate level, at least 28.1 percent of all SME’s in Belgium sold online. Additionally, ecommerce represented share of 16.7 percent of SME sales. This was higher than the European average (11.3 percent). However, this was mainly due to B2B sales and sales to governmental organizations. In 2022, the ecommerce share amounted to  14.6 percent in Belgium and 11.5 percent in Europe.