7 out of 10 Belgians buy online

This year, 72 percent of Belgians make online purchases. Of all Belgians who are active online, eight in ten have bought something online in the past year. And 94 percent say they will do so in the future.

Over half of Belgian consumers (56 percent) has bought something online at least once a month in the past twelve months. That’s an increase of 20 percent compared to the situation in 2019. One in five online shoppers in Belgium buy from the internet at least once a week, and they do this mostly in the evening. Two percent even say they buy something online every single day.

2 percent of online shoppers in Belgium order something every day.

These and more findings come from the annual study by Comeos, among 2,000 Belgians. This year’s survey was conducted in the month of April, when Belgium was in a lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Mcommerce is still growing

The study found that mcommerce is booming in Belgium. The past year, about four in ten consumers shopped online using their smartphone. Five years ago, that share was half as big. Comeos finds it interesting that 45 percent of Belgian women shopped using their smartphones, compared to just 46 percent of men. Mcommerce is particularly popular among young people (under 25 years); 63 percent of this age group bought something with their smartphone in the past twelve months.

63% of young people buy with their smartphone.

Fashion is still the number one product category in Belgian ecommerce. Two-thirds of all Belgians who shopped online  during the past twelve months, bought something from this category. That’s an increase of 7 percent compared to last year. The product category ‘Leisure’ ranks second, while ‘Health & Beauty’ is on a surprising third place. This category saw an increase of 19 percent compared to last year.

Almost half of all online purchases happen on a platform where various brands and retailers sell their products. One in four online purchases take place via the online shop or app of a retailer, while 20 percent happens via the online shop or app of a brand.