Dutch online-only retailer Wehkamp expands to Belgium

Wehkamp will launch a Belgian website later this year. The Dutch company is developing a completely new online store for the Belgian market. The product range will consist of some 150,000 item from about 1200 different brands. It’s for the first time ever Wehkamp has gone cross-border.

The product range is, with the exception of a few local nuances, equal to what the Dutch department store has to offer. Until now, dozens of brands were not available online in Belgium. That’s because in the Netherlands, the company works together with various Dutch brands. For the Belgian website, Wehkamp is currently looking into possibilities to add Belgian brands to the range.

Wehkamp is very different from so many online stores in the Netherlands, as it was already online with Wehkamp.nl in 1995. It was founded in 1952 as a mail order company. Quite late actually, it transformed to a 100% online department store in 2008. Since then it invested a serious amount of time, money and energy into repositioning the brand, that was seen as somewhat old-fashioned by a lot of people.

“We’ve been online with Wehkamp.nl for almost twenty years. Back then, we were one of the first companies in the Netherlands to open a web shop. Thanks to the online experiences we have acquired over these years and international experiences via Fonq, one of our other subsidiaries, I’m confident that Wehkamp.be will have a successful introduction”, says Gert van de Weerhof, CEO of RFS Holland Holding. Wehkamp’s parent company wants to make Wehkamp.be a top-3 player in the Belgian ecommerce market within the next three years.

Phased introduction for Wehkamp in Belgium
Wehkamp will slowly enter the Belgian market by launching an initial test version of Wehkamp.be later this year. After hearing the experiences of customers the website will be optimized further, so that the complete version of the online department store can go live with over 150,000 items in categories like Fashion, Home, Garden & DYI, Electronics, Entertainment & Household Appliances, Sports & Leisure and Beauty & Wellness.