Belgium

Temu has recently entered into a large number of partnerships with logistics service providers for the delivery of products across Europe. This week, deals with the United Kingdom’s Royal Mail and Belgium’s bpost were announced.

Only three years after launching a dedicated online store for Belgium, Amazon has grown into the country’s second-largest online retailer. The company is investing heavily in Belgium. Part of the investment is going toward same-day delivery from Amazon’s distribution center in Hoboken, near Antwerp.

Cainiao, the logistics subsidiary of Alibaba Group, will not move forward with its planned expansion at Liège Airport in Belgium. Two new warehouses that were on the drawing board will not be built, dealing a blow to Wallonia’s ambition to turn Liège into an ecommerce logistics hotspot.

Amazon will invest more than 1.4 billion euros in the Dutch market over the next three years. Earlier this month, the company also announced an injection of more than 1 billion euros in Belgium. The American company aims to win over shoppers and online buyers across the Benelux region in its battle with local market leader bol.

Amazon is investing over one billion euros in the Belgian market over the next three years. The American company aims to improve the customer experience for Belgian shoppers and help small and medium-sized businesses grow both domestically and internationally.

The Belgian government is considering introducing a levy on parcels imported from outside the European Union. The 2 euro fee per parcel would affect Chinese online retailers such as AliExpress, Shein and Temu. The government intends to use the revenue to help reduce the national budget deficit.

Last year, Belgian consumers spent 17.4 billion euros on online purchases. This was a billion euros more than in 2023, representing an increase of 6.7 percent. In 2024, Belgians did a quarter of all their spending online for the first time.

MediaMarkt saw its marketplace revenue double in the past fiscal year. In the new year, the electronics retailer will open its virtual doors in Belgium, Poland, and Turkey. An additional expansion into new product categories is expected to attract new buyers and sellers.

More than seven out of ten Belgian consumers never (or almost never) return items that they have ordered online. This is because they only order items that they want to keep. Belgians are ordering online more often, with 40 percent of all purchases happening online.

Online marketplace Bol has launched several updates this month. One of the updates is a new advertising option that allows sellers to highlight their brand and assortment in search results. There are also changes to the partner platform and review policy.

Consumers in Belgium spent 16.3 billion euros online last year. Compared to 2022, this is an increase of almost 11 percent. The strong growth was caused by an increase in sales of online services, like package holidays.

Dutch omnichannel retailer Coolblue has generated a revenue of 2.41 billion euros last year. This was an increase of 2.5 percent compared to a year earlier. Additionally, the company doubled its earnings before interest to 88.3 million euros.

German online pet supply store Zooplus is launching its subscription program in Belgium and the Netherlands. In total, the subscription is now available in 8 markets. In the coming months, the retailer is expanding the model into 20 European markets.

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.

Belgian consumers spent 7.9 billion euros online in the first half of this year. This is an increase of 9.4 percent compared to the same period last year. For the first time, more was spent on services than on products.