Belgium

Neleman, the online store of Dutch winemaker and merchant Derrick Neleman, is expanding further across Europe. The omnichannel company will soon open online shops in Belgium, Germany and Spain.

Bol.com will start with a French-speaking online shop in June this year. For, the Dutch ecommerce giant this will mark the first time its online store isn't in Dutch. It also means Bol.com will be accessible for all consumers in Belgium.

Belgian ecommerce broke all national records in 2019. Last year, Belgian online shoppers spent 11.46 billion euros, which is 900 million euros more than during the year before. Belgians shopped, on average, 13.4 times online, which led to a total of 112.9 million online purchases.

Online stores in Belgium have generated a total turnover of 8.2 billion euros in 2019. This is an increase of 17 percent compared to the situation one year before. One out of every four euros generated by Belgian online shops came from foreign shoppers.

Coolblue has generated total sales of 1.48 billion euros last year, which is an increase of 10 percent compared to the situation one year before. Its adjusted EBITDA increased by 28 percent to 34.5 million euros.

Charlie Temple, an optical online retailer from the Netherlands, has expanded to Belgium and Austria. For the fast-growing ecommerce scale-up in prescription glasses these are the second and third new market, after it also expanded to Germany last year.

Gadero, an online shop for wood and wooden furniture, has expanded its ecommerce activities to the French-speaking market in Western Europe. The Dutch retailer will now deliver wood to Wallonia, Luxembourg and some northern parts of France.

Interiors online retailer Amara will launch its online store in Belgium. This would be the tenth country where Amara runs a localized website. The announced launch in Belgium follows after a period of strong European growth.

Online pharmacy Newpharma wants to expand further across Europe and is thinking about launching its online shop in both Italy and Spain. Currently, the Belgian ecommerce company is active in six European countries.

Payconiq, a mobile payment app supported by several Benelux banks, wants to expand further in Europe. To achieve this goal, it just raised 20 million euros in a funding round led by its existing shareholders.

Lidl has stopped selling wine online through its online shops in Belgium and the Netherlands. The supermarket chain wants to limit itself to selling only non-food items online.

Ecommerce in Belgium is still being dominated by foreign online retailers. Last year, the biggest online turnover was achieved by Dutch ecommerce giant Bol.com, followed by Coolblue (also from the Netherlands) and Amazon France. In the top 10, there are only two Belgian players.

Ecommerce in Belgium was worth slightly over 7 billion euros last year. This is an increase of 20 percent compared to the situation one year before, when the Belgian ecommerce was worth 5.8 billion euros.

Ecommerce in Belgium was worth 10.67 billion euros in 2018. That's an increase of almost 6 percent compared to the situation one year before. Belgian consumers have not only spent more money online, they also shopped more often: last year, the average Belgian shopper bought something online over 11 times.

Fashion retailer Zalando will expand its relatively new beauty category in Europe. Over the next two months, the German ecommerce company will start selling its beauty products in Sweden, Denmark, France, Belgium and Italy.