Belgium

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.

Belgian supermarket chain Colruyt has launched its own fresh food delivery service, called Rose Mary. The service enables customers to order ready-made meals. For now, Rose Mary only serves consumers in the Brussels region.

SwipBox is partnering in Europe again. This time it's with Belgian logistics provider Bpost. The two have teamed up to launch a network of parcel lockers that are battery driven and Bluetooth enabled. The first step is a pilot project in the Belgian city of Mechelen.

Shavatar is the name of a 3D avatar tool that should lead to fewer returns in the online fashion industry. With Shavatar, consumers can create their own avatars based on a few parameters. The tool then suggests the right size and fit of any given fashion item.

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.