Belgium

The 100 biggest online stores in Belgium generated a total revenue of 2.6 billion euros in the period 2014-2015, which is a huge increase from the 1.1 billion euros they generated last year. But almost 72 percent of this revenue was generated thanks to foreign customers. Belgium is still a country where local retailers don't play a very significant role, although this is changing slowly.

About 6.7 million consumers in Belgium purchased products and services online worth of 1.97 billion euros during the second quarter of this year. Ecommerce now accounts for 14 percent of all spending in this Western European country. If ecommerce in Belgium develops at the same pace for the rest of the year, it will surpass the €7 billion by the end of 2015.

Vente-privee.com has acquired a majority stake in its Belgian competitor Vente-exclusive.com. The Belgian stakeholders will keep the remaining 49.9%. They will lead and support the further development of the website, which offers daily sales with discounts of 30% to 70% off the retail price.

For the coming years, the online retail association BeCommerce thinks Belgium will welcome about 5,000 new online stores every year. If the expected growth continues, Belgian consumers will be able to shop at more online stores than physical ones by 2020.

Claes Retail Group from Belgium will soon start selling its fashion products online in Germany as well as in China. With its clothing store JBC, the company is already active in Germany but now it's the first time it sells its products online to German customers.

The British electronica store Ao.com is building a new distribution center and offices for the European mainland. From there the retailer wants to expand in Germany and around. A launch in markets such as the Netherlands or Austria seems just a matter of time.

Made.com, a large furniture seller that is already active in the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands got funding to accelerate its European growth. At first to 'agressively grow in those markets' in which it sees plenty of room to continue it's growth.

Fashionchick.nl, a Dutch ecommerce portal where consumers can search, find and compare clothing, has expanded its services to Belgium. After launching dedicated websites in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Austria, Belgium is the fifth country Fashionchick has expanded to.

Slightly more than 7 million Belgian shopped online last year, which means 64% of the population has ordered something via the Internet in 2014. Of all these shoppers, 440.000 Belgians ordered something online for the first time ever.

Belfius, one of Belgium's largest banks, wants to further promote the local ecommerce industry and thus has collaborated with seven partners, so entrepreneurs can start an online store more easily. A noble pursuit, as 42% of the money Belgian consumers spent online went to outlandish ecommerce sites.

Ecommerce company Stylight is branching out further in the European market and is now available in 14 countries. As of this week, Stylight is there for customers in Belgium and Norway. The fashion discovery website thinks opening up two new ecommerce sites is 'just another logical step of their expansion strategy'.

It seems impossible to make money online with food sales in Belgium. Well, this probably not only applies to Belgium, but that's where a new research is conducted and where the conclusion is drawn that not a single distributor manages to make a profit from selling food products online.

The yearly Global Retail Ecommerce Index shows that in Europe the UK, Germany and France are still the most attractive ecommerce countries to set ground in. However, the score is highly influenced by the online market size. Smaller countries such as Belgium, Denmark and Spain have less impact but do increase fast in score.

Verifone, an American provider of technology that enables electronic payment transactions, has today announced it will open an office in Brussels, Belgium. From here it wants to offer platforms and solutions for secure online payments to customers in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Three in four consumers in Belgium still like to try, touch or see the products they want to buy. Even if purchasing it online would be cheaper. And when it comes to clothing and shoes, no less than 90% of consumers likes to try on the products offline rather than look for it online.