Belgium

Dutch postal operator PostNL has launched Flora@Home, a new solution for online retailers to easily sell fresh flowers and plants online. With Flora@Home, retailers can improve the product offering on their websites, while PostNL takes care of almost everything.

Zalando has launched its curated shopping service Zalon in Belgium. The free personal shopping service for men and women offers its customers personalized advice from fashion experts. Zalon by Zalando is now available in five European countries.

Ecommerce in Belgium was worth 9.1 billion euros in 2016. Last year, consumers spent 10 percent more on products and services online than they did in 2015. The online share of total retail has increased from 14 to 16 percent.

Maternia, the biggest contact lens retailer in the Czech Republic, has expanded its online reach in Europe. The company opened its online store in Belgium, which is now the 15th country in Europe where Maternia is active.

The Netherlands and Belgium have a combined population of 28 million people, a gross domestic product of 1.08 trillion euros and English is spoken widely. The two countries offer an attractive market to international retailers looking to expand into new territories. A new guidebook helps companies who want to sell online in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Dutch food-order company Takeaway.com has sold its British website to its competitor Just Eat. The news follows just a few weeks after Takeaway.com acquired the Benelux businesses from Just Eat. Both companies couldn't get a grip of the local market: Takeaway.com had trouble conquering the UK, while its presence was too strong in the Netherlands and Belgium for Just Eat to compete there.

Dutch omnichannel retailer Coolblue is almost ready to enter more European markets. The company is already active in Belgium, where it will open more physical stores, but is working on expanding to other countries. "The last hurdle is multilingualism."

Bol.com, the biggest online retailer in the Netherlands, is moving from being a traditional ecommerce player into a selling platform and fulfilment partner for third-party retailers. In an interview with Belgian newspaper De Tijd, managing director Daniël Ropers compared Bol.com with Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba. "We are building a network of expertise, retailers, services and products."

The 3SI Group, formerly known as 3 Suisses International, has decided to pull the plug on all of its retail activities in France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. It has changed its business strategy drastically and will now focus solely on service activities.

Lidl has opened a dedicated ecommerce website in Belgium, which currently lists about 350 non-food items. Belgium is now the first country, aside from its home country Germany, where Lidl has launched an online store. The supermarket discounter is slowly stepping up its game with regards to ecommerce. The Netherlands could be next.

Outfittery has expanded its service throughout Europe by offering a free pick-up service. This will make it even easier for customers to return items they don't like: Outfittery will pick up the items at the customer's home without asking any fee for it.

PayPal has launched its educational website PassPort in Belgium. The site is meant to help merchants getting more global sales and expanding their profit potential. With different free tools merchants learn more about season sale peaks and holidays, buying patterns and global trends.

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.