Benelux

On January 1^st of this year, there were just over 101 thousand active online stores in the Netherlands. This means that the amount of online stores has more than tripled there in the last decade. Additionally, the amount of SMEs in this sector grew 252 percent during that period.

Last night, the Dutch Shopping Awards were presented for the 23^rd time. It is one of the most prestigious award shows in ecommerce in the Netherlands. Dutchies, a new online store selling handmade leather phone cases and bags won the PayPal Best Starter Award.

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.

Last year, Dutch consumers spent 34.7 billion euros online. Compared to 2022, this is an increase of 3 percent. The amount of online purchases increased by 1 percent, to 365 million. Online growth was mainly caused by an increase in spending on services.

Dutch online furniture store Fonq has acquired Naduvi, a competing online platform, that sells furniture by dropshipping products to consumers. Combining scale and competencies will bring more focus to both companies. The amount of money involved in the deal was not disclosed.

Wish will offer European shoppers the opportunity to exchange used tech devices for money. To do this, Wish owner ContectLogic has entered into a partnership with refurbished goods provider Remarketed. The program will start in the Netherlands next month, followed by other European countries.

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.

Dutch online platform Bol has generated a turnover of 2.9 billion euros in 2023. This is a growth of 7.3 percent compared to a year earlier. Additionally, its GMV reached 5.8 billion euros, a growth of 4.9 percent.

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.

Within the top 100 of the biggest online stores in the Netherlands in 2023, 63 percent was custom-built. A year earlier, the amount of these kinds of stores was still 55 percent. Compared to 2020, this is a growth of 50 percent.

Olsam, a British ecommerce aggregator has acquired Dutch competitor Dwarfs. The amount involved in the acquisition was not disclosed. At the same time, the combined company, called Olsam Group, will receive an enlarged credit facility to pursue future acquisitions.

In 2021, Dutch companies exported 76 billion euros worth of goods and services ordered online. This accounted for 14 percent of these companies' total exports. As many as 52 percent of ecommerce companies sold crossborder in that year.

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.

In the first quarter of this year, almost eight out of ten Dutch consumers bought something online. This is a small increase compared to the same period in 2022 (74 percent). The current rate of online shoppers is close to the rate in 2021, when it was 77 percent.

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.