Ecommerce spending in Belgium hit €7 billion in 2018 as consumers opted for bigger basket sizes.
The E-Commerce Barometer, commissioned by ecommerce agency SafeShops.be, found that turnover on Belgian online shops rose 20% in 2018.
The number of online merchants increased by 18% in the same period, passing 24,000. There are now 193 web-shops turning over more than €10 million, up 32%.
Basket sizes were up 3.3% compared to 2017, rising above €100 for the first time. On larger ecommerce sites it has reached around €114.
“These figures show that Belgian web-shops still have enormous potential for growth,” said Greet Dekocker, MD at SafeShops.be. “Online consumers are turning more and more to Belgian online shops, a signal that can only delight us.”
Lucas De Dycker, consultant at The House of Marketing, said: “The results of the E-commerce Barometer indicate that a small group of major players still make the majority of sales in ecommerce, with less than 4% of Belgian online retailers accounting for 88% of the turnover. ’total business.”
De Dycker said the figures confirmed “the positive evolution of the market, as the growing number of transactions and the number of Belgian online shops attest to this. market that show that more and more foreign consumers find the way to the Belgian webshops. We can of course only congratulate.”
The House of Marketing calculates the index based on online payments through major payment providers representing 87% of the volume of transactions carried out in Belgium.