Belgian e-commerce federation BeCommerce said on Thursday that Belgians spent 7.9 billion euros online in the first half of 2023, representing a 9.4% increase on last year.
The products with the highest increase in online shopping in terms of value were sports and entertainment (17.7%), followed by telecommunications (16.9%) and home appliances (8.8%). Looking at the number of transactions by category, entertainment (20.3%) remains the dominant category, followed by home and garden products (15.4%) and media and entertainment (9.9%).
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The services sector surpassed consumer goods for the first time. Belgians spent €4 billion on online platforms for services; This represents a 20% increase compared to the same period last year. Such a phenomenon was especially observed in purchases related to public transportation and insurance.
Approximately 45 %of Belgian SMEs sell on the digital channel. While one quarter sees that their sales are increasing by connecting to the internet, 14 %say that they can create more business as a result.
In 2022, there were 56,642 online stores in Belgium: 71% of them are located in Flanders, 9% in Brussels and 20% in Wallonia. When looked at on a provincial basis, Antwerp has the highest number of e-commerce platforms (19%).
