Why should you start a dropshipping business in Belgium?

Dropshipping in Belgium might be a business idea that pays off when considering the high disposable income of Belgians and the low concentration of local ecommerce players. While Belgium is the 39th most profitable ecommerce market globally, according to eCommerceDB, the country is still working hard to improve its digital infrastructure to support ecommerce. Our statistics uncover the profitability of dropshipping in the land famous for waffles and supreme chocolatiers.

Location

Belgium, also known as the Kingdom of Belgium, is a developed country in northwest Europe. It is one of the smallest countries in Europe, with an area of 30,688 km². It shares borders with the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Luxembourg. The capital city is Brussels, located in the north.

Population

According to Britannica, Belgium had a national population of 11.7 million in 2023. In 2022, the World Bank reported that Belgium had the 80th largest population in the world (behind Burundi, Tunisia, and Bolivia, but ahead of Haiti, Jordan, and the Dominican Republic).

Wealth

Known for being a wealthy country, Belgium had an average household net wealth of EUR 408,000 as per the National Bank of Belgium in 2021. This was almost double the European average of EUR 242,000. Only two countries, Luxembourg and Malta, had higher household net wealth. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reports that Belgium has an above-average employment rate, education, housing, health, civic engagement, and life satisfaction.

Language

Around one-third of the population speaks French. These Belgians are known as Walloons and live in the southern region (Wallonia). In the north (Flanders), one-half of the population speaks Dutch. These Belgians are known as Flemings. A small portion of the population in the east speaks German. It would be advantageous for a dropshipping business in Belgium to have an ecommerce website in all three languages.

How is the ecommerce market?

• 63% of Belgians buy online from domestic businesses (Statista, 2023).
• The ecommerce market is expected to see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.42% between 2024 and 2029 (Mordor Intelligence, 2023).
• Belgians spent EUR 3.5 billion on ecommerce goods in Q2 2022, 29% more than in 2021 (International Trade Association, 2023).
• Online shopping has a 9.2% share of the Belgian retail market and will increase by an average of 8.5% to 12.7% by 2027 (eCommerceDB, 2023).

Ecommerce in Belgium is a small but active market. Consumers in this country are less accustomed to regular online shopping compared to their neighbours in Europe, however, the statistics suggest that ecommerce demand is growing.

Which region in Belgium has the highest number of online shoppers?

Research from Statista found these figures from 2022:

• Flanders: 67% of Flemings purchased goods online, and 27% of businesses in Flanders received online orders.
• Wallonia: 56% of Walloons purchased goods online, and 16% of businesses in Wallonia received online orders.
• Brussels: 56% of Brusseleirs purchased goods online.

Using the above data, a dropshipping business targeting the Dutch-speaking Flanders region might attract more sales than in other regions of Belgium.

Product categories with high sales

Belgian online annual spending is split into the following categories of consumer goods as per Data Reportal, 2023:

Biggest ecommerce players

According to eCommerceDB, the most popular and high-earning ecommerce players in Belgium are listed in the following table:

High internet penetration

In 2023, 94.5% (11.03 million) of the Belgian population had access to the internet, compared to the global average of 64.4%, as found by Data Reportal.

The same report estimated that Belgians spend around 5 hours and 27 minutes browsing the internet across all devices (42.5% of their day). The majority of internet time is spent on laptops and PCs (3 hours and 8 minutes), while only 2 hours and 19 minutes are spent on smartphones.

Data Reportal also found that almost half of Belgians (46.3%) use the internet with the primary goal of researching products and brands.

Use of smartphones

There were 10.5 million smartphones in Belgium in 2023, according to Statista. That is almost 90% of the population. Statista predicts there will be 10.81 million smartphones in Belgium by 2025.

Regardless of the high smartphone penetration rate, Belgians prefer to do online shopping on their laptop or PC. A Biometric Update article in 2023 discovered that Belgians use their smartphones for payments in physical shops and online banking rather than buying online.

Logistics

Belgium has excellent connections with its neighbouring countries, with well-developed rail, road, air, and water networks for transporting goods. Although, compared to its neighbours, Belgium's delivery service infrastructure is lagging behind.

The national postal service is the Belgian Post Group (Bpost), which is noted to be reliable for sending mail quickly. Domestic parcels are usually delivered within 1-2 days, and international parcels vary in delivery times depending on the country. Bpost International is ranked in the top five international postal services.

However, Bpost is expensive for sending parcels as fewer postal services operate in Belgium. For example, in 2024, it costs €5 to send a 2kg parcel with Bpost to an address within Belgium and €11.60 to Germany. In comparison, it costs €4.25 to send a 2kg parcel within the Netherlands and €5.90 to Germany using their national postal service, PostNL.

Other major postal services in Belgium:

• DHL
• GLS
• Mondial Relay

Choosing a dropshipping programme with free deliveries to Belgium is one solution to the high delivery costs. The dropshippingXL programme by vidaXL includes the benefit of free delivery to European countries.

Dropshipping is an online retail business model. A manufacturer sends items directly to customers on behalf of a seller that advertises the manufacturer's goods. The seller doesn't store, pack, or ship the goods themselves. For example, by signing up with dropshippingXL, you can advertise and sell vidaXL products online. When you make a sale, we send it to your customers directly from our Polish and Dutch warehouses.

Summary

Belgium is still experiencing a late shift towards ecommerce to catch up with the rest of Western Europe. That being said, it is an opportunity for ambitious entrepreneurs to take advantage of the low competition in Belgium. As Belgian ecommerce continues to grow in the coming years, now is the time to establish a dropshipping business and appeal to the new adopters of online shopping.