Table of contents:

1. TL;DR
2. Introduction
3. 1. “Apparel, shoes and accessories” is the largest product group among the top 50 Belgian brands
4. 2. Older, offline-first retailers have the strongest positions
5. 3. Leaders in digital experience: premium consumer brands

TL;DR

• Belgium is a growing e-commerce market, projected to expand at a CAGR of 5.4% from 2024 to 2028. Linguistic diversity poses unique challenges in creating user experiences.
• The average digital experience score in Belgium is 3.2, which we categorise as “Okay” on our evaluation scale.
• "Apparel, shoes, and accessories" is the largest product group among the top 50 Belgian brands (16 brands). The average digital experience score within this domain is 3.3 points. Most missed opportunities are related to lack of personalisation and omnichannel integrations.
• Older retailers with strong heritage and large physical store networks have the strongest traffic positions. The average company age amongst the top 10 brands with the largest traffic is 52 years.
• Premium consumer brands, such as Loop Earplugs, Cowboy, Just Russel, and Delvaux, lead in digital experience.

Introduction

Despite its small size, Belgium is a lucrative market for e-commerce. It has experienced significant growth in recent years and is projected to expand at a CAGR of 5.4% from 2024 to 2028 (EcommerceDB, 2024). In 2023, the number of new online stores in Belgium reached 5,985, bringing the total to 54,101. This represents a 13% increase from 2021 (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2024).

However, Belgian consumers and retail brands face unique challenges due to the country's linguistic diversity. With Dutch, French, and German as the official languages, it can be challenging to create a user experience and provide accurate translations that cater to all linguistic groups. Additionally, each language carries distinct cultural identities that must be considered. This is also confirmed by our partner in Belgium dear digital:

“Belgians buy a lot from brands across the border - the Netherlands being a huge benefactor here considering only bol.com and coolblue.be. This is due to a lack of maturity within the ecosystem.

One of the reasons for the lack of maturity is that it is actually really hard to be successful only in the Belgian market as it is fragmented into Flanders, Brussels, and the Walloons.

A lot of the top brands in Belgium will quickly rely on expansion beyond our borders such as Cowboy, Loop Earplugs & others.” John-Morgan Galeyn, company lead at dear digital

So, what's the standard for e-commerce experience in Belgium? The average score for digital experience is 3.2, which we categorise as “Okay” on our evaluation scale. Our top-rated brands were Loop Earplugs, Cowboy, Just Russel, and Delvaux, all of which focus on premium or luxury positioning.

1. “Apparel, shoes and accessories” is the largest product group among the top 50 Belgian brands

In the Belgian Brand Radar, 32% of the brands specialise in apparel, shoes, and accessories. The average digital experience score within this category is relatively low, at 3.3 out of 5. However, some brands such as Komono, Bellerose, and Essentiel Antwerp stand out with scores of 4 out of 5.

Consumer brands perform better than fashion retailers

In general, consumer brands performed significantly better than fashion retailers. Although both sectors lacked personalisation, sizing advice, and sufficient product information, fashion retailers also struggle with outdated user interfaces and excessive promotional content, which can distract and potentially frustrate users.

Missed opportunities for personalisation & cross-channel integration

All apparel, shoes, and accessory brands on the Belgian Brand Radar own at least one physical retail shop. Their most common omnichannel functionalities are rather basic, like BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store) or the option to return purchased items in-store. There are many missed opportunities to leverage their wide physical retail network for enhanced customer experience. For example, only five of the brands provide the feature to check store inventory online.

Moreover, none of the apparel, shoes, and accessory brands has leveraged advanced personalisation and omnichannel opportunities such as AI-powered sizing guides, cross-channel loyalty programs, or virtual fitting rooms.

2. Older, offline-first retailers have the strongest positions

Among the top 10 brands with the strongest traffic positions on the Brand Radar, the average company age is 54 years. Most of these brands are electronics, home goods, and FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) retailers with strong heritage and physical store networks (avg. number of stores = 132).

Year of establishment for the brands with the top 10 strongest traffic positions

Without surprise, these retailers face immense complexity: thousands of SKUs and multitude of suppliers, store networks, employees and processes. Their digital presence is significant but slightly outdated since implementing innovation at scale is challenging. The average digital experience (DXP) score among these brands is 3.2 points.

👑 Inspiring outlier: Loop Earplugs

The absolute leader (in terms of both traffic and digital experience score) on the Belgium’s Brand Radar is Loop Earplugs. this brand now generates more traffic than several large Belgian retailers combined. Despite the monthly sales falling from approximately $100,000 to less than $20,000 during the pandemic, Loop Earplugs has experienced a 350% increase year-over-year for the past three years.

3. Leaders in digital experience: premium consumer brands

There were 4 brands that scored “5 - Excellent” in digital experience (DXP) evaluation. These brands were:

• Loop Earplugs
• Cowboy
• Just Russel
• Delvaux

While all these companies have very different business models, there are a few things that unite them: they are all premium consumer brands with global ambition.

💎 Heritage luxury brands in Belgium

Belgium, especially Antwerp, is renowned as one of the luxury capitals of Europe. It is home to multi-century companies like Delvaux, Natan, and Leonidas, where the heritage of craftsmanship continues to be passed on to modern brands such as Serax, Dries van Noten, or Diane von Furstenberg. The standard of luxury in customer experience is the highest; that must also be applied to digital experience. Delvaux and Serax stand out in the Belgian luxury scene with their ability to incorporate storytelling and personal assistance into the digital experience.

🚀 Modern DTC brands in Belgium

The DTC (direct-to-customer) brands scene in Belgium is still developing. Although there are some pretty mature players like Cowboy (e-bikes), Just Russel (pet food subscription), and Loop Earplugs, their main competitors are outside the country. Some potential challenger brands to keep under the radar are KOMONO, Pit & Pit, and BRAUZZ.

Conclusion

Our primary objective with this analysis is to motivate the creation of robust and adaptive consumer brands, offering strategic insights and practical advice along the way.

Thank you for joining and keep an eye out for future editions of the Brand Radar! We will continue assessing brands across various regions and sectors, providing an increasingly comprehensive view of the global market trends.