Creating an online store in Belgium: payment, delivery, VAT and languages
Bancontact, bpost delivery and pick-up points, Belgian VAT and sales to France, languages: the specifics to know to succeed in e-commerce in Belgium.
By Léo Chuzel · Published on · 3 min read
Selling online in Belgium is very similar to selling in France, but a few differences can make your conversion rate plummet if you ignore them. Payment methods, delivery habits, languages, VAT: here’s what to plan for an online store that genuinely sells to Belgian customers.
1. Payment: Bancontact above all
In Belgium, the Bancontact card is the most common payment method, in shops and online. A store that only offers Visa and Mastercard loses some of its customers at checkout. Offer at least:
- Bancontact, by card or via the mobile app with a QR code;
- international cards (Visa, Mastercard);
- Apple Pay and Google Pay, increasingly used on mobile;
- PayPal and possibly instalment payments, depending on your average basket.
On Shopify, Shopify Payments supports Bancontact for stores established in Belgium. On other platforms, providers such as Mollie or Stripe offer it too.
2. Delivery: pick-up points and short lead times
Belgian customers are used to fast delivery and appreciate collection from a pick-up point or bpost point. Offer several options: home delivery, pick-up point, and in-store collection if you have a shop. Shipping tools like Sendcloud let you manage several carriers (bpost, PostNL, DPD, Mondial Relay) from a single interface and generate labels automatically.
3. Languages
To sell across Belgium, a store in French and Dutch is almost essential, and English is a plus in Brussels. Product pages, confirmation emails, terms of sale, customer service: everything must exist in each language offered. Shopify Markets handles languages and generates hreflang tags. See our article on website languages in Brussels.
4. VAT
- In Belgium, the standard VAT rate is 21%, with reduced rates for certain products (notably 6% and 12%). Prices shown to consumers must include VAT.
- To other EU countries, above a threshold of €10,000 in distance sales per year (all countries combined), the buyer’s country VAT applies. The OSS one-stop shop lets you declare it from Belgium.
- Shopify automatically calculates taxes by country once your registrations are configured.
These rules have their subtleties: have your setup checked by your accountant before launch.
5. Legal obligations
Your store must display your company number, your full contact details, clear terms of sale, information on the 14-day right of withdrawal and a GDPR-compliant privacy policy. Our article on the legal obligations of a website in Belgium covers it all.
6. Selling in France too
France is the natural extension of a French-speaking Belgian store, and vice versa. With Shopify Markets, a single store can handle both countries: prices, currencies, languages, taxes and delivery options specific to each. Watch out for different expectations: French customers are less familiar with Bancontact and use bank cards and instalment payments more.
7. SEO
To be found on Google.be, work on your collection pages and product pages in each language, with Belgian vocabulary where it differs. Our Shopify SEO guide covers the settings, and our article creating a Shopify store the launch steps.
Shopify or another platform?
Shopify suits the Belgian market very well: Bancontact, multilingual, multi-country and a synced physical shop. WooCommerce remains an option for websites already built on WordPress. Our comparison Shopify or WooCommerce will help you choose. And if you’re preparing your store in Brussels, discover our web agency services in Brussels.