2 Trends in e-Commerce

 

Research report 'e-Commerce' in Belgium (Comeos, 2015)

Detailed report can be downloaded from: https://www.comeos.be/files/docs/COMEOS_E-commerce-2015.pdf
or from here.  
  • Comeos represents Belgian businesses and services. The members of Comeos are active in 18 sectors and sell either to companies (B2B) or directly to consumers (B2C). Together they account for 11.2 % of the GNP and employ 400,000 people, making them the biggest employer in the private sector. Comeos provides custom services for its members and wants to encourage dynamic businesses as a knowledge and networking platform.
 
  • Goal of this research report: to get more insights in Belgium’s e-commerce market and to generate PR-input.
 
  • Questions:

            What is the online buyer’s profile?
            Which products are bought online?
            Which sectors have the highest potential?

 
 

 

 

1. E-commerce experience

  • 74% of online population makes online purchases
  • 4% of Belgians made first online purchases last year. That’s 440,000 new customers

 

 

2. Current online shopping behaviour

  • More monthly purchases: +5% increase
  • 49% of customers spent more than 100 euros online last month
  • On average, we spend 153 euros a month online
 

 

 

3. Online purchases

  • Clothing, accommodation and books = top 3 volume drivers
  • Clothing and shoes keep growing (+8%)
  • Food & music remain most important recurrent purchases
  • None of today’s online customers will ‘certainly NOT’ buy again
  • Clothing, shoes, furniture, home decoration and DIY & Garden should increase next year
  • Consumers rely on online information before buying
 
 
 

4. Sector focus

 
  • Time has become a more important driver for e-commerce than price, but price remains most important in choice of website
  • The top 5 drivers are: Because it saves time, lower prices, delivered to my door; shop 24 hours a day, access to special discounts, promotions...
  • The largest amounts are spent in the electro, interior and/or do-it-yourself sector. Online shoppers spend the least on books and the entertainment sector.
  • Use of debit card increases compared to credit card
  • Home delivery is prefered at 69% with Pick-up point at 14% and shop pick-up at 8%
  • 7% is willing to pay more for 24/7 delivery
 
 
 

5. E-Commerce trust

  • 45% prefers a Belgian website 
  • … but 78% still prefers websites with offline counterpart
  • Only 27% has faith in making purchases on smartphone or tablet
 

6. Mobile purchases

 
  • 1 out of 4 e-consumers do make mobile purchases
  • Are younger consumers, high income
  • Screen size, trust and payment difficulties biggest barriers
 

7. Internet problems

  • Equally spread between payment problems, conscious faulty information on website and delivery issues.
  • 24% of issues remain unsolved
 
 

8. Attitude

  • ROBO: 45% (Research Online, Buy Offline)
  • Showrooming: 23% (go to brick and mortar shop, look at product, then research where to buy online)
  • People have raised expectations for width of range online.
 
 
 

Source / read more: comeos.be