Cross-border e-commerce in the Benelux - statistics & facts

In 2020, Luxembourgers seem to be bucking the trend with cross-border e-commerce accounting for over 80 percent of the online retail market, the largest share in Europe. This is usually common for small states, whose digital buyers tend to heavily rely on e-commerce platforms from larger markets, such as neighboring Germany or France. In turn, Belgium and the Netherlands, straddle the European average with cross-border e-commerce making up for 31 percent and 15 percent of online retail sales, respectively. Even with the low adoption of cross-border e-commerce, the Netherlands continues to be an important market. In 2020, European e-commerce platforms generated revenues of over 2.5 billion euros from Dutch shoppers.

How big is the Benelux e-commerce market?

E-commerce revenue in Benelux was estimated to surpass 38 billion euros in 2021. The Netherlands’ e-commerce industry leads the ranks, nearing 27 billion euros in 2020, up seven percent from 2019. It is followed by Belgium, whose e-commerce sales contracted by 11 percent in 2020 to roughly ten billion, compared to the previous year. With an estimated B2C e-commerce revenue of half a billion euros in 2021, Luxembourg is, not surprisingly, the smallest e-commerce market in Benelux.

Apple of my eye

Apple, Ikea, and Amazon.de are the top cross-border online stores in the Netherlands. Dutch consumers spent nearly 400 million euros online on Apple products. In Belgium, the leading cross-border online store is the Netherlands-based bol.com, with a revenue of 555 million U.S. dollars’ worth of sales generated in Belgium. Amazon.fr ranked second, accounting for over 290 million dollars in revenue. Apple, much loved in Belgium too, came in third, with e-commerce sales close to 193 million dollars.

E-commerce made in China

The Benelux seems to be a valuable market for the Chinese e-commerce industry. When asked where their most recent cross-border online purchase had come from, for about half of Dutch respondents the answer was China. This is true for only about a fifth of Belgian respondents, while only 11 percent of Luxembourgian online shoppers indicated they bought something from China.

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