Amazon Belgium

Having completed construction of its first Belgian distribution center outside Antwerp and a recruitment drive to hire 200 drivers through independent contracts, Amazon has now launched its Belgian web-store.

It will be interesting to see if amazon.com.be helps to revive Amazon’s declining growth. Reporting a drop in online sales outside the U.S in its Q2 earnings, Amazon posted a decline in international sales to $27 billion from $30.7 billion
- a decline of nearly 12%. Amazon has also increased the price of Prime membership in five countries in Europe including the U.K..

Amazon.com.be will list 180 million products in 30 categories. It also offers Prime Membership, access to streaming services, and free next-day delivery. Tapping into the projected e-commerce market opportunity of *US$11.58bn (by end of 2022), Amazon’s strategy includes “Brands of Belgium” which will feature over 100 Belgian companies - a lean toward Belgian consumers who like to shop local.

Agency heads and retail analysts from the EU region said it’s easy to expand to new markets across Europe thanks to Amazon’s existing fulfilment options, but the Belgium launch by itself amounts to a small move.

“Amazon arguably needs to expand in Europe now to offset its Prime price rise in existing markets and mitigate slowing online sales, post-pandemic,” said Miya Knights, director and publisher of trade publication Retail Technology.

*Source Statista