At 24, Mathieu started in the food e-commerce. He has created his e-shop of local products and travels the Belgian roads to discover new products. However, today, online sales tend to stagnate slightly in our country, after significant growth following the health crisis. Belgium is in fact lagging behind in this respect, compared to our French, German and Dutch neighbours.
“A new site dedicated to products was launched a few weeks ago. It brings together all the best Belgian food products”, Mathieu wrote to us via the orange Alert us button. At 24, this young man from Chaumont-Gistoux travels the roads of our country to discover new products to offer on his e-shop. A few months after the launch of his project, Mathieu now wants us to discover it. The opportunity also for him to explain to us how much he believes in the future of food e-commerce in Belgium. “There are more and more players in this sector. It is a booming sector, which is starting to weigh and we see today that customers are looking for that. They want local products or no more large retailers and they prefer to have them delivered to their home or office, without having to do the shopping”he remarks.
It’s a buoyant sector and it’s developing very well in other countries, so there’s no reason for it not to develop here.
Mathieu notices that online sales are exploding and that things tend to become more and more digital. This is what prompted him to create Belmade. “Local commerce and e-commerce, these are things that can coexist very well. I see more and more demand and the supply is more and more substantial, so it shows that it is developing. C is a buoyant sector and it is developing very well in other countries so there is no reason for it not to develop here”he said confidently.
12% of Belgians shop for food online
It is true that currently, Belgium is still lagging behind compared to our French, German or Dutch neighbours. Only 12% of Belgians make food purchases online, compared to 30% in France and 25% in Germany. Food e-commerce has therefore not yet fully found its place with us. And for good reason, the rigidity in the organization of work in Belgium slows down this type of development. “Companies have already tried for a long time to launch their food business online but it is very complicated to set up”explains Dominique Michel, Managing Director at Comeos, the federation responsible for Belgian shops and services.
When a large structure, which employs a few hundred or thousands of people, wants to change its way of working, it takes years because “our system dates from the previous century in social matters, in terms of regulations”points out Dominique Michel. “We saw it during the coronavirus crisis, we see it now for all digital activity, it takes years. However, digital does not wait. New ideas arrive every day so we must have the possibility to evolve and adapt much more quickly”he continues.
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These large Belgian chains therefore do not have the possibility of adapting to today’s world and, as a result, foreign companies are cornering the Belgian market and providing us with these services immediately. “A good example is Hello Freshquotes the managing director of Comeos. This supplier from the Netherlands has exploded its turnover in recent years. Unfortunately, it’s not a Belgian channel, it’s not Belgian employment and it’s 100% Dutch products. Is that the message we want to send to our farmers? That tomorrow or the day after tomorrow they will have less and less work because their products will be replaced by Dutch or French products?
For him, the main problem is the reform of the labor market. “Even if the government tried to make some small changes a few weeks ago, it is not enough. The small steps taken by the government must multiply and must be modified so that we can finally work in Belgium as foreign countries do.” The issue right now? Allow Belgian players in the online food retail sector to develop as they wish, without being stuck in an old system as is the case today. “If we don’t do this, we will in any case lead to an explosion of online food trade, as is the case in neighboring countries, except that a good part of this trade will go abroad”laments Dominique Michel.
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The latter also congratulates Mathieu’s initiative and encourages him to continue on this path. “We have to do it, we have no choice. This is what the consumer wants: he wants local, sustainable products, from here… We must have this possibility, from Belgium, to be able to organize all that and not be invaded by operators from neighboring countries”he insists.
However, according to an economist we met, the current trend in e-commerce hasn’t changed much for some time, after a “incredible growth” following the health crisis: “What we see in most European countries is that this huge growth of e-commerce is now experiencing a slight upsurge. We see that the consumer is returning to physical stores, but Belgium, it is rather in a subsidence of this trend, a stagnation and not a decrease”analyzes Pierre-Alexandre Billiet.
I think this is the future and there really is a place for this home food delivery
Of course, this does not mean that the online food trade is in jeopardy. On the contrary, “this trend will continue to exist”according to the economist and professor at the Solvay Institute, but “at a much less developed speed”, he notes. Within 5 to 10 years, we expect food e-commerce to represent between 20 and 30% of the market, according to the observations of our interlocutor. And if Belgium seems to be lagging behind our neighbors today, it is also because our country has a large number of physical stores. Alternatives such as home delivery of food items are therefore not an absolute necessity for the inhabitants. “We have approximately one store for every 3,500 Belgians. We are one of the densest countries in Europe in terms of physical stores. So this is not a delay in terms of e-commerce but quite simply a less developed consumerist necessity”says Pierre-Alexandre Billiet.
Despite all this, this economist also underlines the project set up by the 24-year-old Chaumontois. “I think this is the future and that there really is a place for this home food delivery. But above all, it is necessary that the framework at the political and economic level supports the evolution in a sustainable way. I think that this The delay we are talking about is still a strength today and it should make it possible to call certain things into question. But we have to find the answers now.”he concludes.
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