Leading payment methods in online retail in Belgium 2015-2019

Which payment methods are the most popular for online shopping in Belgium? In 2019, 21 percent of Belgian consumers used a debit card for their e-commerce purchases. This was done by using something called Bancontact (formerly known Bancontact/Mister Cash, since 2018 Payconiq by Bancontact). Credit cards, on the other hand, were used less often from year to year. Bancontact’s popularity was also reflected in processed payment transactions: approximately 1.44 billion transactions were made using this payment scheme, whereas VISA/Mastercard and Maestro reached 300 million transactions altogether. What is Bancontact exactly? Bancontact is a Belgium-only payment scheme and the country’s market leader when it comes to electronic payment methods. It can be found on debit cards from domestic banks such as BNP Paribas Fortis, Belfius and KBC. In a way, Bancontact is comparable to PayPal in that it is responsible for processing electronic payments for goods purchased online. As the payment scheme is on a debit card, however, it is also responsible for processing purchases in a brick-and-mortar store. Does this mean that Belgians do not use credit cards for e-commerce? In 2017, Belgian consumers made relatively more use of credit cards for e-commerce payments than their counterparts in the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East and Africa). This is probably because Belgians tend to buy products online from outside their country. The leading online retailers of the country, for example, consisted in 2016 of companies from either the Netherlands (Coolblue and Bol.com), Germany (Zalando and Mediamarkt) and France (Vente-Exlusive.com/Veepee). The Colruyt Group (the company behind Belgium’s discount supermarket chain Colruyt) was the first domestic entry in the ranking in seventh place. Amazon topped this list but saw web visits from Belgium go to either one of three platforms: their French platform, .COM platform or German platform.

何为比利时网络购物的流行支付方式？2019年，比利时消费者中有21%使用借记卡进行电子商务购买，此举通过一种名为Bancontact（此前被称为Bancontact/Mister Cash，自2018年起更名为Payconiq by Bancontact）的支付方式完成。相比之下，信用卡的使用频率逐年降低。Bancontact的普及度亦在其处理的支付交易中得到了体现：该支付方案共处理了约14.4亿笔交易，而VISA/Mastercard及Maestro的总交易量则达到了3亿笔。究竟Bancontact是什么？Bancontact是一种仅限于比利时的支付方案，并在此国电子支付领域占据市场领导地位。该支付方案可在国内银行发行的借记卡上找到，例如BNP Paribas Fortis、Belfius和KBC。在某种程度上，Bancontact与PayPal相似，因为它负责处理在线购买的商品的电子支付。然而，由于Bancontact是在借记卡上进行的支付方案，它亦负责处理实体店铺的购买。这是否意味着比利时人不使用信用卡进行电子商务支付？2017年，比利时消费者在电子商务支付中相对更多地使用了信用卡，这一比例高于EMEA地区（欧洲、中东和非洲）的同行。这或许是因为比利时人倾向于从其国境之外的网络平台购买产品。例如，2016年该国的主要在线零售商包括来自荷兰（Coolblue和Bol.com）、德国（Zalando和Mediamarkt）以及法国（Vente-Exclusive.com/Veepee）的企业。Colruyt集团（比利时折扣超市连锁店Colruyt背后的公司）在排名中位列第七，是国内市场的首次进入。而亚马逊位居榜首，但来自比利时的网络访问量则分流至其法国平台、.COM平台或德国平台。