Digital payments in Belgium in 2018 have increasingly been done with Bancontact and PayPal. Up until the beginning of 2017, credit cards were the most popular payment method for e-commerce purchases. In 2018, however, 68 percent of Belgian online shoppers said they used the domestic payment scheme Bancontact. This is supported by a 2018 e-commerce survey in Belgium, in which 30 percent or respondents said they paid online with their debit card, using Bancontact, or with its app.
Bancontact: Belgium’s most important payment brand
Bancontact, until 2016 called Mister Cash, is a payment scheme that only exists in Belgium and uses debit cards from the country’s banks (such as the big banks BNP Paribas Fortis, Belfius and KBC) to pay for goods purchased either online or in a brick-and-mortar store. Because of this structure, the payment card scheme reached the highest market share for both e-commerce and POS in both 2016 and 2017 in the country, ahead of Visa, Mastercard and American Express.
Credit cards and PayPal seem to have more specific uses
Both credit cards and PayPal were still popular options for Belgian consumers, but for different reasons. On average, credit card purchases tended to be more expensive than a purchase done via Bancontact. For PayPal, the source gives no explanation for its increasing use. What could play a part, however, is that online shoppers from Belgium buy more from foreign e-commerce retailers.
Leading payment methods for online shopping in Belgium from 2015 to 2020
the source is based on continuous data tracking of retail panels and consumers, supplemented with additional research with 4,000 respondents.
Method of interview
Panel survey
Supplementary notes
* The figures have been taken from several publications. The source originally provided two numbers per year, at the end of the first and at the end of the fourth quarter of each year (except in 2015). In 2018, the methodology changed to an annual reporting. Whether this affects the numbers, the source does not mention.
The source does not provide information regarding multiple answering options.
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Internetkassa.nu, & BeCommerce. (January 7, 2021). Leading payment methods for online shopping in Belgium from 2015 to 2020 [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved July 01, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/745555/leading-payment-methods-for-online-shopping-in-belgium/
Internetkassa.nu, und BeCommerce. "Leading payment methods for online shopping in Belgium from 2015 to 2020." Chart. January 7, 2021. Statista. Accessed July 01, 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/745555/leading-payment-methods-for-online-shopping-in-belgium/
Internetkassa.nu, BeCommerce. (2021). Leading payment methods for online shopping in Belgium from 2015 to 2020. Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: July 01, 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/745555/leading-payment-methods-for-online-shopping-in-belgium/
Internetkassa.nu, and BeCommerce. "Leading Payment Methods for Online Shopping in Belgium from 2015 to 2020." Statista, Statista Inc., 7 Jan 2021, https://www.statista.com/statistics/745555/leading-payment-methods-for-online-shopping-in-belgium/
Internetkassa.nu & BeCommerce, Leading payment methods for online shopping in Belgium from 2015 to 2020 Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/745555/leading-payment-methods-for-online-shopping-in-belgium/ (last visited July 01, 2022)