Starting an online store in Belgium: your launch checklist

Start with the order you will need to fulfil

Picture a customer buying something tomorrow. Where is the product stored? Who packs it? When does it leave, and what happens if the buyer wants to return it? If you cannot answer those questions yet, an attractive website alone will not help. Your store needs to fit the way your business actually works, including the less visible tasks after payment.

Write down a simple description of the sales process first. Choose the products available at launch, the countries you will serve and whether collection is possible. You do not need to sell everything or include every feature immediately. A clearly bounded first version is easier to test, manage and extend once you know which additional functions would genuinely help your customers and your team.

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Prepare the business and product information

Before selling professionally, check the business registration, VAT arrangements and any permissions required for your activity. A business counter or accountant can help with your circumstances. Food, cosmetics and other regulated products may involve additional requirements. This checklist is not a complete legal assessment for every sector or product category, so use it to identify questions rather than assume everything is covered.

For each product, gather a name, description, price, images, stock status and any variants. Include the facts buyers need to make a choice: measurements, materials, compatibility or use. We prepare as much website copy as possible from your information, but cannot guess product facts. For a large catalogue, agree who enters, completes and reviews the data. Good photography helps, but it cannot replace accurate details about what the customer will receive.

Choose payments that suit your customers

Bancontact is relevant for Belgian buyers. Mobile payment may use a supported Bancontact or banking app. This does not mean every provider offers a separate Payconiq button. Ask which methods are available for your business, merchant account and sales countries. Review fees, settlement timing and how refunds work as well as the methods customers will see at checkout.

Choosing Mollie or Stripe does not guarantee every desired method is automatically active. Account verification and the selected integration matter too. Agree which methods will be tested. An abandoned transaction must not appear as paid, and a successful payment needs to connect to the correct order. Use the provider’s testing tools before accepting real customer payments, including scenarios where the customer leaves the payment screen without finishing.

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Make delivery and returns easy to understand

Compare carriers using your parcel sizes, destinations and volumes. bpost, PostNL or Sendcloud may be part of the setup, but you may need an account or a suitable integration. Decide whether you will create labels manually or from the management area. Show delivery costs before the customer orders rather than revealing them in an email after payment. Clear information also reduces avoidable questions for your team.

What selling information must be visible?

For online consumer sales, buyers generally need to know who is selling, the main product characteristics, the total price and the payment and delivery terms before purchasing. The order button must clearly communicate an obligation to pay. Business details and contact information should be easy to find, not hidden behind a vague link that customers would not think to open.

Many distance contracts have a fourteen-calendar-day withdrawal period, but exceptions and specific rules apply to when the period begins and how refunds are handled. Personalised goods and certain other categories need separate consideration. A legal guarantee is also different from a voluntary returns policy. Have your terms and return information checked against your actual products and customer type by a qualified adviser rather than copying another store’s policy.

Privacy, accessibility and selling across borders

You process customer information to fulfil and follow up orders. Explain in a clear privacy notice what you use, why and which partners receive it. Non-essential analytics and advertising cookies require attention to consent. A newsletter signup serves a different purpose from processing an order; keep those choices separate rather than treating a purchase as automatic permission for unrelated marketing.

Plan for keyboard navigation, clearly labelled fields and understandable error messages. European accessibility rules cover e-commerce services; check the duties and exceptions relevant to your business. If you sell to consumers in other EU countries, discuss VAT treatment and whether the OSS scheme is appropriate with your accountant. Adding another country to the shipping settings does not, on its own, settle the tax questions or prepare the correct information for customers there.

Run these checks before opening

Also check what happens if an item becomes unavailable during checkout. Ask someone unfamiliar with the project to try placing an order: they often spot missing delivery information or an unclear button sooner. Minds on Web designs and builds each store from scratch, without standard templates. During the initial conversation we agree the functions and checks needed. You provide accurate information about your business; we make the store workflow concrete and go through the result with you before it is finalised.

1. Order on a phone and check variants, basket and the total price.
2. Try successful, rejected and abandoned payments.
3. Check delivery rules, stock changes and discount codes.
4. Read the customer confirmation and verify the store manager’s notification.
5. Work through a refund or return and use the management area yourself.

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