Selling in Belgium from the Netherlands: language, payment, rules

If your company is based in the Netherlands and you want to sell in Belgium, you sort out three things: language, because Flanders speaks Dutch with different words and Brussels and Wallonia want French; payment, because Belgians pay online with Bancontact, not iDEAL; and for business customers Peppol, because Belgian companies have only invoiced each other as e-invoices since 1 January 2026. On top of that, VAT, what goes on your site and the way Belgians search all change.

Belgium is the nearest export market for the Netherlands, and yet many Dutch companies underestimate the difference. This guide is written for the people running those companies in English: international founders with a Dutch BV, expat managers, and Dutch teams whose working language is English. A Flemish visitor reads your Dutch site without effort, but notices within two sentences that it was not written for them: "mkb" instead of "kmo", a Dutch 06 mobile number, only iDEAL at checkout. That costs trust, and so sales.

We are based in Ghent and build sites for companies on both sides of the border. This guide sets out what to arrange, in which order, and what it costs you to skip it. If you sell online to Belgian consumers from further away, our guide to selling online in Belgium covers that angle.

Language: Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia

Belgium has three language areas and a bilingual capital. Flanders speaks Dutch, Wallonia French, Brussels officially both and in practice mostly French, and in the east there is a German-speaking community. If you only want to reach Flanders, Dutch is enough, but it has to be the right Dutch: Flemish readers say kmo (SME), zelfstandige (self-employed), ondernemingsnummer (enterprise number), gsm (mobile phone) and btw-nummer (VAT number), and read a site full of mkb, zzp'er and KvK as a Dutch site. Which words differ exactly, with examples per theme, is in Dutch vs Flemish.

On the labels and instructions of products you sell to Belgian consumers, Belgian law requires the language of the area where you sell them. A Flemish-French site is best built as one site with two languages and hreflang on every page, not as two separate sites. How that works is on multilingual website development.

Payment: Bancontact next to iDEAL

In the Netherlands about 70 percent of online purchases ran through iDEAL in 2025, and that is turning into Wero over the next two years. In Belgium Bancontact is the standard: the Belgian payment card and app that nearly every Belgian has on their bank card and phone. A checkout without Bancontact loses Belgian buyers at the till.

With a payment provider such as Mollie, Stripe or Adyen you usually switch Bancontact on in the same dashboard where iDEAL already is. What happens to iDEAL now that it becomes Wero is in iDEAL payments in the Netherlands.

Business customers: Peppol and the enterprise number

If you sell to Belgian companies, you get two questions. The first: can you invoice via Peppol? Belgian companies have sent and received their invoices as e-invoices over Peppol since 1 January 2026. A Dutch company without an establishment in Belgium does not have to, but your customer often asks anyway; how to set that up is in Peppol invoice to Belgium. The second: what is your enterprise number? Belgians know their own ten-digit number from the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (KBO). You use your KVK number and your Dutch VAT ID; put them clearly on your site, as the KVK rules for your website require.

VAT: what you charge a Belgian customer

This is the technical outline; for your figures and the choices involved, see your accountant.

Search: Belgians type different words

People looking for a product or service in Belgium type Belgian words into Google, in Dutch or French, rarely in English. In our measurement of Google suggestions on 24 October 2026, the first suggestion after "website laten maken" (having a website made) was "kosten" (cost) in the Netherlands and "prijs" (price) in Belgium. A Belgian visitor looks for a "zelfstandige", not a "zzp'er", and a quote in construction is often called a "bestek" there instead of an "offerte". A site that wants to be found in Belgium uses those words in titles and headings, with its own Belgian version once the market is big enough.

Anyone may register a .be domain, also without an establishment in Belgium. For a Flemish version of your site, a .be domain or a /be/ folder can work; which you choose depends on how much you sell in Belgium.

Pitfalls for Dutch companies

• Only iDEAL at checkoutThe Belgian buyer drops out at the payment button.
• A site full of Netherlands Dutch wordsMkb, zzp, KvK and a 06 number tell a Fleming you did not write for them.
• Forgetting WalloniaOver four in ten Belgians live in Wallonia or Brussels. If you want all of Belgium, build two languages.
• No Peppol for business customersYour invoice arrives, but your customer has to retype it, and they remember that.
• Prices without VAT for consumersIn Belgium, as in the Netherlands, you show consumers the price including VAT.
• An English-only siteFine for international buyers in Brussels; for most Flemish and Walloon customers it reads as a site for someone else.

A checklist for your first Belgian customers

• Your site in Flemish Dutch, and in French if you want Brussels and Wallonia.
• Bancontact at checkout, next to iDEAL.
• Your KVK number and VAT ID clearly in your footer.
• Peppol switched on in your accounting package, to send and to receive.
• Prices including VAT for consumers, and the OSS scheme once you pass the EU threshold.
• A Belgian phone number, or one that is free or cheap to call from Belgium, if your customers call you.

Three Dutch companies in Belgium

• An online shop for personal care products from UtrechtAdds Bancontact, rewrites the product pages in Flemish Dutch, puts the labels in Dutch and French if it also sells in Wallonia, and watches its sales to Belgian consumers against the EU threshold of the OSS scheme.
• An installer from Zeeuws-Vlaanderen with customers in GhentWorks in Belgium himself, so files a Limosa declaration before every job, also as a self-employed person. His site gets a Flemish page with the towns he covers, and his invoices to Belgian companies go via Peppol.
• A software company from Eindhoven with Belgian business customersInvoices via Peppol, with VAT reverse-charged, and puts a Belgian version on its site with kmo instead of mkb, a Belgian phone number and customer stories from Flanders.