Social commerce in Belgium: why 64% of shoppers still won't buy on social media

Since 15 June 2026, TikTok Shop has let Belgian businesses sell directly inside the app, with videos, livestreams and creator affiliation built in. It would be easy to conclude that social commerce has become unavoidable. Yet according to Becom's Belgian Online Shopper Survey 2026, 64 % of Belgian online shoppers surveyed made no purchase via social media at all in the past twelve months. For an SME, the question isn't whether to replace the webshop with social media, but how much weight to give each channel.

1. What the Becom study actually shows

The headline figure: 64 % of Belgian online shoppers bought nothing via social media, across the categories studied, over the past year. Among those who did buy, two triggers tie for first place, each cited by 37 % of relevant respondents: a promotion, and discovering the product directly in their feed. On the other side, the main obstacle is clear: 57 % of non-buyers cite a lack of trust, and 39 % still prefer established webshops or marketplaces.

2. TikTok Shop changes the game, but not everything

TikTok claims more than 4.3 million users in Belgium, and TikTok Shop there runs on "discovery commerce": the product surfaces in the content feed without the user searching for it, and can be bought without leaving the app. Meta is moving the other way: Belgium is not currently among the countries where Instagram and Facebook offer Shops features and product tagging. Both platforms remain useful, but mainly to build demand, showcase a collection or run retargeting, before sending traffic to the webshop.

3. Transparency isn't optional

Selling through a social network changes nothing about the legal obligations: business identity, product details and price, payment, delivery and withdrawal terms must stay clear. An international sweep coordinated in 2026 by Belgium's SPF Economie (ICPEN, 228 checks across 20 countries) found that more than 90 % of the influencers checked posted commercial content, but only 20 % consistently flagged it as such. For a brand working with creators, that disclosure isn't a nicety, it's an obligation.

The AI angle, human first

An AI tool can continuously track which content performs on which platform, generate visual variants to test, or measure conversion rate channel by channel. But deciding where to put a limited creative budget, which tone builds trust, or how to react if a creator partnership goes wrong, remains a strategic call. AI runs the measurement. Expertise decides the allocation, and adjusts as results come in.