Households in Brussels are spending nearly €5.5 billion a year on shopping, according to a report released on Monday by the Brussels Agency for the Support of Business (hub.brussels).
The Brussels-Capital Region comprises a total of 542,000 households, each of which spends an average of €9,200 every year on consumer goods and services.
As part of this total figure, Brussels-dwellers spend €1.5 billion each year on ‘light-weight semi-permanent’ goods such as clothing, shoes, books, and sports goods.
“Brussels City Center, which hosts nearly 3,000 sales outlets, 700 of which are specialised in the sale of such semi-permanent consumer goods, attracts more than a quarter of the market’s total consumer expenditure,” said hub.brussels in their report. “The rest of the market for such goods is largely concentrated in three other places, including the Woluwe Shopping Centre (10.6% of market share), the Haut de la Ville (8.7%), and the Westland Shopping Centre (5.6%).”
The study also shows that households in Brussels spend €1 billion each year on ‘heavy semi-permanent goods’, such as hardware and furniture.
“The purchase of heavy, semi-permanent goods in Brussels is concentrated in several places,” said the report. “The Brussels IKEA is the most popular location for purchases, and collects more than 10% of the total market share. Other popular places to shop for such goods are the Brussels City Center (9.2%), the Zaventem IKEA (8.4%), and the Basilix Shopping Centre (5.5%).”