Why Ghent businesses are investing in custom e-commerce platforms
Ghent is a capital of east flanders province, belgium, where around 273,000 people live and shop, and one of the markets in Belgium where we build custom e-commerce platforms.
Businesses here work in biotech and tech startups; many are based around the city centre and Technologiepark.
Logistics are supported by Port of Ghent, which matters when you promise customers fast delivery.
Belgium has SMEs make up 99% of all businesses in the European Union (European Commission). Belgian shoppers expect bilingual Dutch/French stores and Bancontact at checkout. Many still buy from Dutch and French sites, so local stock and fast delivery are a real edge.
For a business in Ghent, the opportunity is to own the customer relationship: your own custom e-commerce platform keeps your margin, your data and your brand, while marketplaces and social channels become additional sales routes instead of the only one.
Local details we build into every Ghent project
A store that works in Ghent respects local habits as well as local law. These are the details we configure first.
Currency and pricing
The store speaks euro: EUR amounts from product page to invoice, so Ghent buyers never convert in their heads.
Language and content
We localise pages, emails and notifications into Dutch, French and German where your audience needs it.
Local trust signals
We add the payment logos, courier names and policy pages shoppers in Ghent recognise: Bancontact and Visa and Mastercard and delivery through bpost.
Domain, phone and contact
Using .be where it suits you signals a local business to shoppers and search engines. Contact buttons are pre-set with +32, so a customer in Ghent taps once to call or message.
Talent and partners nearby
With Ghent University close by, finding people to manage catalogues, content and support after launch is realistic in Ghent.
Custom-built for how you sell in Ghent
Whatever your business sells in Ghent, N&T Software designs and develops the custom e-commerce platform and the matching mobile app exactly to your requirements — your catalogue, your prices, your payment and delivery rules.
Typical clients include multi-brand groups, businesses outgrowing SaaS platforms, companies migrating legacy stores and regulated sectors. Categories that sell especially well online in Belgium — fashion, electronics, food and chocolate and home — get catalogue structures and filters designed for them.
We start with a requirements meeting, show you a working demo within 24 hours, and only then propose scope, milestones and budget.
Features of your custom e-commerce platform in Ghent
Nothing here is fixed: modules are switched on, reshaped or built from scratch around how your Ghent business sells.
Custom workflows
Product configurators, made-to-order flows, approvals, contracts and industry-specific rules. Catalogues come in from spreadsheets, ERP exports or supplier feeds, so your Ghent team keeps its current way of working.
Headless architecture
API-first commerce with a fast front end, so web, app, kiosk and marketplace channels share one backend. Payment steps are built around Bancontact, Visa and Mastercard and PayPal, the options shoppers here already trust.
Multi-entity operations
Multiple brands, companies, warehouses, currencies and tax registrations on one platform. Delivery can be booked through bpost, PostNL Belgium and DPD or dispatched by your own riders around Ghent.
Deep integrations
ERP, PIM, WMS, CRM, POS, accounting and legacy systems with reliable, monitored data sync. Multiple stock points in Belgium are supported, so a Ghent order ships from the nearest one.
Migration
Move from older platforms with product, customer and order history, SEO-safe redirects and parallel runs. Dashboards break sales down by product, customer and neighbourhood of Ghent, so you see what to promote.
Performance and security
Caching, CDN, load testing, security hardening, audit logs and cloud infrastructure as code. Pages, search filters and wording are tuned to how people in Ghent look for products, in Dutch and French if your audience needs it.
Payments customers in Ghent expect
A custom e-commerce platform for Ghent must support the way people here actually pay: Bancontact, Visa and Mastercard, PayPal, Payconiq, Apple Pay and KBC/CBC Pay.
Gateway selection depends on your category and merchant approval; we connect the provider, reconcile payments, automate retries and refunds, and never store raw card data. Prices, taxes and refunds appear in euro (EUR).
Business buyers around the city centre often want invoices or bank transfer, while consumers lean on Bancontact. We support both flows.
- Payconiq
- Visa and Mastercard
- PayPal
- Bancontact
- Apple Pay
- KBC/CBC Pay
Delivery and fulfilment from Ghent
Your custom e-commerce platform can book shipments and share tracking with bpost, PostNL Belgium, DPD, GLS, DHL and Mondial Relay, or route orders to your own riders and stores across Ghent.
Delivery rules can price by distance, weight, postcode or zone, offer same-day slots in dense areas, and switch on pickup points or click-and-collect where customers prefer them.
Connectivity in the area — Port of Ghent — makes regional and national dispatch from Ghent practical.
Selling online legally in Belgium
Belgian VAT is 21% standard with 12% and 6% reduced rates; B2B e-invoicing via Peppol is mandatory from 2026.
On privacy we design around the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ePrivacy rules on cookies and marketing consent, enforced by the Belgian Data Protection Authority; on consumer rights the store reflects the EU Consumer Rights Directive (14-day withdrawal right), the Digital Services Act and, from June 2025, the European Accessibility Act for online shops and Book VI of the Code of Economic Law.
Controls we implement include compliant invoices, consent capture, policy pages, restricted staff access and audit trails. Please confirm the final legal and tax position with a local adviser in Ghent.
Ghent sellers: marketplace plus your own store
Bol, Amazon (FR/NL/DE) and Coolblue are where many shoppers in Ghent start, which is why sellers list there. The trade-off is commission, limited branding and rules the platform can change overnight.
NNT Mart gives you a channel you own: your domain, your customer list, your pricing and your brand. Where it helps, we connect product feeds and orders from marketplaces so stock stays in sync and your team works from one dashboard.
Industries in Ghent we work with
Popular online categories in Belgium include fashion, electronics, food and chocolate, home, beauty and books. Local demand in Ghent is shaped by biotech and tech startups, so we often design catalogues and B2B ordering around those sectors. In Ghent, we most often build custom e-commerce platforms for:
Enterprises with complex catalogues
Catalogue, pricing and fulfilment rules designed for enterprises with complex catalogues in Ghent, connected to the systems you already use.
Multi-brand groups
Multi-brand groups get headless architecture plus deep integrations workflows tailored to their operations.
Businesses outgrowing SaaS platforms
We map how businesses outgrowing SaaS platforms sell today and digitise it end to end — from enquiry and order to payment, dispatch and repeat purchase.
Companies migrating legacy stores
For companies migrating legacy stores, we usually start with migration, then add POS and store systems once orders are flowing.
Regulated sectors
Catalogue, pricing and fulfilment rules designed for regulated sectors in Ghent, connected to the systems you already use.
High-traffic retailers
High-traffic retailers get performance and security plus headless architecture workflows tailored to their operations.
Add a mobile app for Ghent customers
In Ghent, shoppers browse on phones first. Because the platform is API-first, customer, staff and partner mobile apps can be added at any point without rebuilding the backend.
One backend serves the website and the apps, and the apps ship under your own Google Play and App Store accounts — so what you change once appears everywhere.
Order alerts, offers and abandoned-cart reminders go out on Ghent time (UTC+2), in Dutch and French if you want.
- PIM and DAM
- BI and data warehouses
- WMS and 3PL systems
- Search engines (Elasticsearch, Algolia)
- Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)
- Identity and SSO
- SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics and Odoo ERPs
- POS and store systems
Integrations above are examples; we connect any system that offers a suitable API, database access or approved import and export process.
Launch roadmap and success metrics
We launch the journeys that create value first, then add depth. A typical roadmap for a custom e-commerce platform in Ghent:
| Phase | What goes live |
|---|---|
| Foundation | Architecture, core commerce, priority integrations and migration. Configured for EUR, Bancontact and bpost from the start. |
| Differentiate | Custom workflows, configurators and automation. |
| Optimise | Performance, new channels, apps and continuous enhancement. Reviewed against how Ghent customers actually buy. |
Success is measured on page load and API response times, uptime, order-sync accuracy, manual-work hours saved, release frequency and total cost of ownership — tracked on a dashboard you can see from launch day.
Working with our team from Ghent
Ghent runs on UTC+2, which is 3h 30m behind India (IST). With three 8-hour shifts we are available 24×7, so meetings, demos and urgent fixes happen in your working hours.
Project communication is in English; storefront content can be produced in Dutch, German and French. You get a named lead, direct engineer access and an NDA if you ask.
Our head office is in Chhapi, Gujarat, with an office in Hyderabad and representation in Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia and Zambia; Ghent clients are served remotely with on-site workshops when the project needs them.
