The case for a manufacturer and dealer portal in Mechelen
Mechelen is a commercial centre in Belgium with a population of roughly 87,000, and one of the places where we build manufacturer and distributor portals for local businesses.
Key sectors include biotech and tech campuses, with business districts such as the city centre and tech campuses.
Logistics are supported by Between Brussels and Antwerp, 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 Mechelen, the opportunity is to own the customer relationship: your own manufacturer and dealer portal keeps your margin, your data and your brand, while marketplaces and social channels become additional sales routes instead of the only one.
What makes a Mechelen store feel local
Conversion in Mechelen depends on small local signals — the right currency, the right words and the right payment and courier names.
Currency and pricing
The store speaks euro: EUR amounts from product page to invoice, so Mechelen buyers never convert in their heads.
Language and content
Storefront copy, product pages and emails can run in Dutch, French and German, with local date and number formats.
Local trust signals
Trust is local: familiar names such as Bancontact and Visa and Mastercard and bpost sit next to the buy button.
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 Mechelen taps once to call or message.
Talent and partners nearby
Mechelen draws on Thomas More University, which means plenty of local staff, interns and technology partners to run the store after launch.
A manufacturer and dealer portal built around your Mechelen business
Your manufacturer and dealer portal is planned, designed and coded for your business model — not adapted from someone else's — and it can ship with a customer or staff mobile app on day one.
In Mechelen we typically work with machinery and equipment manufacturers, engineering component makers, electrical and automation brands and building-material manufacturers, and with sellers in categories such as fashion, electronics, food and chocolate and home that have strong online demand in Belgium.
We start with a requirements meeting, show you a working demo within 24 hours, and only then propose scope, milestones and budget.
Core modules we build for Mechelen clients
Each module below is configured — or custom-developed — to your requirements. You choose what launches first and what follows in later phases.
Technical catalogue
Product families, models, variants, specification tables, comparison and application or industry filters. Payment steps are built around Bancontact, Visa and Mastercard and PayPal, the options shoppers here already trust.
Document library
Datasheets, manuals, CAD drawings, certificates and price lists with public, registered or partner-only access. Couriers such as bpost, PostNL Belgium and DPD plug in alongside your own fleet for Mechelen orders.
Enquiries and RFQs
Project enquiries, quotation requests, lead routing to the right region and status tracking. Stock can be held in Mechelen or anywhere in Belgium, with pickup and local-delivery options where they make sense.
Partner portal
Dealer and distributor sign-in, territory-based catalogues, protected pricing, schemes and targets. Dashboards break sales down by product, customer and neighbourhood of Mechelen, so you see what to promote.
Spares and service
Spare-part lookup by model or serial number, accessories, warranty registration and service requests. Pages, search filters and wording are tuned to how people in Mechelen look for products, in Dutch and French if your audience needs it.
Channel insight
Dashboards for partner orders, secondary sales, product interest and regional demand. Catalogues come in from spreadsheets, ERP exports or supplier feeds, so your Mechelen team keeps its current way of working.
Industries in Mechelen we work with
Popular online categories in Belgium include fashion, electronics, food and chocolate, home, beauty and books. Local demand in Mechelen is shaped by biotech and tech campuses, so we often design catalogues and B2B ordering around those sectors. In Mechelen, we most often build manufacturer and distributor portals for:
Machinery and equipment manufacturers
We map how machinery and equipment manufacturers sell today and digitise it end to end — from enquiry and order to payment, dispatch and repeat purchase.
Engineering component makers
For engineering component makers, we usually start with enquiries and RFQs, then add CRM and lead routing once orders are flowing.
Electrical and automation brands
Catalogue, pricing and fulfilment rules designed for electrical and automation brands in Mechelen, connected to the systems you already use.
Building-material manufacturers
Building-material manufacturers get partner portal plus channel insight workflows tailored to their operations.
Auto-parts companies
We map how auto-parts companies sell today and digitise it end to end — from enquiry and order to payment, dispatch and repeat purchase.
Importers and master distributors
For importers and master distributors, we usually start with technical catalogue, then add logistics partners once orders are flowing.
Checkout and payment methods for Mechelen
Shoppers in Mechelen rarely abandon a cart over price alone — they leave when their usual method is missing. Here that means Bancontact, Visa and Mastercard and PayPal, then 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).
Zone-based payment rules let you offer different options for the city centre than for outer parts of Mechelen.
- Payconiq
- PayPal
- Bancontact
- Visa and Mastercard
- KBC/CBC Pay
- Apple Pay
Fulfilment options for Mechelen orders
Your manufacturer and dealer portal 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 Mechelen.
We set up shipping zones, cut-off times, free-shipping thresholds, cash-collection rules and returns so the promise on the product page matches what your team can deliver.
Connectivity in the area — Between Brussels and Antwerp — makes regional and national dispatch from Mechelen practical.
Owning your channel in Belgium
For a Mechelen business, Bol, Amazon (FR/NL/DE), Coolblue and Zalando are useful shop windows — but fees, ranking changes and shared customer data limit how far you can grow on them alone.
Your manufacturer and dealer portal becomes the hub: marketplaces and social shops become extra outlets fed from one catalogue, while repeat customers buy directly from you at better margins.
Tax, invoicing and compliance in Belgium
For Mechelen sellers, tax first: Belgian VAT is 21% standard with 12% and 6% reduced rates; B2B e-invoicing via Peppol is mandatory from 2026.
Customer data is handled with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ePrivacy rules on cookies and marketing consent, enforced by the Belgian Data Protection Authority in mind, and the storefront follows 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 Mechelen.
Add a mobile app for Mechelen customers
Dealer, field-sales and service-technician apps can scan QR codes on products, look up spares, register warranties and place orders from the shop floor or the customer site.
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.
Push notifications can be timed to UTC+2 so offers reach Mechelen customers when they are awake, and the interface can run in Dutch and French.
- CRM and lead routing
- Warranty and service software
- WhatsApp Business API
- Logistics partners
- PIM and DAM for product data
- ERP and production planning
- E-invoicing and tax systems
- Dealer management systems
Integrations above are examples; we connect any system that offers a suitable API, database access or approved import and export process.
How we phase your manufacturer and dealer portal
Value first, depth later. For a manufacturer and dealer portal serving Mechelen, the usual sequence looks like this:
| Phase | What goes live |
|---|---|
| Catalogue and enquiries | Technical catalogue, documents and RFQ capture with CRM routing. Configured for EUR, Bancontact and bpost from the start. |
| Partner portal | Dealer sign-in, protected pricing, ordering and ERP sync. |
| Service and apps | Spares, warranty, service requests and field apps. Reviewed against how Mechelen customers actually buy. |
Success is measured on qualified enquiries per month, quote-to-order conversion, dealer portal adoption, secondary-sales visibility, spare-part order accuracy and time to answer technical queries — tracked on a dashboard you can see from launch day.
Working with our team from Mechelen
Our team covers UTC+2 — 3h 30m behind India (IST) — through three 8-hour shifts, so a Mechelen client always reaches someone during the local working day.
We work in English and can deliver storefront content in Dutch, German and French. NDAs are signed on request, and you get a named project lead plus direct access to the engineers building your manufacturer and dealer portal.
Our head office is in Chhapi, Gujarat, with an office in Hyderabad and representation in Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia and Zambia; Mechelen clients are served remotely with on-site workshops when the project needs them.
