There are not many countries in Europe where Amazon is present but is not the No.1 online shopping destination. One of them is The Netherlands. The main reason is Bol.com – the biggest marketplace in the Benelux region.
Bol was originally an online bookstore (does it remind you of anyone?), but later expanded in multiple categories, and today is considered a Generalist platform. Since 2011 it opened the doors to external sellers via the so-called Bol Plaza. Today over 50.000 sellers are active on Bol in the Netherlands and Belgium.
For a very long time Bol was focused on local sellers and only allowed a small selection of carefully curated international sellers. This is changing, and Bol is expected to add a lot more international sellers in the coming months. It is a great opportunity to enter one of the most developed ecommerce markets in the world – 92% of Dutch internet users shop online.
Here is some important information about Bol:
- 75 million estimated monthly visits, 13 million active customers
- Markets: Netherlands, Belgium
- Languages: Dutch (main language), French
- Categories: Generalist, all product categories supported
- Fees: from 2.1% to 20% commission, plus a fixed fee per unit in the range 0.20 – 2.99 EUR. No monthly subscription fees.
- Logistics: Fulfilment by Merchant, Logistics by Bol (Logistiek via Bol), Shipping by Bol (Verzenden via Bol)
- Advertising: Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands
- Listing Creation: Manual, file upload, API, Integrators. HTML and Video supported.
- Order Management: Manual, API, Integrators
- Special requirements: Customer Service in the local languages; Delivery within 8 business days, Free Shipping over 25 EUR.
As an international seller, you can take full advantage of the Bol logistic services. Dutch customers are every used to next day delivery, which can only be matched if you ship from a local warehouse.
If you are already using an integrator (e.g. Channable), 99% of them already have a connector to Bol. So you can automate your order management, price and stock updates, and listing creation.
Bol operates based on the principle 1 product = 1 product detail page. A single product can be sold by many different sellers, and there is a Buy Box offer based on different criteria: price, delivery time, seller rating etc. If you are selling products which are already offered on the platform, you need to make sure you are competitive enough to win the Buy Box which will earn more than 90% of all orders for that product.
There are different reports available to sellers, including Traffic & Conversion rate reports on item level. Bol also provides a built-in tool showing the number of searches per keyword. This can be very useful for building your titles and descriptions and making them search optimized.
Bol supports product and seller reviews. They use the Net Promoter Score metric to measure service quality for sellers, and NPS can seriously influence your visibility and Buy Box eligibility.
Sellers can take advantage of advertising possibilities. The most popular format is Sponsored Products, which allows you to showcase your products on top of the search results page, as well as in the middle. You can select between Manual and Automatic campaigns depending on the level of control you want, and your experience.
Want to learn more about the Bol opportunity? Reach out to Marketplace Agents.