Selling on Bol.
Are you ready to take your first steps as a salesperson on bol.com? Then on this page you’ll find everything you need for a smooth start. We’ll cover every step from registration to your first sale. But, before we start: why are more and more companies finding their way to bol.com?
Welcome to selling on bol.com.
Since 2011, bol.com has been the platform of choice that connects brands, retailers, and wholesalers with buyers.
- 85% of the Flemish & Dutch population knows bol.com.
- 140 million monthly visitors on the platform. Not bad!
- 34 millionunique items are on the platform through 47,000 Belgian & Dutch sellers.
Dizzying numbers. But their success on the BeNe market should surprise no one. What is the formula for success?
- You sell where your buyers are looking.
Bol.com is the largest & busiest storefront in the BeNe region. Moreover, the platform still has huge potential. For example, in the USA we see that 63% of all product-related searches take place directly on Amazon. Belgium and the Netherlands will follow this trend.In other words, more than half of the consumers can no longer be found through Google! This shift is also starting to take place with us. Consumers are increasingly “Googling” products on online marketplaces such as bol.com. - Reach new audiences.The platform provides brands & products exposure to millions of customers in Belgium and the Netherlands. As many as 80% of Belgian & Dutch consumers discover new items/brands through an online marketplace.
- The platform is commission-based.
You can set up an additional online store without any start-up costs and within a few clicks. You offer your assortment for free and only pay when you sell a product. So there are no monthly fixed or unexpected costs. You know exactly how much you will have left at the end of the month. - You no longer have to set up your own webshop.
The entire purchasing process takes place on the state-of-the-art bol.com platform. Consumers buy in a reliable & trusted environment.Don’t have experience selling online? Bol offers support in customer service, logistics, data analysis, inventory management, advertising, and financing…Did you know that they answer 75% of incoming calls within 30 seconds? Handsome!
- Marketing your products is also running on wheels. Bol.com has an integrated advertising tool. More on that later in this guide.
In addition, the entire buyer’s journey of consumers is shifting to platforms such as bol.com. 46% of all online transactions worldwide take place on an online marketplace (e.g., Bol/Amazon/Zalando/…). In Belgium and the Netherlands, that number is still only 12 and 16% respectively. So there are still great opportunities for companies venturing into selling on platforms such as bol.com.
Are you ready to get your business future-proofed?
Find out how to get started selling on bol.com here.
Step 1: Selling on bol.com
How does selling on bol.com work?
In the traditional market, you buy products such as flowers or fresh fish from different stalls. An online marketplace (such as bol.com) is very similar: buyers find a wide range of different products from different vendors in one place.
Although there is one fundamental difference. In an online marketplace, each unique product is offered only once, and that by different providers. Product pages on bol.com are therefore very similar to those of your own webshop. The big difference is that behind the shopping cart button there are several sellers.
Below we zoom in on a product page from bol.com
- Product name.Make sure your product name is recognizable to buyers, and matches their search behavior. The more recognizable the product name is to the buyer, the faster they will land on your product page.
- A full photo of the product.
Again, recognition is the most important factor. A photo of the product, out of the package, with a white background works best. - Variations on the product.
If your product is available in different colors, sizes, scents (e.g., for candles), a potential buyer can choose between the options here. - The price.Here you will find the price of the provider who won the buying block.
- The buy block / buy box.
Here you can see which party this item is buying from when you add the product to your shopping cart. Are there multiple sellers? Then you can compare them a little lower on the product page. Although this is not done in 99% of sales.
You set up all the information on the product page through a product listing. Further on this page we will go deeper into product listing. (Or click here and read more about it now)
What is the buy box or buy block on bol.com?
The buy box on bol.com – also known as the buy block – determines which seller is selling the particular product. It a crucial part on the platform, as there is only one product page for each product, and therefore only one buy box.
To keep the quality of its platform at top level, bol.com rewards sellers with the best offer for the customer. That reward comes in the form of control over the buying block. Because whoever controls the buy-box wears the crown AND has the right to sell the product.
Yet multiple vendors can sell the same product. So how is it determined to whom a sale is awarded?
The control of the buy box divides bol.com among the various sellers of the particular product. Whoever is in control of the buy box at the moment a consumer adds the product to his or her shopping cart is selling the product.
Only the “best” seller gets to sell the product. The bol.com algorithm determines who wears the crown and comes into control of the buy box. To do so, it relies on a lot of factors. Later on this page, we discuss these in more detail.
How does the commission system work?
When you win the buying block, you get the right to sell the product in question. This is also when bol.com starts earning from you.
Being present on the platform is in fact free: there are no entry costs, no recurring fees, you get a huge reach, … However, you do pay a commission per product sold. The commission consists of two parts: a flat fee, and a percentage on the sales price.
What exactly these amounts and percentages are is very price and product specific. Curious about the cost of your product? Then consult this table.
Step 2: Is selling on bol.com right for you?
Before you get started on bol.com, find out whether it makes sense for your products to enter an online marketplace. We put together 4 essential questions for you to consider when making your choice!
Are your products allowed on sphere?
You are not allowed to sell just any product on bol.com. Of course, your products must comply with Belgian or Dutch legislation. In addition, bol.com has some of its own rules and prohibitions:
- alcoholic beverages
- single use plastic (cups, balloons, …)
- tobacco and smoking materials (pipes, bongs, e-cigarettes, …)
- 2nd hand items (books, music, and movies only)
- weapons (non-retractable knives and catapults)
- …
Not sure if your products are allowed to be sold on bol.com? Then you can check the full list here.
Is there an interesting market for your product?
Bol.com is not a Valhalla for any product. Then again, other products are a match made in heaven for the platform. Using the questions below, ask yourself if your product will sell well on bol.com:
Is there enough search volume on your products within bol.com?
How often are buyers currently searching for your product? The greater your online search volume is currently, the greater the growth potential on bol.com.
Ideally, you look for sales opportunities and identify “white & gray spots. Products with high search volume, and few sellers.
Not quite sure if your product will sell well on bol.com?
We do a no-obligation potential scan.
Is your product already on bol.com or not?
This is an important question to ask ahead of time. This is because in order to sell a product on bol, you must first create a product listing. Either your item joins an existing listing (if someone else is already selling the same product on bol), or you create a new listing (if you are the first or only seller).
It takes a little more work to create a new listing. But again, that has its own advantages. Thus, with your own listing, you are the only provider. That is, little competition. But, you will have to complete all the product information all by yourself. That will take some time, but if you ask us? The effort is worth the reward.
Are you not a sole provider? Then you can upload your product quickly, but there is a chance that the consumer will not buy the product from you, but rather from another seller.
Every disadvantage has its advantage.
Are you willing to bear the cost of bol.com?
Cost per product sold
As mentioned earlier, the first cost is commission-based. If you sell on bol.com, you pay a fixed cost + a commission per product sold. These fees are very product specific.
You can find the the entire list here.
Logistics costs
The second cost is optional. You can choose to have your logistics supported by bol.com. Logistical support from bol.com helps you pack, deliver and return your products.
This provides quite a relief: delivery is faster, you save yourself a lot of time, AND the customer experience is better. (Whether logistics support via bol.com is a smart move for you, you can read in this article)
In return for bol.com’s logistical help, of course, there is a price tag. The cost is determined by the size and weight of your product. You can find all prices here.
Step 3: Start selling
Way to go! You are 100% convinced that you want to sell on bol.com.
What are you waiting for? Let’s get your profile set up, upload your products and let the selling begin!
Already have a seller profile? Then skip this step, and go to putting your first products live.
How do you create a bol.com seller profile?
Every seller needs a seller account. You create one through this page. Be sure to keep all your company information handy, so you’ll be signed up in no time.
Unfortunately, you can’t start selling right away yet. Bol.com will first verify your company information. This normally takes 3 business days.
In the meantime, you can keep yourself productive. For example, add your products to the platform already. The items you already add to your seller profile now will then appear on the platform when your sales account is verified.
Let’s go deeper into adding your articles.
Adding articles on bol.com: all about listing
The listing is one of the most important efforts when you set up your sales profile. It determines what buyers see when they come to your product page. But, aren’t you the first seller to offer this product? Then save yourself a lot of work and simply subscribe to an existing listing.
When you do become the first seller of a product, you do create a product listing. To do this, follow some guidelines and best practices.
First and foremost is the basic information, this includes:
- The name of your article.
- The EAN number of your item.
- A clear picture of your article.
Second, you have the mandatory information. The product category determines what additional mandatory information you need to add. Be sure your product is linked to the correct product category. Otherwise, it won’t end up in the right place in the store. For example, if you sell tea towels, you don’t want them to end up between food and beverages.
Once you have completed the basic and required information, your product can go online. But it doesn’t stop there. There are a few more best practices for a “Champions-League-level” listing.
- Optimizing the product name
Do some research: how do people search for your, or a similar product. What keywords have high search volume on them? The higher the volume, the more likely your product will sell.Pay close attention here that the product name matches how your target audience searches.
A good product tee looks like this:
[Brand] [Model] [Product Group] – [Feature 1] – [Feature 2]For example, a product name like “MS18m-20/21” will not work as well as “Moleskin 18 Month Calendar 2021/2022 – Weekly – Soft Cover (black).”
- Write the perfect product textTheproduct name triggers search behavior, and images create a good first impression. But it’s the product text that wins buyers over. Pay close attention to spelling mistakes here; these can lead to a conversion drop of up to 50%.
Here you have the full attention of potential buyers. To convince them you describe what the product is for, what problems it solves, what convenience it brings, and so on.
- Visualizing your products
For your main image, use an image in which you can see the entire product, and use a white background. To give your buyer as complete a picture of the product as possible, upload at least 5 other photos in addition. Show the product from different perspectives to paint a complete picture.Want to go the extra mile? Then include a video of your product. That way potential buyers can see perfectly what your product looks like, what it can do, and so on.
If you are the first seller of a product, your job is to listen to the product. The better your listing: the more you will sell.
But, it may be that the product you want to sell is already listed on bol.com by another provider. In that case, you don’t create a listing for your product. However, another challenge lurks around the corner. For each product, there can be only one seller. So how do you ensure that you acquire the right to sell the product?
That’s what bol.com determines by giving sellers control over the buy box. Fortunately, you can do everything you can to make the algorithm work in your favor
How do you get into control of the buying block?
Bol.com chooses the which provider comes into control of the buying block, based on three major criteria: price, delivery time and performance score. Do you score better against other sellers on these aspects? Then bol.com awards the sale of that product integrally to you.
Let’s zoom in for a moment on exactly what these criteria mean….
The price of your product
Buyers often scour the entire Internet to score the best price. They use Tweakers or visit test-buy for a comparative study.
Because bol.com wants to be a competitive platform, it rewards sellers with the lowest price for a product. They are more likely to control the buying block.
Is your first reaction now, “oh convenient, I’ll simply set my price 1 cent below my competitor’s.”? Then bol.com is one step ahead of you. To avoid a useless “bidding war,” the platform does not give you a competitive advantage for a minuscule price difference.
bol.com’s pricing policy says nothing about minimum prices. At the upper end of the price range, however, there are guidelines. For example, a seller may never charge more than the recommended retail price, even if they are the only seller of the product.
Delivery time
The faster you deliver your product, the better. The success of bol.com is largely explained by an outstanding customer experience. The delivery time of an order is an essential part of that.
The faster you as a seller get your product to your buyer’s front door, the happier the customer and the more bol.com will reward you for this. By the way, did you know that the best converting products on bol.com are those whose delivery promise is within 36 hours?
From this understanding, bol.com rewards suppliers with a delivery time of 2 to 3 business days, or less. So short delivery times equals more chance of control over the buying block and, subsequently, more sales opportunities for you.
Of course, not every seller is equally equipped in terms of logistics. That’s why bol.com offers logistics support. This involves them taking care of labeling, packing and shipping your products. More on this later on this page.
Performance Score
While delivery times are important to bol.com, they are a given to a buyer. So the performance score extends beyond that, and is therefore unsurprisingly the most complex criteria of the three.
To ensure excellent service, bol.com therefore established a performance score. A score that looks at how good the service you provide to buyers is. Good service, according to bol.com, includes certain criteria.
A violation on any of these criteria results in a strike. 7 strikes, and you’re out: you are no longer allowed to sell on bol.com. Now bol.com does give you a warning first, and the chance to improve yourself. So keep a close eye on where things go wrong, because a suspension is very difficult to fix. These are the criteria :
- A maximum cancellation rate of 2%
Buyers are very disappointed when their purchase is cancelled. That’s why bol.com gives sellers a strike when they cancel at least three items in one week and their cancellation rate is higher than 2%, so keep a close eye on your stock! And make sure you always have more items in stock than you pass on to bol.com.
- Track & trace number for all orders
As a buyer, you want to know where your package is, and when the delivery man will ring. A track&trace number is therefore an important contribution to a good sales service.
- Telephone accessibility on 90% of all calls
Sometimes bol.com needs the help of salespeople in handling customer questions, orders, or complaints. That’s why they call you. Here, they expect a 90% responsiveness to all call attempts during business hours.
- Responsiveness to customer inquiries (dynamic standard)
When customers have questions about your product, you need to be able to help them. Bol.com considers, based on your number of products sold, how quickly you should respond. But in general: within 24 hours and by phone always during business hours (9am-5pm).
- An assessment grade of 8 or more
Customers rely on reviews, and satisfied customers return. That’s why bol.com uses a lower limit of 8 out of 10 partner score to ensure that customers are happy from your services & products on its platform.
- Returns (dynamic standard)
The fewer returns the better: it will save you a lot of time & money. Bol.com checks based on how many items you sell, what % of returned items it tolerates.
- An NPS score of ten or higher
In an NPS (Net Promoter Score), you measure how likely it is that a customer would recommend your product to someone else. This score goes from -100, to +100. If you score below 10, you’re not doing too well.
Fortunately, bol.com is aware that starting sellers are not yet at the desirable level right away. That’s why they introduced the growth start phase . During this phase you cannot receive strikes, but get feedback and guidance to do better.
In summary, then, there are three criteria that determine whether you are in control of the buy-box: price, delivery time and performance score. Yet not every criteria has as much influence as the others. Depending on your product type, a different weighting comes into play. Which criteria weighs harder is in turn determined by customer behavior in relation to your product.
For example, delivery time weighs more heavily on products that you use on a daily basis, and the “price” argument gives a tougher edge on products that require a lot of research (e.g., electronics).
Balancing the three criteria is a balancing act that you continue to monitor and adjust throughout your time on bol.com.
Want to know if you have a chance to win the buying block on Bol.com?
How should you approach your product launch on bol.com?
Your products are online. Top! Ask your grandmother to light a candle and the orders will flow in, right?… Well, no. Unfortunately, that’s not how things work.
The importance of getting your product sales off to a good start is huge. Without a good start, you miss the snowball effect of the bol.com flywheel. After all, the fork is right there:
When you have an increase in your conversion rate, you sell more. Selling more gets you higher in search results, AND your product gets more reviews and ratings. For that, bol.com thanks you with more exposure to potential customers. Those customers will now visit your product page more often, which means another increase in your conversion rate and the circle is complete.
To get you tapping into the bol.com flywheel as quickly as possible, we’re sharing three secret pro tips for your first product launch on bol.com.
Tip #1: growth-hack your first orders
Starting fast when you launch a product on bol.com is the message. With a good start, the algorithm picks you up faster and that results in – drum roll please – more sales!(yes please).
Therefore, make your product more attractive to bol.com at launch. Remember the three criteria bol.com uses to determine control of the buying block? We have to be equally smart about that.
The delivery time & performance score are less in your control in this regard. But, the price? You do have control over that! Set the price of your product low at the start. Very low. Many sellers put their products online at a loss when starting out. Sounds a little crazy, though. But, in the long run, not a bad investment.
In fact, with this price manipulation, you will sell more products at the start. A good test period to prove your delivery time to bol.com and build a good performance score. Once those two do well, pull the price back up without compromising buy-box control.
Tip 2: Advertise on bol.com
In addition to a blazing product launch, you have a sea of opportunities to advertise your products. Efforts that make searchers on bol.com see, find and buy your products more often. Not a bad idea, right?
Advertising via bol.com is done with ‘sponsored products’. This is very similar to advertising on Google, where you target users’ search behavior. Just like in Google, you can perform keyword research on bol.com to find out which terms you want to target.
The cost of sponsored products on bol.com depends on how often an interaction with the ad occurs. A Cost-Per-Click (CPC) determines how much you spend on ad costs. Fortunately, you will never spend more than you intend: through the platform, you seamlessly set how much you want to spend.
Just know that pinpointing the right keywords for your ads on bol.com is very extensive and product-specific. Therefore, we only indicate its existence in this starter guide.
Tip 3: Delivery of your sold products
When a seller completes his or her purchase, only one obligation remains: delivery. And this one had better be flawless! Because anyone who has been paying close attention knows that the delivery time has a big impact on the buy box.
As a seller, you have two choices for the delivery of products sold: either arrange everything yourself or enlist the help of bol.com. But what exactly does that help entail?
LVB: The logistical support of bol.com
When bol.com takes care of the delivery of your products, you no longer have to worry about your logistics process. Everything starts with storing the products in a bol.com warehouse. You only have to put your feet up when making a sale.
Bol.com will:
- Picking your sold products from the warehouse;
- packaging & shipping these products;
- take on customer service when something goes wrong;
- take care of the return of certain products.
Quite a laundry list of benefits, especially considering they offer same-day delivery. So the effect on your delivery time and performance score will be immediate. Good news if you are competing for the buy box!
Of course, this comes with a price tag. What you owe bol.com depends on the size of your products. Per size there is:
- a cost per item,
- a cost per delivery,
- and an inventory cost per item per month.
You can find the exact rates here.
Still doubting whether you’ll get a better deal by using bol.com’s logistics support? Then use their handy comparison tool.
Convinced? Register for logistics through bol.com using this link.
Get started!
Whether you want to start your adventure on bol.com yourself, or you enlist the help of a marketplace agency like Merkado. We are brimming with confidence that you will succeed.
But, be forewarned. Although we’ve given you a solid slice of knowledge on this page, this was just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to make the most of it during your bol.com adventure, then:
- First, put your focus on products with the most growth potential;
- Better map your target audience’s customer journey;
- Optimize your offerings;
- Learn to better analyze the effect of your modifications on the platform.
Good luck, and bon voyage!
