Estimated joint annual sales add up to a spot in Top 10 largest web stores in the Netherlands.
Bol.com’s store partners together achieved sales in excess of €100 million in the past twelve months. With estimated joint annual sales its store partners would be eligible for a place in the Twinkle Retail Top 10, which lists the largest web stores in the Netherlands, proving the strength of the bol.com format. Whether they own a webstore or not, retailers have been able to sell their products via bol.com since 2011 in the Netherlands and since September 2014 in Belgium. By opening its doors to outside retailers, bol.com has increased its offering by over 2.5 million items and customers can now choose from over eight million in all. In addition, customers are offered more choice in price and products can be delivered faster than ever before.
Retailers do not need to have their own webstores to sell via bol.com. Even owners of a single, small brick-and-mortar store can offer their products to bol.com’s over 4.5 million customers in the Netherlands and Belgium. By selling on the bol.com platform, store owners can expand their market area and generate additional sales. On average, sales increase by 10-30%, but in some cases retailers have seen their sales surge by over 50%, or occasionally even 100%. To make sure that end-customers are always offered the best possible options, bol.com will showcase a store partner’s offering above its own if it is a better fit with what the customer is looking for. Bol.com is open to partnerships in all of its product categories, including recent additions such as Baby & Toddler, Jewelry & Watches, Sports & Leisure and Furniture & Homeware. Currently, one in six products ordered at bol.com are supplied by a store partner.
Extra sales channel
These days, retailers need to be where our customers are – and that’s online, more often than not. Many companies that did not start as e-commerce players find it quite a challenge to meet the growing expectations consumers have of stores and webstores. These days, retailers are expected to be accessible 24 / 7, through various devices, including smartphones and tablets. In addition, we need to offer a wide range of products, deliver fast and offer impeccable customer service. Daniel Ropers, bol.com’s General Manager, comments: “That’s why we offer both small and large store owners the opportunity to sell through us, creating an extra sales channel and enabling them to benefit from our marketing activities, innovation, e-commerce expertise and investments and our customer base. In turn, our partnerships with other retailers help us offer our customers even more convenience and choice in terms of product range, price and availability. We truly feel that this kind of partnership between companies, drawing on mutual expertise, is extremely important if we’re to meet consumer requirements and stay one step ahead of trends in our markets. We therefore expect our share of store partner sales will further increase. Since September 2014, Belgium store owners have been able to sell products via our website, and with dozens of applications from store owners, we are seeing the sales model resonate well in the market.”
Marcel Joosten, online director at Plaza partner Centralpoint.nl says: “The most important reason for us to sell products via bol.com, since March 2011, is to draw new customers. We have managed to service 51,000 bol.com customers and we’ve expanded the bol.com assortment by 40,000 products. Together with bol.com we create new marketing activities and exclusive deals. This great synergy instantly increased our sales and brand presence.”
No win, no fee
Retailers can use content provided by bol.com when putting up their wares, including images and product descriptions, but are free to add products and enrich content any time they like. What’s more, retailers set their own prices. Store partnership is based on a “no win, no fee” arrangement: putting products online is free of charge and store partners only pay bol.com a fee for items sold.
