Utrecht – Today bol.com is opening a new specialist store with a full complement of over 12,000 kitchen and dining products, ranging from cutlery, crockery, glassware, pans and tablecloths to everyday household items such as dishwashing brushes and ironing boards. Bol.com is the first retailer in the Netherlands and Belgium to bring together so many kitchen and dining products in a single, easy-to-access specialist store. Yesterday, bol.com removed the last hurdle to online shopping by scrapping its usual shipping costs.
From casserole dishes to muffin tins, from wine glasses to tea towels, and from ironing boards to laundry baskets: consumers in Belgium and the Netherlands will now be able to buy all these and more in bol.com's latest specialist shop. Daniel Ropers, bol.com's Managing Director, comments: “Lots of items are available in the household and kitchenware market, but the offerings are typically fragmented, and consumers have to do a lot of searching to find everything they need. As of today, bol.com will be the country's first store to offer a wide range of 12,000 items in a convenient and familiar shopping format.”
Selection tools
Ropers adds: “Bol.com already sold every item with a plug that any household could possibly need, ranging from toasters to dishwashers, you name it and now we're also going 'unplugged'” Bol.com's latest specialist store meets the needs of all types of customers, from those looking to quickly replace their broken garlic press to people seeking inspiration for new cooking and dining products. For greater convenience and ease, bol.com has developed several information pages for products for which customers typically seek more background information, and also offers product selection aids for finding just the right item, like the perfect kitchen knife. Bol.com's product range includes well known brands such as BK, WMF, Wesco, Iittala, Brabantia, Blond Amsterdam, Jamie Oliver, iSi, Vileroy & Boch, Jansen+co, Emile Henry, Curver, RIG-TIG by STELTON, Riedel and Habonne.
No shipping costs
As of yesterday, bol.com has stopped charging shipping costs for any order over €20. In the past it charged a maximum of €1.95 per order. “We want to remove all obstacles encountered by consumers in online shopping,” Ropers explains. "We did this before when we combined a broad product range with value for money and swift delivery. We're now including free shipping and the option to return goods within 30 days, since a large number of consumers who don’t yet shop online consider shipping costs and short return periods a hurdle. By removing these obstacles we expect to open up the benefits of online shopping to many more customers.”
More specialist stores
Bol.com is increasingly offering specialist stores. Last year, it opened a baby store, which sells diapers, buggies and car seats. “Judging by the number of items sold,” Ropers notes, “we're clearly meeting a need. Every day, hundreds of baby products are finding their way to parents of small children. We plan to open even more specialist stores, a key condition being that we're able to offer a broad and deep range. Our new kitchen and dining store certainly fits that bill.”
