Marketplace Bol.com, which is hugely popular in the Netherlands and Belgium, is increasing the perks associated with its Select programme. Rather similar to Amazon Prime, for an annual subscription Select offers frequent shoppers preferential shipping options, more convenient collection services and flexible free returns on orders.
Select was introduced in April 2017 and was available on 300k items for sale via Bol.com. Now that range has been expanded to include all 16 million products available and shoppers will no longer need to search for Select eligible items.
Now, for an annual €9.99 subscription, customers in the Netherlands will be able to enjoy free next day delivery on orders made before noon on weekdays. And evening delivery (between 6 and 10 PM) is available and also Sunday time slots too. And there is also free pick-up after 5pm from any of the 900 Bol.com pickup points at the branches of the Albert Heijn supermarket. The subscription price in Belgium is only €6.99 because flexible returns via PostNL are not available there.
Select is different from Prime, and this is reflected in the price per annum for Select in comparison with the Amazon, because it doesn’t come with the various media streaming services they offer.
Selling on Bol.com
Bol.com is a popular marketplace in the Netherlands and Belgium that does accept sales and listings from 3P (third party) merchants. But you’ll need to apply and be approved and that is not, apparently, always an easy proposition.
Listing your items is easy, though, once you’re approved.. All Bol.com needs for products is a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN). So if you have a GTIN, there is no need to manually translate your listing – Bol does that for you on a catalogue basis. There are also no fixed monthly fees for your Bol.com account and you only pay for each item sold.
And very much like with Amazon Prime, if you use FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon), you can also plug into Bol.com’s distribution network in the Netherlands (and to a lesser extent Belgium) to help with delivery. This will attract more buyers to your products. We’ve written more about selling on Bol this year, as part of our Marketplaces 2018 series, and you can read more here.
One Response
It’s good to see BOL.com getting more attention – Especially when they out-Amazon the big player in their home market, and underline the loyalty many European countries have to home-grown marketplaces. We’ve just made it easier for Linnworks sellers to try selling on BOL.com, too, as there was a lot of interest (https://www.ebusinessguru.co.uk/spotlight-on-bol-com/)