The market places

Additional channels to sell are always desirable, in this article we will discuss the three major online department stores / marketplaces. In general, selling on platforms is good for your sales, but the impact on your branding / awareness is relatively low. Buyers often go back to the Marketplace itself and have difficulty turning into loyal website visitors. Because of the concentration of products for buyers, marketplaces are still growing and provide opportunities for sellers.

Selling on BOL.com

BOL is the most well-known Dutch 'marketplace' for new products (but also second-hand). Besides its own range, BOL has many professional sellers on its platform, making it the largest online department store. They charge between 8% and 15% 'network fee' for each sale, but these rates change regularly, partly due to increasing competition. A catch, however, is that you also compete with BOL itself when you sell products that are generally available. With own products or protected imports (with EAN), BOL can be a better channel (the competition is then lower); otherwise, it is a good channel for generating turnover; but don't expect these buyers to turn into regular customers; therefore, it is advisable to make a margin on each sale.

Amazon.nl

Since the arrival of Amazon in the Netherlands (after initially only being able to order in the Netherlands via Amazon Germany), Amazon's market share has been growing significantly. This giant is seen as the main challenger to BOL in the Netherlands. A plus point of Amazon is that in addition to the Benelux, all of Europe comes within reach of your company.

Kaufland

A local player with a large market is Kaufland.de, which serves the entire German market. The former real.de is the biggest competitor of Amazon in Germany. For Dutch companies, this is an excellent opportunity to enter the German market. Starting to sell beyond one's own national borders, especially when an online store has to be built from scratch, is probably easier via a marketplace than via a (new) online store; and Germany is a country where many Dutch entrepreneurs first look after they are operational in the Netherlands and Belgium.

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Strategy

There are, of course, different strategies to be successful online, and these often apply even more strongly to selling via marketplaces. For example, the gross margin is always important, but it counts even more with sales via marketplaces due to the additional fee you pay per order. Consider the following success factors and their importance when selling via a marketplace:

  • Specialist niche: A niche that you know a lot about and others less, gives you an advantage. Think especially of products where specific knowledge is needed for the right import or quality. Also, products with a low volume may be interesting for you, but will hardly be offered by them (for BOL or Amazon) due to the low turnover.
  • Good gross margin: Due to network costs and shipping costs, a good gross margin is important, the 3 points above also help with this.
  • Low return rate: Returns cost money, not only shipping costs but they are sometimes no longer sellable as new. Good photos and descriptions reduce the chance of return, but also the type of product is important.
  • Special products: At BOL and Amazon, everything revolves around speed and standardization. Do products not fit in the warehouse; or is special transport needed, for example? Than you can offer such products better than BOL or Amazon.
  • Own brand/import: An own brand/import gives a head start on the competition and ensures a unique position. While the company name develops less strongly when selling on a marketplace, an own brand can build up recognition and clientele.

Fulfilment

An additional service that BOL and Amazon provide is the complete handling of storage, shipping and return flows. This service is called "Logistics via BOL" or "Fulfilment by Amazon". Companies that sell via this service often even have their own e-commerce site scrapped and focus entirely on selling via the marketplaces. When this happens with products that have sufficient margin, this strategy is scalable; your warehouse and service staff scale with the growth, and you only have to focus on marketing!

Are you as an online business not yet selling via Amazon or BOL? For buyers, a position on these platforms is becoming increasingly important, an extra reason to add these marketplaces to your sales channels. The well-known online business platforms such as Lightspeed and Shopify have various plugins to link your e-commerce site to Amazon and BOL and thus manage the orders in one central place.

Curious which Bol.com sales accounts and Amazon FBA accounts are currently for sale? Check our listings. 

Are you already successfully following the above strategy? Then sell your company on Businessforsale.eu.