Podcast: Mastering strategic selling on bol for the Netherlands and Belgium

July 9, 2026

Reading Time - 2 min

Kamelia Pusheva

Author

In this episode, Lucas Bassa (Marketplaces Product Lead at Channable) sits down with Joost Legebeke (International Growth Specialist at bol) to unpack what it really takes to succeed on the bol marketplace. Together, they explore why bol has become a household name in the Netherlands and Belgium and why it’s one of the most attractive marketplaces in Europe for international sellers.

Joost shares insights into bol’s market dominance, intuitive user experience, and strong partner support, making it an accessible platform even for sellers new to the region. The conversation dives into the logistical realities of selling in the Netherlands, where next-day delivery is the norm, and how Logistics via bol (Lvb) helps international sellers meet local delivery expectations by outsourcing fulfillment to bol’s own warehouses.

The episode also covers bol’s quality-first approach, including the closely monitored growth start period for new sellers, as well as the entry requirements international businesses need to meet. Finally, Lucas and Joost discuss what drives long-term success on bol, from localized, high-quality product content to smart keyword usage and advertising strategies, especially when combined with integrations like Channable.

Whether you’re exploring expansion into the Netherlands and Belgium or looking to optimize your existing bol strategy, this episode offers practical insights straight from the source.

Key Takeaways

Market dominance: bol is the leading marketplace in the Netherlands and Belgium, offering access to a large, highly engaged local audience.
Seller-friendly platform: An intuitive UX and dedicated partner support make it easy to get started and scale.
Fast delivery made simple: Logistics via bol (Lvb)* enables international sellers to meet next-day delivery expectations.
Quality-first onboarding: New sellers go through a monitored growth start period, with the first 100 orders reviewed for quality and service.
Clear entry requirements: Sellers must be established EU businesses with an EU VAT number and proven revenue potential.
Content drives performance: Localized, high-quality product content, strong keyword usage, and advertising are key to success—especially when paired with tools like Channable.

Learn more about ads on bol

Listen to the complete episode:

Read transcript

Participants: Lucas (Channable) & Joost (bol)

00:00:00:20 - 00:00:26:08

Lucas

All right. Welcome, Joost, to the new Marketplace Growth Podcast. We’ll be discussing

marketplaces to find out which ones are interesting for our sellers. We have a bit of history

together, but more on that later. To give a brief introduction: I’m Lucas, Product Lead for

Marketplaces at Channable.

00:00:26:10 - 00:00:39:03

Lucas

And, yeah, we get a lot of questions about where to sell next because there are so many

marketplaces, so many options. And this podcast aims to, to answer that question. So over to

you, Joost.

00:00:39:05 - 00:01:02:12

Joost

Thanks, Lucas. It’s very nice to sit next to you again for a podcast. I’m currently working at bol,

responsible for acquiring new international sellers suitable for our ecosystem.

00:01:02:14 - 00:01:23:24

Lucas

Yeah. And today I want to figure out, like, why should you sell on bol? Because I know, in the

Netherlands, it's a household name, right. Everyone knows bol. Everyone has purchased on bol.

But as you mentioned, you're also attracting international sellers. Who might not know bol that

well. Yeah. So I want to start there.

00:01:24:01 - 00:01:29:14

Lucas

Why should non-Netherlands sellers sell on bol?

00:01:29:16 - 00:01:52:07

Joost

And why start? Why start on bol, and that's something that I always need to explain also to, to

the international sellers that I speak with now, and, of course, there are a couple of reasons to

do this. Also, to give you a bit of background, how big is international selling via bol.

00:01:52:09 - 00:02:15:13

Joost

That's maybe why you are listening now and are being like: hey, I wanted to sell on bol, but it

was not possible. Yeah. That's true. Two years ago, it was not possible. Right now it is possible.

Right. So it's quite easy. But you have to show that you are a professional on marketplaces,

which already has a proven track record in other international places.

00:02:15:15 - 00:02:18:06

Lucas

And why is that?

00:02:18:08 - 00:02:42:07

Joost

Let's go back to that one later, and so why sell bol? Because we are the number one

marketplace in the Netherlands and in Belgium. Yeah. So you might be a German seller, Polish

seller, or aFrench seller that wants to expand their business. Yeah. Then you could think of, of

course, the Cdiscount in France.

00:02:42:07 - 00:02:43:00

Lucas

Or of Kaufland..

00:02:43:00 - 00:03:16:15

Joost

Kaufland, Allegro. But what, what people should consider is, I think bol. I'm selling bol. So I think

they know the diagram, concrete statistics that that proves that that bol makes sense to think

about, because we are the second most efficient local marketplace in Europe. Yeah. So they

might be selling on Amazon, which sounds, logical, right, to sell on Amazon if you're active in

France or Germany.

00:03:16:17 - 00:03:36:09

Joost

Then Amazon is the place to go because they are way dominant. And then you have to

consider, hey, I want to expand further, and I want to get rid of the high competition, not a

marketplace that ruins your margins and your profits and your margins. Then, usually, what

most of the German sellers think of ..

00:03:36:11 - 00:04:02:15

Joost

I should take a look at Kaufland and Otto. Yeah, but what we really see in the data is that we

have three times more visitors on a monthly basis than, for example, Kaufland, in Germany, has.

Or Cdiscount in France. So I, I'm what I'm saying I'm, I'm trying to say is that you might think of

local marketplaces that are in your region.

00:04:02:15 - 00:04:10:19

Joost

Right. Yeah. But that may not be the most attractive ones if you want to grow your revenue for

profit.

00:04:10:19 - 00:04:36:03

Lucas

Yeah. Because I can also imagine if you're already selling in Germany, then bol is potentially a

completely new market, with new consumers who do not buy in Germany. So they're buying in

the Netherlands. Also. So prevalent. And is it also, is there also a benefit that this pops up in my

mind right now? Because in the Netherlands, I remember helping Dutch companies' scale in

France five years ago.

00:04:36:03 - 00:04:51:02

Lucas

It was quite hard because France is so spread out. You have all these, rural places where,

delivery is quite hard to, to do fast and do right. And the Netherlands, it's nice and compact.

Yeah, I know, because I can go to the top of the Netherlands in two hours.

00:04:51:03 - 00:04:51:18

Joost

Yeah.

00:04:51:20 - 00:04:57:11

Lucas

I don't prefer to do so, but, you know, it's logistic-wise. It's also quite nice, I can imagine.

00:04:57:11 - 00:05:19:18

Joost

Yeah. The region. And that's why, once you. Yeah. If you locate your stock near the Netherlands

or in the Netherlands, then you can, then it's easy to, to provide a one-day delivery time and

next-day delivery. Yeah. Which is really critical to achieve success at bol. That's also, of course,

benefits. And, and.

00:05:19:20 - 00:05:49:15

Joost

Yeah. What we also conduct research with our international sellers, that, or I have to say,

international partners, but yeah, who are selling on the platform. And what, what we see back is

that they of course, they like that. We have a lot of customers on the platform. Yeah. So that's

number one. But when it, when, when I once, we dive into their responses, then we also see

that they really appreciate the ease of doing business with bol.

00:05:49:17 - 00:06:04:20

Joost

I think I was, I mean, because you and I have been working on marketplaces as consultants.

Yeah. So we worked, back in the days, together with our brands like Marcel’s Green Soap and

Rituals.

00:06:04:22 - 00:06:05:19

Lucas

Yeah.

00:06:05:21 - 00:06:36:13

Joost

Any, any other kind of brands to, to be selling on, to help them selling on any kind of

marketplace. And what I experienced is that bol is really easy, to, yeah, to optimize setup, to

optimize and to, to do your stuff in comparison to other marketplaces, you know. Yeah. Once we

have a problem, we just call or partnerships team that's supporting for selling for, for quite

accessible.

00:06:36:15 - 00:06:37:11

Lucas

Yeah. For sure.

00:06:37:13 - 00:06:54:09

Joost

Or we do a chat and, yeah, "Hey, something's gone wrong." Then you get really not somebody

from India, not really skilled, but you get a really high-skilled person on the chat. And that really

helps.

00:06:54:11 - 00:07:01:17

Lucas

That helps you unblock without having to go through, you know, a five-back-and-forth for a

typical and easy problem.

00:07:01:17 - 00:07:24:02

Joost

So the ease of doing business is, I think, way better than most comparable ones. For example, I

always give this example just to give you an idea. I mean, I worked at some marketplace

consultants and you should think that should be easy for you, but creating... sometimes it's

really hard on a big marketplace.

00:07:24:02 - 00:07:28:01

Joost

eah. I won't mention it too often, but to create a variation...

00:07:28:01 - 00:07:29:21

Lucas

Yeah. Yeah.

00:07:29:23 - 00:07:50:05

Joost

Yeah, it needs an Excel sheet. You need to do everything right. If there's one error in your Excel

sheet, everything will be ruined. It takes it... it can take days, yeah, weeks. Sometimes you really

have to stop working on it because it just cannot... it's...

00:07:50:07 - 00:07:51:20

Lucas

It just wears you out a bit and...

00:07:51:20 - 00:08:04:17

Joost

Then you create cases, etc., and then nobody can help you. On bol, creating a product family is

two clicks. Yeah. And it always works. And if it's not working, give us a call. Yeah, we will help

you out.

00:08:04:22 - 00:08:24:03

Lucas

Yeah. It's quite, quite easy. So, I second that and I think, on the Channable side, we've also

noticed that it's, you know, you work with an API, and it could occasionally be that a marketplace

is very easy to set up, but the API is outdated or it's hard to then automate parts of the process.

00:08:24:03 - 00:08:51:20

Lucas

And bol is quite good at providing the things to have in the tool also in the API. So Channable

can build on that. So I think you mentioned two things: it's really easy to use as a platform, it's

intuitive, the UX is nice, and it's also a surprisingly big marketplace in terms of audience,

visitors, and potential revenue in all categories.

00:08:51:20 - 00:08:54:16

Lucas

And that proves through a good economy in the Netherlands.

00:08:54:21 - 00:09:15:22

Joost

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, compared to, for example, Poland, because I said that we are the second

most visited local marketplace in Europe. Yeah, the first one is Allegro, but Allegro... the selling

price is way lower than, of course, in the Netherlands, because in the Netherlands, yeah, we

have...

00:09:15:22 - 00:09:16:20

Lucas

We sure do. Yes.

00:09:16:20 - 00:09:33:09

Joost

Yeah. We have more to spend. Yeah. I want to say something else. You know, I always tell

sellers—and now it's a bit hard to tell sellers that because I'm already working at bol...

00:09:33:09 - 00:09:34:06

Lucas

You're not independent anymore.

00:09:34:06 - 00:09:56:18

Joost

I'm not independent anymore. But when I advised sellers back in the day to review a provider,

then I always told them, "Okay, you should think about when you make strategic decisions, you

have to think about impact and effort." Yeah. And I think, okay, of course, if you want to generate

a lot of revenue...

00:09:56:18 - 00:10:18:02

Joost

Yeah, you should be on Amazon maybe. Yeah. Because it's a really dominant player in Europe.

But then also you have to think about how much profit are you going to... Yeah, revenue will be

maybe easy, but profit will be hard. But let's say, okay, that's a big impact maybe, but also really

a lot of struggle, so also high effort.

00:10:18:02 - 00:10:39:08

Joost

So when I think you are probably already active on Amazon, what I think that you should do is

take a look at other marketplaces and take a look at: "Okay, this is a medium impact but low

effort." Yeah. On the bol side, a lot of things are already well arranged.

00:10:39:08 - 00:10:40:10

Joost

And if there is a problem.

00:10:40:10 - 00:11:02:14

Lucas

Yeah, yeah. And especially now these days, if you've already set up an Amazon or another

local marketplace and you have optimized the data for that marketplace, yeah, you can easily,

you know, with minor tweaks and translations, prepare for bol. Yeah. You know, that's the main

use case we see at Channable for marketplaces.

00:11:02:15 - 00:11:20:12

Lucas

You know, you set up one channel, you like what you're seeing, you're making some revenue,

and you want to scale to another local marketplace or a bigger European marketplace. And

that's quite easy to do. What I also would like to know is...

00:11:20:14 - 00:11:37:12

Joost

Maybe one side note. Yeah. I mean, because now it looks like, "Okay, just a few clicks and then

you sell more." Yeah. I want to say just to all sellers that are listening, I know what you're

thinking right now because you hear this guy sitting here thinking it's too easy, but...

00:11:37:12 - 00:11:37:19

Lucas

Yeah.

00:11:37:24 - 00:11:53:24

Joost

I know you have to translate your content. Yeah. We are supporting, in some way too, with

some automation—AI automation—when it comes to product categories. And I know you also

have to arrange your logistics to the Netherlands.

00:11:54:00 - 00:11:55:03

Lucas

And that was my next question.

00:11:55:03 - 00:11:56:15

Joost

Okay. Yeah.

00:11:56:17 - 00:12:25:16

Lucas

You mowed the grass in front of my feet. Okay. No, I was asking because Amazon is quite good

at having the fulfilment network to make it a bit more accessible. Yeah. I was wondering if

there's anything bol does, aside from making it easier to set up bol for international sellers to

kind of get started without, you know, having a two-to-five-day delivery time?

00:12:25:16 - 00:12:32:18

Lucas

Because Dutch consumers—speaking for myself as well—I'm a bit spoiled in that sense. I don't

want to wait for seven days. So is there something you do to help sellers?

00:12:32:20 - 00:13:01:07

Joost

Yeah. A lot of things that you're saying, and it's a good question because it's a really critical

question to be successful in that sense. Delivery and logistics is crucial in the Netherlands to a

certain range. Why? Because you and all the other customers expect next-day delivery. And of

course, some critical guys in the room can say, "Okay, I don't want it next day, but I want to have

it at the perfect moment that I want."

00:13:01:07 - 00:13:25:11

Joost

Okay, we know that, but most of the time they want that fast, or on an ideal time. So that's

important. So arranging that from Germany, France, from wherever you are, that can be hard.

00:13:25:11 - 00:13:51:05

Joost

And starting on bol with a five-day delivery time is okay... it makes sense. Yeah. Because I will

explain later that you have to go through a kind of assessment.

But if you really think, "Okay, this brand should be successful in the Netherlands," people should

arrange next-day delivery. And then we have some logistical services that we offer ourselves,

and this is Logistics via bol (LvB).

00:13:51:08 - 00:13:55:04

Joost

Okay, then you can store your stock at bol,

00:13:55:06 - 00:14:00:17

Lucas

Similar to programs you might already know. Yeah. Yeah. You give stock, you put it at bol.

00:14:00:17 - 00:14:05:13

Joost

Yeah. You ship your pellets to our fulfillment center.

00:14:05:15 - 00:14:07:12

Lucas

Yeah, near Waalwijk.

00:14:07:14 - 00:14:08:11

Joost

Yeah. Well.

00:14:10:11 - 00:14:25:05

Joost

And, yeah... we have some other... I was not involved with the main warehouse. But yeah, you

ship it to the fulfilment centre of bol. And then once it's ordered, bol ships it for you.

00:14:25:05 - 00:14:27:09

Lucas

And the last mile. Yeah.

00:14:27:13 - 00:14:37:03

Joost

And again, now I work at bol, but as a independence, consultant, I always said, like, there is

nobody else better in shipping. Online orders, to customers.

00:14:37:04 - 00:14:37:16

Lucas

Yeah, yeah.

00:14:37:16 - 00:14:40:10

Joost

You know, we are the best in the Netherlands and Belgium.

00:14:40:11 - 00:15:07:11

Lucas

The biggest network. It's always beneficial to use that because also, it's just a lot less stress for

sellers. Yeah. Because I think what you mentioned just now about the initial assessment... you

know, I've set up a lot of bol accounts in my time, and I know what it's about, but maybe good for

international sellers... You know, they're convinced by the visitors and the ease of setup.

00:15:07:15 - 00:15:20:01

Lucas

Yeah. They want to start selling on bol. What does that process look like, roughly from, you

know, having the interest to having your product online?

00:15:20:03 - 00:15:36:01

Joost

Yeah. There are a couple of steps that you need to take. Maybe to go one step back—so, there

are some requirements before you start. Requirements for bol. So first...

00:15:36:03 - 00:15:38:07

Lucas

You need to be an established seller. You mentioned in the beginning.

00:15:38:07 - 00:15:52:08

Joost

Right. So what that really means is that we have a couple of criteria. Set up. And it's in these

that you, at least you, should be able to answer a question because. Yeah.

00:15:52:10 - 00:15:52:22

Lucas

Okay.

00:15:52:22 - 00:15:57:24

Joost

And you should be able to write messages back to customers in Dutch.

00:15:58:00 - 00:15:58:10

Lucas

Okay.

00:15:58:10 - 00:15:59:15

Joost

But that's..

00:15:59:17 - 00:16:00:21

Lucas

That's a translation thing.

00:16:00:21 - 00:16:09:18

Joost

Right? That's a translation. Okay. And we know that for English responses, we automatically

translate that. Okay.

00:16:09:24 - 00:16:10:20

Lucas

Yeah.

00:16:10:22 - 00:16:31:14

Joost

We're working on more features for that. Nice. You need to have successful marketplace shops

in Europe already. And what successful means is... because we want sellers on board that at

least have... 100k? Or 1 million? Yeah, revenue potential on bol.

00:16:31:18 - 00:16:33:13

Lucas

Yeah. Okay. And that's a year.

00:16:33:15 - 00:16:38:13

Joost

In 12 months. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And 12 months. So from starting, in 12 months.

00:16:38:15 - 00:16:39:17

Lucas

Okay.

00:16:39:19 - 00:16:48:03

Joost

So, yeah. Then you need to do... you need to have already a lot of reviews on other

marketplaces.

00:16:48:05 - 00:16:53:19

Lucas

And what revenue do they need to do on the marketplace? Is there a minimum or is it just

about the potential?

00:16:53:21 - 00:16:55:06

Joost

Like we say, 1 million?

00:16:55:06 - 00:16:56:16

Lucas

Okay.

00:16:56:18 - 00:17:01:13

Joost

Basically, but that's—it really depends if the product really fits our market.

00:17:01:17 - 00:17:05:19

Lucas

Yeah. So it's unique. It adds something to your platform.

00:17:05:21 - 00:17:13:03

Joost

We see this is maybe equivalent to Rituals, but then a better price, for example. Yeah.

00:17:13:03 - 00:17:13:12

Lucas

Okay.

00:17:13:12 - 00:17:24:11

Joost

Yeah, yeah. Then we see: "Okay, this is really adding value to our marketplace. This is

something that's really filling a gap." That's okay. And then...

00:17:24:13 - 00:17:47:06

Lucas

You can have a conversation. Yeah. So it's more about—you can already show that you're

capable in selling on other channels. So you know a bit about e-commerce. Yeah. So you know,

the hobbyist—is not with any disrespect, you know—but there's a lot of small sellers who are

quite successful, but you're looking at more the established seller.

00:17:47:06 - 00:17:56:09

Lucas

Yeah. Small to medium-sized businesses that, you know, already know quite a bit about selling

through. Then they get in contact with you.

00:17:56:11 - 00:18:00:24

Joost

Yeah. So, there are some more requirements. Oh, by the way.

00:18:00:24 - 00:18:01:21

Lucas

You weren't,

00:18:01:23 - 00:18:03:11

Joost

No, no, I was not done with that.

00:18:03:11 - 00:18:04:24

Lucas

Okay. What's the rest?

00:18:05:01 - 00:18:16:19

Joost

So, yeah. You should be... for now on bol—so we are extending this program, but for now on,

you should have a registered company.

00:18:16:19 - 00:18:17:03

Lucas

Okay.

00:18:17:03 - 00:18:23:24

Joost

Yeah. So that means that you need to be registered in the country... Yeah. You need the EU

VAT number.

00:18:23:24 - 00:18:25:12

Lucas

Okay.

00:18:25:14 - 00:18:32:09

Joost

That makes sense. If you're in... indeed, stock should be...

00:18:32:11 - 00:18:33:05

Lucas

No drop shippers?

00:18:33:09 - 00:18:35:07

Joost

No, the stock should be from the EU.

00:18:35:07 - 00:18:35:17

Lucas

Okay.

00:18:35:23 - 00:18:45:20

Joost

So the order should be shipped from a location in the EU, and also the returns should be

processed from a location in an EU country.

00:18:45:20 - 00:18:49:03

Lucas

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it makes sense. Okay.

00:18:49:05 - 00:19:01:01

Joost

And there was one more, I guess. Yeah. One more is that you need to work either with our New

Business Development team—so that's a team that can personally guide you...

00:19:01:01 - 00:19:03:04

Lucas

Okay. Available from bol.

00:19:03:05 - 00:19:23:02

Joost

Yeah, yeah, but that's for all sellers. So then you need way more sales potential. So then we say

you need a sales potential of 500k, okay, in the first 12 months. So then you should also think

about more mature, more revenue-generating sellers. Or you should work with one of our

ecosystem parties.

00:19:23:04 - 00:19:25:18

Lucas

And that’s - that's you.

00:19:25:20 - 00:19:41:00

Joost

Yeah. You are actually one of the partners indeed that we work with. So then that's what I want

to say about the ecosystem. So we have a lot of, for example, agencies and integrators that we

are working with.

00:19:41:00 - 00:19:42:00

Lucas

Tools.

00:19:42:02 - 00:19:57:03

Joost

And tools, we work closely together with you, Channable, but also other integrators and

agencies that help us with onboarding sellers.

00:19:57:03 - 00:20:11:24

Lucas

So—okay. Yeah. So they take a bit of that work from you in onboarding sellers. Yeah. Because,

you know, it has a higher—it's better to do it with the right integrator or it's just more that you

don't have to do the hand-holding based.

00:20:12:03 - 00:20:35:08

Joost

Indeed, because it's not scalable to do so for everybody one-on-one, and you already know your

clients really well. So that's why we see that you offer a great product to your clients that

actually help also with seamlessly integrating and starting with bol. And that's why we created

this program.

00:20:35:08 - 00:20:54:20

Joost

So we give kind of the keys to you. Yeah. And you say, "Okay, if you see that the seller is really

doing well and you know what we are looking for," then you can let us know and we will give you

a link to create that account for you.

00:20:54:21 - 00:20:55:23

Joost

Yeah. For yourself.

00:20:56:01 - 00:21:19:16

Lucas

So that's—so either you if you're a big potential player, and otherwise an ecosystem partner.

Yeah. And then you have your account. You have it approved. Right. Those steps, I don't think

we have to explain. It's just about account approval. Then you start selling. Yeah. Maybe good

to—because I know a bit about it, but I'm not sure if it's different for international sellers. Yeah,

but what happens with the rating and the assessment? Like, how does that work?

00:21:26:24 - 00:21:41:11

Joost

So that's a really important step. So, we have a "Growth Start" period—we call it like this. And in

that period we will assess 100 orders, okay, on the quality because we want...

00:21:41:13 - 00:21:42:16

Lucas

The first 100. Right?

00:21:42:16 - 00:22:04:12

Joost

Yeah, first 100. Yeah. We want to prevent that sellers harm the customer experience and

customers think, "Hey, what is this? Not a quality that I would expect from bol." Of course we

don't want that because we want return customers and to serve our customers always in the

best way.

00:22:04:13 - 00:22:06:16

Lucas

Yeah. Makes sense.

00:22:06:18 - 00:22:09:18

Joost

So then you want to be assessed on the first 100 orders?

00:22:09:18 - 00:22:14:01

Lucas

And what? What do you look for? Of course, the delivery time. Yeah, that is met.

00:22:14:04 - 00:22:34:11

Joost

Indeed. Yeah. So, on-time delivery... I think at the top of my head... basically, it's about delivery.

It's about right now, cancellations and the number of customer questions.

00:22:34:13 - 00:23:01:21

Lucas

Okay. Oh, yeah, I remember actually, it's about—if you get questions about shipping, I don't

think that was included—but questions about the products. Right. Because you can have a

product and if it really misaligns with the product description and the title and stuff like that, you

know, that's a sign that the product is a bit... it's not matching with the audience. Or hey, if the

size is wrong, or you were selling it as being pink and I received a blue one.

00:23:01:21 - 00:23:03:02

Lucas

And I received a blue one.

00:23:03:02 - 00:23:14:11

Joost

Yeah. Blue. And I'm actually looking for the other factors, but maybe I can come back to that

later. You can always find content on partnerplatform.bol.com.

00:23:14:11 - 00:23:18:23

Lucas

Well, that's—we'll just link that in the show notes. You can do that. Yeah. Right.

00:23:19:00 - 00:23:21:20

Joost

Because I don't want to give you the wrong information.

00:23:22:01 - 00:23:30:17

Lucas

Fine. But to round up the onboarding period: you do your assessment, you have your first

hundred orders, you...

00:23:30:19 - 00:23:53:11

Joost

Yeah, then what happens? Then you're going to be approved. Yeah. Approved. You get a check,

a nice threshold, and then you scale. You can scale and you just have the regular service norms

that you need to manage. Or, we say, "Okay, this is not good enough." We give you a second

period.

00:23:53:13 - 00:23:58:04

Lucas

Yeah. Okay. So you can—and then you can tweak. You have some learnings from the first

period. Yeah.

00:23:58:04 - 00:24:14:24

Joost

And then you have a third period. Yeah. So if then that's still not okay, not good enough, then

you have the third period. And also the third period—if you still didn't manage to perform well

enough...

00:24:15:01 - 00:24:16:05

Lucas

Yeah.

00:24:16:07 - 00:24:17:24

Joost

Then your account will be closed.

00:24:17:24 - 00:24:22:14

Lucas

Okay. So you get three tries, basically. Yeah. Okay. So that's—

00:24:22:16 - 00:24:28:13

Joost

So that's why I'm saying, of course, the fulfilment is really important. Yeah, fits in the starting

periods.

00:24:28:15 - 00:24:46:01

Lucas

Yeah. Don't take a risk, saying so again, to too narrow and then not meeting your—Okay. But I

think this is really valuable for sellers to prepare because that's what we find: that preparation is

half of the work. Right.

00:24:46:02 - 00:24:46:22

Joost

Yeah. Yeah.

00:24:46:24 - 00:25:05:09

Lucas

So this is nice. Maybe to round up the conversation: is there like a success or an example story

from the top of your head? Yeah. Where you can drive learnings from where this worked out

pretty well.

00:25:05:09 - 00:25:10:05

Joost

Certainly. I have two tips in my mind. Okay. Maybe do that in the end.

00:25:10:07 - 00:25:11:19

Lucas

Yeah. Let's do them now. Yeah. Yeah.

00:25:11:20 - 00:25:19:10

Joost

Okay. Because, efficient from memory.So, as concrete tips... some really concrete tips.

00:25:19:10 - 00:25:20:16

Lucas

Yeah.

00:25:20:18 - 00:25:42:20

Joost

I'm talking about business cases, right? Yeah. You want to think about: "Okay, bol. It's a nice big

platform, but how is that for my category? For PC mice?" Yeah, I'm saying that. How big is that

market? Yeah. You really need to know this before you're going to invest in all kinds of things to

prepare, to be ready to sell on bol.

00:25:42:21 - 00:25:59:07

Joost

So that's why I would advise to check tools like Market Mentor. And there are a couple of

others, but yeah, we see that Market Mentor is doing great work. And Market Mentor is an

external tool.

00:25:59:09 - 00:26:01:21

Lucas

Similar to Similarweb and those tools.

00:26:02:00 - 00:26:04:20

Joost

Yes. Similar to Jungle Scout. Okay.

00:26:04:24 - 00:26:05:19

Lucas

Yeah.

00:26:05:21 - 00:26:12:19

Joost

And Helium 10. And then you can actually find out an estimation about how many visitors

search for you.

00:26:12:21 - 00:26:14:18

Lucas

Many visitors search for you.

00:26:14:19 - 00:26:32:17

Joost

Yeah. So I also refer you—so you can even see how big, how much revenue is within this

category. Then you can think about it like we did as consultants. We said, "Okay, now we expect

that you can gain 10% of the market because your product quality is good and your price is

good."

00:26:32:17 - 00:26:54:00

Joost

Yeah. And then you can think about: "If we get 10% of the market, then this is that much

revenue." And let's say that we have a 20% margin. 20% margin. Yeah. And there is X amount

of money that's going to be generated via the platform. Okay. That's one tip.

00:26:54:02 - 00:26:54:08

Lucas

Okay.

00:26:54:08 - 00:27:09:13

Joost

One other tip is—and we have some patents on something like that—LvB, because for

example, with Logistics via bol, you cannot ship orders from your website to a Dutch customer.

00:27:09:15 - 00:27:11:22

Lucas

So just bol orders.

00:27:11:24 - 00:27:24:16

Joost

Indeed. Yeah. So no multi-channel fulfilment like other marketplaces might offer. So then that

might make maybe a pain for you to ship it to the...

00:27:24:18 - 00:27:37:12

Lucas

In the instance where you want to also have your web shop available in bol. Yeah. But you're

still... in that case, of course, if you put it at the warehouses, at the bol warehouses, you're kind

of reserving it for only bol. Okay. Yeah. Check.

00:27:37:15 - 00:27:48:12

Joost

We had at some time... so that's a pain for logistics usually. Yeah. Well then I would say also

take a look at maybe external fulfillment providers within the network.

00:27:48:12 - 00:27:49:20

Lucas

Okay.

00:27:49:22 - 00:27:52:13

Joost

Like Logistics.nl is one of our partners.

00:27:52:15 - 00:27:55:15

Lucas

Check. All right. Okay.

00:27:55:17 - 00:27:58:16

Joost

About the success story.

00:27:58:18 - 00:28:04:08

Lucas

Yeah, a short one, like a short success story that speaks...

00:28:04:10 - 00:28:16:02

Joost

And I just found a seller that is doing really great on bol, that's also using Channable. It's GBS

Milano.

00:28:16:04 - 00:28:19:23

Lucas

Is it based in Milan?

00:28:20:00 - 00:28:21:12

Joost

It's Italian.

00:28:21:14 - 00:28:23:12

Lucas

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Good. That's good.

00:28:23:12 - 00:28:37:13

Joost

I guess so. They are brand owners. Yeah. They were already selling really successfully on other

marketplaces. And what we see is that they're also really doing great on bol right now.

00:28:37:16 - 00:28:39:16

Lucas

What do they sell? What kind of products?

00:28:39:18 - 00:28:43:09

Joost

Yeah, it's air fresheners.

00:28:43:12 - 00:28:45:05

Lucas

Okay. But why are they so successful?

00:28:45:05 - 00:29:11:03

Joost

What I see is that they offer a really short delivery time. And they offer really good product

content. Yeah. And I think the product quality is also great because it gets a lot of positive

reviews. But I think: short delivery time, great content with good keywords, and yeah... product

quality that is being appreciated.

00:29:11:03 - 00:29:18:24

Joost

That's why they are really successful.

00:29:19:01 - 00:29:52:04

Lucas

Yeah, it's just like—what you're saying makes sense to me because, you know, I've been a

marketplace consultant and we've always hammered on content. You know, don't forget about

good keywords, good titles, descriptions, images. But I think it's a good one, maybe as a way to

round off the conversation: if you're going to expand to a new marketplace like bol and you're

thinking about the operational side of things—pricing, fulfillment, like you mentioned, delivery

times, delivery promises as well

00:29:52:06 - 00:30:03:18

Lucas

do not forget about content. You're going to a different locale, a different language. Yeah. Adjust

not only your written content, but also your images. Right. There's a lot of text on pictures.

00:30:03:22 - 00:30:04:22

Joost

Yeah.

00:30:04:24 - 00:30:09:07

Lucas

Translated to Dutch. It should be possible.

00:30:09:09 - 00:30:12:08

Joost

Definitely with tools like Channable.

00:30:12:10 - 00:30:33:06

Lucas

Yeah. Generally, that's maybe a good thing to mention, but also, we have an image editor. Oh,

that you can create infographics with, even. Yeah, it's the creatives module and it has it's, it's

going to be available for marketplace use as well.

So you can make infographics there and automatically translate them to Dutch.

00:30:33:12 - 00:31:02:02

Lucas

Yeah. Or German or whatever language. Okay. But yeah, I think to me it's clear that bol is sort of

like a still-hidden gem. But the second biggest local marketplace, right? It's in a very healthy

economy—the Dutch economy is great. Also, access to Belgium and French-speaking Belgium.

It's accessible, surprisingly accessible, for users.

00:31:02:04 - 00:31:12:18

Lucas

It's very well integrated within Channable. Also, you know, I'm from Channable, so it's easy for

me to say that. But, you know, I've been a user for far longer than I've worked here. Yeah.

00:31:12:23 - 00:31:17:12

Joost

What else is nice is that you also have an advertising tool, right? That makes...

00:31:17:12 - 00:31:19:14

Lucas

Yeah, you can manage ads—advertising now.

00:31:19:18 - 00:31:22:03

Joost

More efficient and effective to advertise.

00:31:22:09 - 00:31:49:10

Lucas

Exactly. Yeah. And, yeah, you have a way... because what you're saying about

requirements—yeah, it might sound like, "Oh, we need to meet a lot of requirements to start

selling," but it also means that other sellers have these requirements as well. Yeah. So you're

kind of keeping the platform healthy. You're avoiding a lot of excess products that do not really

add value for users.

00:31:49:10 - 00:31:56:15

Lucas

Yeah. And that translates into a certain user base that also looks for quality products. So if

you're listening...

00:31:56:15 - 00:32:01:03

Joost

Those requirements sound maybe... yeah, okay... if you are a professional company, you'll meet

them. Yeah, mostly you'll meet them. Yeah.

00:32:07:01 - 00:32:14:03

Lucas

But it's good that there are requirements in place, because if there weren't, there would just be a

lot of poor-quality products.

00:32:14:05 - 00:32:30:23

Joost

Yeah. And that's why we want to serve our customers in the best way. Yeah. So we need to

make sure of that. So that's maybe a good way to end this, because maybe you might be

interested in selling via bol. Yeah.

00:32:30:23 - 00:32:52:17

Joost

Personally, I think the fastest track is to reach out to one of your Customer Success Managers

at Channable, if you are the seller that's interested, or to get in contact with somebody at

Channable to show your interest. And from there on, you will help them further, right?

00:32:52:19 - 00:33:12:00

Lucas

Yeah, yeah. All right. Yeah, we'll post... there will be links and all that stuff, it will be hard to miss.

Okay. Yes. Thank you for joining. Yeah. Thank you for discussing bol. And I'm curious to hear if

there's going to be a bit of a flood of new non-Dutch sellers in the Q4 period.

00:33:12:00 - 00:33:21:00

Lucas

I think it is a great way to start your career on bol. Yeah. Thanks. And I hope this was useful.

Kamelia Pusheva

Author

Kamelia Pusheva is a Demand Generation Manager at Channable, passionate about building marketing that balances strategy, creativity, and impact. She focuses on demand generation initiatives that educate and engage B2B SaaS audiences, collaborating closely with brand, product marketing, and sales to turn ideas into campaigns that drive measurable growth.

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