Over the past year, the european electric power platform bol has received increasing domestic attention。
Bol is the front-line electrician platform in the hobylu region (netherlands, belgium, luxembourg). The total population of the netherlands is only about 18 million, while the average monthly visitor to bol has reached 18. 8 million. This means that bol almost reached most native dutch consumers。
In recent years, overseas platforms such as shein and temu have entered the netherlands at lower prices and at a faster pace, bringing new changes to the local market。
In 2024, about 1. 4 billion parcels entered the netherlands. According to the netherlands regulatory body, the influx of the shein, temu and fast-seller platforms was the main cause of overloading。
In this new pattern of competition, bol is faced with the loss of third-party sellers and a decline in the share of sellers in gmv. To that end, bol urgently needs a chinese vendor based on the “world factory” supply chain to replenish fresh blood。
In 2025, bol decided to open it to international sellers。
A number of chinese sellers have moved forward and have made some progress。
An intelligent seller from shenzhen achieved a monthly sale of 150,000 euros in six months, representing a rate of 3. 2 per cent. Another make-up seller uses an indigenous business model, with a monthly sale of 80,000 euros。
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Bol hugs international sellers
Bol has a close history with the amazon and was an online retail bookshop in the early years。
Since 2011, bol has gradually been transformed into an integrated retailer's platform, open to local third-party vendors, and the product has gradually been extended to clothing, toys, homes, horticulture and supplies。
Like the amazon, third-party sellers have contributed to the rapid rise in bol sales. Between 2021 and 2023, more than 60 per cent of bol gmv came from third-party sellers。
In recent years, competition in the local market has increased with the successive entry into the netherlands of international electric power platforms, such as amazon, shein and temu, and the gmv share of bol's third-party sellers and their contribution has declined。
The number of third-party vendors in bol decreased from about 52,000 in mid-2023 to about 47,000 by the end of 2024, and the proportion of gmv third-party sellers also fell from 60 per cent to about 50 per cent。
On the one hand, the amazon, through the fba logistics and prime systems, has robbed some of the experienced users of efficient performance and service levels, while on the other hand, shein and temu have taken some of the price-sensitive users at low and high rates。
In particular, the rapid rise of temu and shein has left bol deeply disturbed. In the case of temu, its ranking in the netherlands rose from 37th in 2023 to 8th in 2024。
However, in terms of total consumption on the dutch market, bol still leads well ahead of temu, shein。
According to data from the european business council (ecdb), dutch consumers in 2024 had a total consumption of approximately euro5. 17 billion in bol, ranked first, followed by the amazon netherlands station (3. 7 billion euros), while the fast-seller, shein and temu platforms totalled about euro3. 86 billion。
Bol's basic disk is still there, but in the face of fast-growing laterists such as shein and temu, bol had to adjust。
Bol’s key step is to open up to international sellers, especially to chinese sellers who rely on the “world factory” supply chain. In this way, the sku can be enriched, the value of goods can be increased and its fundamentals protected。
In july 2025, bol began developing its presence with non-eu vendors, including from china, the united states, the united kingdom and india。
For chinese sellers, bol is a platform full of opportunities and challenges。
At present, there are more than 48,000 third-party sellers in bol, most of whom are local european sellers, with less than 10 per cent of chinese sellers, and some chinese sellers who know better how to operate locally, are better able to outperform their performance。
An intelligent vendor from shenzhen, who did not directly replicate domestic products, had introduced smart soundboxes and lighting products to support dutch language control, through local marketing, in collaboration with local porters, and provided door-to-door installation and after-sale services, raising the average monthly sales to more than euro4. 6 million。
A make-up seller in guangzhou, in collaboration with local make-up bloggers, uses free trial clothes to allow users to experience product effects first, while adding anti-age elements to the formulation in line with european consumer preferences. After a year of searching, the seller's monthly sales on bol amounted to euro80,000。
In the case of chinese sellers, attention should be paid to the different recruitment policies of bol and amazon platforms。
Bol does not charge monthly rents, follows a system of “class commissions + fixed fees” with 8-15 per cent commissions per category, e. G. Electronic commissions of 11 per cent, clothing commissions of 12 per cent, and an additional fixed fee of approximately 0. 2-3 euros per order。
In addition, bol imposes stricter requirements for admission and performance services。
First, the applicant must be an enterprise registered for two years, with an annual income of not less than 500,000 euros, and other mainstream electronics platforms in europe (e. G. Amazon, ebay) have sales records for at least 12 months, with an average rating of not less than 4. 2 stars
Second, bol requires all third-party sellers to deliver goods from local european warehouses within three working days, and to provide dutch- and french-language passenger service, to respond within four hours, and to support a return cycle of up to 30 days for up to two working days。
This means that there is a need for strong local capacity to operate in bol for chinese sellers。
Photo from flickr by flickr user.
The european market is in three minutes: the amazon is built, the mainland is secured, the chinese platform is broken
In europe, bol is only a member of a large number of local electrician platforms, many of which are male-to-deer. For example, the french platform for discount electricians, cdiscount, the german platform lidi on the chain of discount supermarkets, have a stable user base in their respective markets。
The amazon, which cuts across european countries, has completed the construction of the “pan-european electrician infrastructure”。
According to data from the european electrician database ecdb, the total size of the amazon gmv in the european market in 2025 was over 200 billion euros, well above ozon, ebay, temu, shein, etc。
Unlike north america, europe is not a single market. There are significant differences in the language, taxation, consumption habits, logistics systems of different countries. This is the very foundation upon which indigenous electrician platforms are based, deeply embedded in their homeland, aware of the needs of their own consumers and firmly controlling their fundamentals。
