Dutch online marketplace Bol has had a good year: sales increased 8.7 percent, reaching 3.1 billion euros. It also earned more from its own platform sales than all sales partners together, figures show. Bol seems to become more like an online store again, instead of a platform.
Bol is an online marketplace from the Netherlands. It started out as an online store selling books, but quickly grew to become an online department store. It also opened up its marketplace and said that it wanted to take a step back as a seller, and focus on its partner sellers.
Record of 5.9 billion euros in net consumer sales
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However, that seems to have changed. In 2023, research already indicated that sales from Bol’s own brands made up 64 percent of the platform’s total turnover. In that same year, the platform’s trade volume increased 4.9 percent.
In 2024, Bol’s trade volume increased 4.1%
The growth in 2024 came pretty close to that, with 4.1 percent. The company reached a record of 5.9 billion euros in net consumer online sales, which includes partner sales.
Bol grows faster than partners
However, Bol’s turnover (net sales) grew a lot faster than its trading volume in 2024: as mentioned, by 8.7 percent to 3.1 billion euros. This indicates that Bol itself grew faster than its sales partners.
While two years ago, third-party sellers accounted for about two-thirds of Bol’s trading volume (66 per cent in Q2 2023), that is now only barely half. This is caused by the sales of the company’s own brands, which make up most of Bol’s turnover. The company is also increasingly booking more and more revenue from services for partners, like advertising and logistics.
Bol’s amount of sales partners has decreased to 47,000 by the end of 2024
Bol’s parent company, Ahold Delhaize, did not share specific revenue figures for these services in its report. Bol’s amount of sales partners has fallen in recent years: from almost 52,000 in mid-2023, to 47,000 by the end of 2024. During that period, the online platform expanded its advertising possibilities for partners.
Faster growth than Dutch ecommerce market
With its own operations, Bol is not only growing faster than the partners on its platform, but also faster than the market. Last week, Dutch Statistics reported growth of just under 6 percent for online consumer spending in the Netherlands last year. PostNL, of which Bol is the largest customer, recently revealed that large online stores are benefiting the most from the new growth phase in Dutch ecommerce.
High profitability
Bol links the high sales figures to a profit of 185 million euros (underlying EBITDA) in 2024, which is 22 percent more than in the previous year. The profit growth is partly due to top sales in the last quarter (plus 11 percent) and a record number of app users.
‘The company’s increased profibility is related to double-digit revenue growth in advertising’
The company’s CFO Jolanda Poots-Bijl also related the increased profitability to ‘double-digit revenue growth in advertising and a tireless focus on cost management’.
IPO and a new distribution center
After a successful year, speculations about a possible IPO will likely revive. Furthermore, the company seems ready to start construction of a new distribution center in Lelystad, in the Netherlands. This project was previously postponed because of disappointing results.
