Dutch Bol.com launches French website

Last year, the e-commerce markets of various countries have experienced a booming development. As a small country in Europe, the Netherlands has also seen significant growth, represented by local companies such as Albert Heijn and Bol.com.

Bol.com is the main local e-commerce platform, and its online marketplace is also soaring, attracting more and more local sellers. Third-party sellers already account for 60% of all sales on the platform , and the number of sellers has more than doubled in two years, from 20,000 to nearly 50,000.

bol.com has launched a French website in Belgium, targeting French-speaking users in Brussels and Wallonia. Through this new website, they can access all the products on the platform, from electronics to health and home products, in their own language .

In 2020, bol.com launched a French app, which has been downloaded more than 200,000 times so far. According to the company, about half of its French-speaking customers mainly browse Dutch sites, which is why it decided to launch a completely French site.

In addition to bol.com, more and more retailers are beginning to join the e-commerce sales model.

Albert Heijn is a well-known local supermarket chain that now adopts both online and offline sales models, and its local market share has increased from 35% in 2020 to 35.9% . Among the factors that contributed to the growth, in addition to the acquisition of 38 stores of the Deen chain, it also benefited from its online success, with e-commerce currently accounting for 10% of total sales.

Albert Heijn grew its app to more than 3 million monthly users last year , and its flash delivery service is also growing, becoming active in 50 cities in 2021. In autumn 2021, the company also launched an omnichannel subscription service for a fixed annual amount , which offers customers more discounts . More than 300,000 users have subscribed.

Not only focusing on the local market, Albert Heijn also achieved sales of more than 1 billion euros in Belgium . Last year, Albert Heijn opened a total of 76 new stores and renovated 62 stores . The store network in Belgium grew to 65 stores, bringing the company's turnover in Belgium to more than 1 billion euros.

Although far less than big markets like the UK and Germany, Dutch e-commerce is also on the rise, and interested sellers can also pay more attention to local developments.

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