What are the most popular marketplaces and web shops in the Netherlands? Where is the best place to sell your products?
By Milo Zwemmer
Posted on 12 March, 2022
With all the possible options you have nowadays to start selling your products on, it is sometimes a bit difficult to decide on which to start or expand your e-commerce business.
In this article we have listed some of the most popular options within the Netherlands and try to inform you enough so that you can be sure which sales channel you should expand your business to.
Popular marketplaces within the Netherlands
One of the most important factors for marketplaces is the amount of visitors.
According to a study by Shopping Tomorrow, some 73% of all Dutch consumers start their search for a product on a large marketplace like Bol.com or Amazon.
They do this because they have usually been successful there before in finding the requested product. So they no longer start their search on Google.
This is an important trend for e-commerce entrepreneurs to capitalize on. A webshop is good, but don't miss out on sales by not also offering products on a marketplace.
We will now cover some of the most popular marketplaces in the Netherlands.
1. Bol.com
Bol.com is one of the largest sales platform options within the Netherlands. With over 10 million consumers and more than 20 thousand sellers, it is impossible to imagine the Dutch e-commerce landscape without this marketplace. Getting started on Bol.com is fairly simple and free of charge. At Bol.com you pay commissions on your sales, but in return you get a lot.
Want to know more about the cost of selling on Bol? Then read our previous blog where we dissect and explain these costs. The cost of selling on Bol.com: https://fivex.nl/kostenberekening-bol
2. Amazon (Netherlands)
Amazon is, of course, one of the best-known superpowers in e-commerce. Yet Amazon has only been active in the Netherlands since 2020. In the past 2 years, Amazon Netherlands has taken a big position and its consumer and seller numbers are still growing every day. The biggest advantage of selling on Amazon is that the step to an international business is made a little easier. Amazon has an international reach of about 300 million consumers.
Want to know more about the cost of selling on Amazon Netherlands? Then read our previous blog where we dissect and explain these costs. The cost of selling on Amazon: https://fivex.nl/amazon-inzichten
3. Beslist.nl
If you really want to focus purely on the Dutch market, Beslist.nl is also a good option in addition to Bol.com. This marketplace manages to attract more than 4 million consumers looking for a product every month. Beslist.nl is a comparison site that compares products from different marketplaces and sales channels. So if you already have a webshop, this can be an interesting option to also list your products so you can compete with sellers who sell on Bol.com or Amazon.
4. Kaufland
Through Kaufland you sell products on Germany's largest and fastest growing marketplace. This marketplace has grown so much in recent years that even many Dutch people have heard of it. If only the Netherlands is your target group then you should go for another marketplace, but if you also want to reach German-speaking countries then Kaufland is the solution. With 32 million monthly visitors this marketplace is a real crowd puller for your products.
5. eBay
eBay is an auction site for offering new or used items. eBay is also a global powerhouse in the e-commerce world and has been available in the Netherlands for a long time. Because of the accessibility of this platform, there is a mega wide range of different products available. With over 147 million active consumers, eBay gives a nice reach for your (and 17 million other active sellers) products.
6. VidaXL
Another fast-growing sales platform is VidaXL. VidaXL sells everything for in and around the house. If your product falls into this category, then this Marketplace might be the right choice for you. With over 120 million unique visitors per year who are specifically looking for products for in and around the house, you can be sure that your product reaches the right audience here.
7. Fruugo
Fruugo is a sales channel from Britain with as many as 25 million active users. Fruugo was created for international sales and helps entrepreneurs do just that. For example, the platform automates the translation of product information and the conversion of different currencies. Because of the amount of sellers on Fruugo, the selection is vast and very unique. This is also what they strive for, saying their mission is to simplify buying products from around the world. They want to offer a wide choice with the freedom to store safely wherever you are, wherever you want, in one global marketplace.
Popular webshop builders in the Netherlands
If you do not want to use a sales platform for any reason, then an own webshop is the perfect solution for you.
To realize such an own webshop there are several options. We will briefly review all major webshop options within the Netherlands. This way you will know which builder is right for you.
1. Magento
Magento is a webshop builder from Adobe. Magento is perfect for the somewhat larger webshops because of its scalability. In total completeness, Magento allows you to customize your webshop in terms of appearance, functionality and content. All this makes Magento perfect for companies that want to be at the forefront of their market.
2. PrestaShop
PrestaShop is an efficient solution for quickly setting up and personalizing a web shop. With the ready-made templates from PrestaShop, you will have a web shop live in no time. Of course, you can personalize it and make it as crazy as you want.
3. Lightspeed
Lightspeed is a highly inclusive web builder. With a specific webshop platform for e-commerce entrepreneurs, lightspeed offers a wide range of webshop solutions. From building to marketing to making your webshop international, lightspeed has a customized solution.
4. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an open-source eCommerce platform for building webshops on WordPress. By simply downloading the WooCommerce plugin within your Wordpress website, you can create a webshop completely to your liking and still retain the freedom and endless possibilities of a Wordpress website. Also, WooCommerce is fully connected to a large network of trusted partners. From agencies to payment platforms and mail services.
5. Strato
Strato has been known longer as a great party for setting up web shops or an Internet business, but they also have a very good solution for setting up a web shop. They have mainly focused on how easy it is to set up and set up a webshop. They also offer strong marketing tools and services to also offer your products on major sales platforms such as Amazon and eBay.
6. JouwWeb
JouwWeb is a web builder from Dutch soil. With about 32,000 entrepreneurs before you, it is one of the bigger players for web shops in the Netherlands. Their biggest selling point is the ease of use of the tool, you don't need any technical knowledge and you can get started for free.
Multichannel sales
Are you already selling on one of these marketplaces or web shops? Then consider going multichannel.
That means expanding your sales beyond your current channel to multiple channels. For example, make wise use of all those active visitors and consumers of a marketplace giant like Bol.com or Amazon.
How do you keep track when selling multichannel?
When you sell Multichannel, it's easy to lose track. With orders coming in from different channels, you can get tangled up with inventory or total profit. With FiveX's tools, we make sure you can keep an overview of your business when selling on multiple channels. Within our software we bring all data, sales, inventory and emails together into one overview. This way, it doesn't matter through which platform a product is sold, because in the end, FiveX makes this completely transparent.
