Bol.com

How does the bol market work? Traditionals, bol originals and adaptables

Lars Hurkmans·Co-founder·7 January 2026·Reading time 12 minutes

The bol market consists of three kinds of brands: traditionals (established brands from outside bol, such as Lego or Pampers), bol originals (own brands that started on bol, in other words private label) and adaptables (existing brands that also sell on bol themselves). For a new seller, a bol original in smaller, functionality-driven niches is usually the most promising route.

This is part 1 of our product research series. Before you choose a product, you need to understand how the market you are entering is built up. In this article and the accompanying video we show how the bol market works, the ways you can sell successfully on it, and how successful brands go about it.

How did bol go from web shop to marketplace?

Bol has been a marketplace since 2007. Until that year, bol sold everything itself. From 2007 onwards, third parties were allowed to sell alongside it, and since around 2012 bol has really become a comparison marketplace, where several sellers offer the same product.

The number of sellers then grew steadily. From 2019 a sharp rise set in, and during the pandemic came an explosion: in a short time, thousands to tens of thousands of sellers joined. That changed the whole landscape. Today bol is a marketplace where bol itself sells alongside tens of thousands of other parties, all of whom do so in different ways.

Those sellers also come from different countries. Around 2007 they were almost all Dutch, from about 2014 more and more Belgian sellers joined, and in recent years you mainly see international parties. Bol is putting more and more focus on them, so in the future you will also compete more with sellers from outside the Netherlands.

At the same time, the inflow is levelling off. After the pandemic peak, many sellers still joined, but fewer than in the year before. So the market is getting somewhat saturated. Where a few years ago you could simply start a small brand and launch random products, that is getting harder. That makes it a fair question whether selling on bol is still worth it. The answer mainly determines how carefully you need to choose your way of selling.

Which three kinds of brands sell on bol?

Roughly three kinds of brands are active on bol: traditionals, bol originals and adaptables. The difference lies in where a brand gets its brand awareness from and whether several sellers offer the same product.

The traditionals are the well-known brands that already have strong brand awareness, also outside bol. Consumers do not go to bol for these brands, but because of these brands: they look for a specific product from a brand and it turns out to be for sale on bol too. According to our market data, about 15% of these top brands are offered only by bol and the remaining 85% also by other parties. If you look at where the revenue goes, bol itself takes the largest share. If you want to sell such a top brand, you often need special brand rights, you buy the same product as everyone else (think of six sellers offering exactly the same iPhone) and you often compete directly with bol. Not an easy start.

The bol originals are own brands that started on bol: they sold their first products through bol, not elsewhere. Usually there is only one seller per product, and that seller often does not produce it but has it flown in, often from China. A bol original is a form of private label: you buy a generic product and sell it under your own brand. These sellers register their brand with the BOIP, which gives you brand protection. That way you are not bothered by competitors offering exactly the same product under your listing, something the traditionals do have to deal with. The downside is the flip side: a bol original has no brand awareness, because a consumer searches bol for a product and has no association with your brand yet. Well-known examples are LiveGoods and Nuance.

The adaptables sit in between. They are brands with an origin outside bol that have also started selling there themselves, such as XXL Nutrition and Tomado. You see third parties selling their products and you see them selling themselves: a mix. As a starting seller you can sell such products, but then you have to make an agreement with the brand and you then compete with that same brand on bol. Like the traditionals, that is a harder route.

How much of the bol market do traditionals, bol originals and adaptables take?

In numbers the traditionals dominate, but in revenue the picture is different. According to our market data, of the 30,000 largest brands on bol about 63% is a traditional, 36% a bol original and 1% an adaptable. If you look at revenue, traditionals take just under 70%, adaptables about 12% and bol originals about 20%.

These are rounded figures from our own market data; treat them as an order of magnitude, not as exact percentages. What stands out: at 36%, bol originals are a large group in numbers, but together they take only about 20% of revenue. So that group is largely the inflow of sellers around the pandemic that we saw earlier. Adaptables are a small group at 1%, but account for about 12% of revenue.

External figures point the same way. Research by Emerce into the largest brands on bol showed that the brands offered by bol together take the largest part of the market share. So the big, well-known brands determine the lion's share of revenue.

For you, this means the following. Selling an existing top brand can open up a large market, but you have to negotiate brand rights, buy products and compete for the buy box with large, specialised parties, often at price levels you struggle to reach. Adaptables as a standalone strategy are just as complex. That leaves the bol original as the most independent route. That 20% sounds modest, but it is a large amount: our market data estimates the revenue in this market in 2024 at almost 6 billion euros. A smaller segment within bol, but still a large market.

In which categories does a private label on bol have the best chance?

Not every category is equally suitable. There are about 30 product categories on bol, from home goods to luggage, car and motorcycle and computers. According to our market data, categories such as home goods, luggage, household, Christmas items and cooking and dining are the best fit for a bol original. In food and drink, children's fashion and films and series, private labels are hardly successful at all.

To determine where bol originals really do well, we look at two things. The first is the share of shelf: which part of the brands in a category is a bol original. That says something about the supply. The second is the market share: which part of the revenue those brands take together. That says something about performance.

If you set those two against each other, you can draw an expectation line where the share of shelf equals the market share. If a category sits above that line, bol originals take more market share than their supply would suggest. If it sits below, there are relatively many sellers that together take little market share.

• Above expectation: home, luggage and Christmas items. Here bol originals perform more strongly than their share of shelf.
• As expected: garden items, cooking and dining, and car and motorcycle.
• Below expectation: children's fashion, personal care products and beauty. Many sellers, little market share. In general the hardest categories for a private label, although within personal care, for example, there are subcategories where it does work.

The same analysis for the traditionals completes the picture. They perform strongly in food and drink, games, and bikes and accessories. So there you will have a harder time with a private label. In home goods and luggage the traditionals perform below expectation, and that is exactly where a private label is promising. Home goods stands out as a niche that lends itself strongly to a private label. Before you enter such a category, you do market research to see whether there is enough demand.

Which products are best to choose as a private label?

Choose products where the consumer buys on functionality and not on brand preference. In a category where one strong brand dominates, as an unknown private label you almost always lose.

With some products, the consumer already knows exactly which brand they want beforehand, and then brand preference plays a large role. A few examples from our market data, as an order of magnitude:

• Nappies and changing: Pampers takes about 56% of the market share. The remaining 44% also contains other top brands.
• Building and construction: Lego takes almost 50%, with K'NEX in second place at about 20%.
• Yoghurt and ice cream makers: the Ninja Creami takes about 40%.
• Espresso machines: Philips takes about 36%.
• Erotica: Durex takes about 22%. Within erotica there are subcategories, such as accessories, where brand preference plays a much smaller role and a private label does work.

So lesson one is: select on buying behaviour. Avoid categories that revolve around a strong brand preference and focus on functionality-driven categories, where the consumer is looking for a function and the brand matters less.

Why are accessories more promising than main products?

Around a main product dominated by top brands there are often accessories where those brands are hardly active. That is exactly where bol originals do well, because the purchase is more about functionality and price than about the brand.

Take consumer electronics. The main products are strongly dominated by traditionals, the accessories around them by bol originals. With smartphones, private labels take almost no market share, but with accessories such as selfie sticks, phone holders, phone cases and power banks they do well. With power banks, eight of the ten largest brands are a bol original and only two a traditional; according to our market data the largest original takes well over 20%. With sports watches and activity trackers you see the same: the main product belongs to the traditionals, but the smartwatch chargers around it are, with one brand as the exception, almost all bol originals.

An exception is children's products. There, traditionals are often less active, so you can start a private label sooner without immediately going up against a big brand. With children's tablets, for example, it is mainly private labels that do well. Note the difference with children's fashion, which you are better off avoiding as a private label.

So lesson two is: focus on complementary product types around the main products of top brands.

Why are you better off focusing on smaller niches?

The largest categories on bol, such as smartphones and computers, together account for about 70% of revenue and are dominated by traditionals. The roughly 20% where bol originals sit lies mainly in the smaller categories. So that is where you need to be.

Take the kitchen supplies niche, split into accessories, basic products, specialist products and complementary products. According to our market data, bol originals take on average about 35% of the market share in accessories and about 32% in basic products. The accessories consist of many smaller categories, often with less than 500,000 euros in market value per year, and there bol originals regularly take more than 50%. The complementary and specialist kitchen products have large market values, more than half a million, and there the traditionals do better.

To illustrate what is not a sweet spot: kitchen mixers and machines. That is a large category with a relatively high price, where almost all well-selling brands are traditionals and only one bol original manages to get in between them.

So the sweet spot is the combination: products that revolve around functionality and not brand experience, that are a good complement to the main products of top brands, and that sit in smaller niches.

How do bol originals like Welshave and Moa get in among the top brands?

Some bol originals do compete with top brands in large categories. According to our market data, Welshave, known for beard trimmers, takes just under 8% in the trimming category, next to brands like Philips and Braun. Moa, a broad kitchen brand, is third in the kettles category. Both are bol originals that built their brand awareness purely from bol. They do that by having their keyword page and their listing in better shape than the top brands.

That starts with how consumers search on bol. They come in from outside bol or navigate within bol, and then often use the search bar. Those who search usually search for a function, not yet for a brand. For a private label, that keyword page is therefore an important source of traffic: if you sell a product that revolves around that function, you can be found there.

How do you get consumers to click on your product?

On the keyword page, three things determine whether someone clicks: the main image, the price and the title with description. Welshave and Moa have all three nailed down.

• Main image: clean and professional, hardly distinguishable from that of a top brand like Philips. The first impression is immediately good.
• Title: more detailed than that of a top brand, with the functionalities in it. That is necessary, because the consumer does not know the Welshave brand and has to reach the product via keywords. Philips keeps the title short, because that brand name is already known.
• Price: Welshave sits just below the top brands, and on bol price is an important selection criterion. Moa is only slightly cheaper than Philips, so you do not always have to be the cheapest to get in between them.

Add to that the number of reviews: many reviews already give one signal of trustworthiness on the keyword page, which makes someone more likely to click.

How do you convince on the product page itself?

On the listing, a private label has to do four things better than a top brand: the title, the product description, the images and the reviews. Because the consumer does not know your brand, they base themselves entirely on what is on that page.

The title and description are more detailed and more specialised with a private label. Welshave works the product's functionalities into the description, such as the ways you can use it while shaving, while Philips keeps it to a short series name. You get those keywords and specifications from tools, such as bol's own search trends, which show you which keywords consumers use. More extensive is our Keyword Guide: it shows you which keywords you can add to your listing and lets you compare your listing with those of competitors, so you see what you can improve to be found more easily.

The images are the second part. With a private label, the images bring out a stronger story and more perspectives. Welshave and Moa show the product from different angles, use image and text to show the specifications and the use, almost like a manual, and place the product in perspective so you see what it looks like in real life. Top brands often make do with a standard main photo and perhaps one usage photo, because their brand awareness does the work.

Reviews are the final piece. A consumer looks for trust in others and looks at the score and the number of reviews. Few reviews or a low score and they drop off. What is in the reviews also matters: it does not all have to be positive, but it has to give a realistic picture of the user experience. In the comparison, Welshave and Moa have more reviews than the Philips product and sometimes even a slightly higher score, with texts that show both positive and negative points. That gives a consumer the confidence to buy. Getting reviews is hard on bol; good sellers actively ask for them, for example through email campaigns to customers, always within bol's guidelines.

Summary: how to choose your place in the bol market

• The bol market has three brand types: traditionals (about 63% of brands, about 70% of revenue), bol originals (about 36% / about 20%) and adaptables (about 1% / about 12%).
• For a new seller, a bol original (private label) is the most independent route. Selling traditionals and adaptables means negotiating, buying and competing with large parties.
• Choose functionality-driven categories without strong brand preference, not categories where one brand dominates.
• Focus on complementary products (accessories) around the main products of top brands, and stay in the smaller niches.
• Strong niches according to our market data: home goods, luggage, household, Christmas items and cooking and dining. Better avoided: food and drink, children's fashion and films and series.
• Stand out with a strong main image, a detailed title and description, a sharp price and enough honest reviews.

With this you know how the bol market is put together and which route is most promising for a private label. In the next part we dive into the bol market in numbers: where the room for growth is and exactly how big the market is.