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Market analysis on bol: is there room for a new player?

Lars Hurkmans·Co-founder·4 February 2026·Reading time 10 minutes

Whether there's room for a new player is something you assess with market analysis: per niche you filter for the products that generate revenue, read the brand, price, package and revenue distribution, and check whether the top sellers are private label or established brands. Of the three niches, the trail camera and computer glasses passed the test; the folding treadmill dropped out.

This is part 5 of our product research series. In part 4 we searched for promising niches through keywords with the niche explorer. In this article we dissect the three niches that came out of that with market analysis, and assess whether it's worth doing further product research for them.

What is market analysis and which question does it answer?

Market analysis is a second, deeper analysis of a niche, in which you map the products and the players before deciding whether you want to enter that market. The question it answers is a sober one: is it worth continuing product research for this niche, or not?

In part 4 we found three candidate niches through keywords, one per price segment: a folding treadmill (high ticket), a trail camera for outdoors (mid ticket) and computer glasses (in the niche explorer the keyword blue light glass, low ticket). We took a quick look at those three back then. Now we dig into the data per niche: which products actually generate revenue, what kind of brands are at the top, and how are they offered. Only once a niche passes this test do we continue the research. We're not entering yet at this point; that decision comes later in the series.

Which product insights do you use, and why filter for at least 1,000 euros in revenue?

The product insights in the niche explorer give you a set of distributions per niche: the brand distribution and the seller distribution, the impression, sales and revenue distribution, and the specification distributions for price, package type and delivery time. Together with the product list below them, they show which products are behind the niche and how the market is put together.

Each distribution answers a different question. The brand and seller distribution show which brands and sellers exist. The impression, sales and revenue distribution show how findability and sales are spread across products, so whether one product captures almost everything or whether it's spread more broadly. The price, package and delivery time distribution show at which prices things sell, how big the packages are, and how fast delivery is.

Before reading those distributions, you first filter for relevant products, because the raw list also includes products that barely sell. Relevant here means: products that actually generate revenue. In this article that threshold is at least 1,000 euros in revenue over a year. That's a self-chosen, illustrative threshold to make the list manageable, not a fixed standard; for one person the threshold is higher, for another lower. For the folding treadmill, seven products remained after this filter, and the three distribution charts immediately adjusted to that selection.

How do you recognise whether a top seller is private label or an established brand?

Whether a top seller is a private label seller or an established brand isn't something you read from a single signal, but from a handful of checks you run through quickly one after another. The distinction matters, because a private label seller operates the same way you want to: their own brand on a generic product, where it's not the brand name that drives sales, but the listing, the reviews and the price. If you mostly see private label top sellers, there's room for a new player with their own brand.

These are the checks that recur in this article, preferably in combination:

• The listing and the images. A private label seller often tells a strong, extensive story in the product photos, because they know they need to convince the customer without brand recognition. With established brands you typically see less of that.
• The seller name versus the brand. If the seller's name closely resembles the brand name, that's often a sign of a private label seller selling under their own brand.
• How long the seller has been active. Check since when the seller has been selling on bol. A recent start date fits a seller who began with this brand; a long track record suggests someone probably knows what they're doing.
• Who holds the buy box. If the same seller consistently and exclusively holds the buy box on a product, that points to their own listing. If instead you see many different sellers on the same product, and bol itself offers it too, then by definition it's not private label. It's then an established brand offered by multiple parties.
• Googling outside bol. The strongest test: search for the brand or seller outside bol. If they only sell on bol and at most through their own webshop, and you can't find them anywhere else, that's a strong indication of private label. If the brand also sells in other stores and on other marketplaces, it's more likely an established name.

A single check isn't proof; you stack up the first impressions from the listing and the seller, and only googling gives you certainty. For brands you already know yourself, you'll recognise the pattern more quickly.

Why does the folding treadmill drop out?

The folding treadmill drops out because it's an expensive product to sell and an expensive product to ship, and together that requires a lot of starting capital. For a seller who's just starting out, that's a challenging first niche, even though the market itself is suitable for a private label brand.

What the data in the example showed, after the filter for at least 1,000 euros in revenue:

• Price. Most treadmills sell between 100 and 500 euros, with a few outliers above that. After removing one expensive outlier, everything fell neatly into that range. If you want to offer a product here, your selling price will probably be somewhere between 100 and 500 euros.
• Sales. Most products sell between 100 and 500 units a year, a few somewhat lower.
• Package type. Well over half the products got the "too large" label, with the rest partly unknown. That means you can't use a standard shipping courier and probably need special transport, which makes shipping expensive.
• Delivery time. Most have a one-day delivery time, but some deliver slower. So there's something to be gained there: if you can deliver faster, you might capture sales from sellers who don't. With a large product, fast delivery is just harder to organise.

Among the brands, it stood out that the best-selling product was unbranded, and that several probable private label brands were among the top sellers. So the niche is in principle suitable for private label. But the combination of a high selling price, a probably high purchase price and expensive shipping makes this a challenging start for a beginning seller: you either sacrifice margin on shipping costs or need to charge a high price, and buying in stock requires a lot of starting capital. That's why we let the treadmill be the first of the three to drop out.

Why does the trail camera for outdoors move forward?

The trail camera for outdoors moves forward because it's a compact product and revenue is spread broadly across many private label brands. Those are exactly the signals that point to room for a new player.

The data in the example:

• Price. Most trail cameras sell between 51 and 100 euros. So that's probably also where you'll position your selling price.
• Sales and revenue. Most products sell between 11 and 50 units a year, with a number around 500. For revenue, almost half falls in the highest bracket, more than 10,000 euros a year. That broad distribution is favourable: it's not one product capturing all the revenue, but many different products generating revenue. That means there's room to add your own product to the mix.
• Package type. Most are medium. Compared to the treadmill, that's a lot more interesting: lower shipping costs mean more margin, and a more compact product lets you bring stock over more efficiently, from China for example, since you get more units for the same forwarding costs.
• Brands. Based on experience, virtually all the brands that came out on top were private label brands, with some unbranded products mixed in too. The top seller captured about 17% of sales volume around this keyword; below that followed many products each holding a smaller but real share.

Adding it all up, many private label brands, a broad revenue distribution and a compact product, makes this an interesting niche to research further. Precisely because the supply is diverse and no single brand dominates the market, you can enter with distinctiveness. So this niche stays in.

Is there room for a new player with computer glasses?

Yes, for computer glasses there's room for a new player: prices are low, the products are very compact, and alongside a single established brand there are many private label brands at the top. In the niche explorer this is the keyword blue light glass, with computer glasses as the dominant category.

The data in the example:

• Price. Most computer glasses cost between 11 and 20 euros, with some priced higher, moving towards mid ticket. So it's not purely a low ticket niche, which later leaves room to differentiate on price.
• Package type. Even more compact than the trail camera: lots of letterbox packages and small packages. That means even lower shipping costs and even more units per forwarding shipment for the same price.
• Delivery time. Most products deliver in one day, so that's the standard here.
• Sales and revenue. Sales are reasonably distributed. Most products generate between 1,000 and 5,000 euros in revenue a year, with some above 10,000 euros. That's slightly less broadly distributed than the trail camera, but still reasonable.

Among the brands, roughly three of the top four turned out to be private label and one an established brand. That established brand was offered by multiple sellers, and bol itself offered it too, which by definition makes it not private label. The other three, based on the listing, the seller name and the offer, looked more like sellers managing their own listing. The presence of several private label brands alongside one established brand is a good sign for an own-brand strategy.

How do you measure whether revenue goes to private label or to established brands?

Whether revenue mainly goes to private label brands or to established brands isn't something you can simply read from the distributions. For that you group the products by brand and put those groups side by side in the product radar, where you compare total revenue and sales per group.

The method in this article: you build a group with all the relevant products from the niche, split out the established brand from it, add one private label brand as a reference point, and set the remaining private label brands alongside it. That way you get a picture of the ratio between the established brand and the private label brands.

For the computer glasses, this yielded the following, illustratively: the total market was just over 650,000 euros over the past year. The established brand accounted for about 45,000 euros of that. That's a lot, but one top private label brand already performed comparably or slightly better. And the remaining private label brands together filled by far the largest share of the market, well over five-sixths of the total.

The conclusion you draw from this: in the computer glasses market, private label brands can sell excellently, and together they account for the majority of revenue. That works in favour of a seller who wants to start their own brand.

Which niches move on to the next research?

Of the three niches, the trail camera for outdoors and the computer glasses move on to the follow-up research; we're setting the folding treadmill aside for now. The treadmill isn't necessarily unprofitable, but its size and high selling price require a lot of starting capital, making it less attractive for a starting seller. The trail camera and the computer glasses are more compact, cheaper to buy in and to ship, and their markets are well suited to private label.

That tells us there's potentially room for us as a player, and we already have a rough picture of the prices and package types. What we don't know yet is whether there's really room for a new player and whether we can position our product distinctively in the market. That means looking at which specifications you need to offer and how you set up your listing. We work that out in part 6, where we find distinctiveness through reviews. You can read more about the choice between your own brand and the other routes in our piece on private label, white label and reselling on bol.

Summary: market analysis in steps

• Market analysis is a second, deeper look. You map the products and players in a niche to determine whether further product research is worthwhile.
• First filter for relevant products. In this article at least 1,000 euros in revenue per year, a self-chosen, illustrative threshold to see only products that actually sell.
• Read the distributions. The brand, seller, impression, sales, revenue, price, package and delivery time distribution together show how the market is put together.
• Determine per top seller: private label or established brand. Combine the checks: listing and images, seller name versus brand, how long active, who holds the buy box, and googling outside bol.
• Pay attention to price and package type. A large, expensive product like the treadmill requires a lot of starting capital and expensive shipping; a compact product like the trail camera or the computer glasses keeps shipping and forwarding costs low.
• Measure the market distribution in the product radar. Group by brand to see whether revenue goes to private label or to established brands.
• Conclusion. The trail camera and the computer glasses move forward; the treadmill drops out for a starting seller.