How do you grow your bol store into a private label as a starter?
Lars HurkmansCo-founder17 June 2026Tiempo de lectura 10 minutosYou grow your bol store by stopping the guesswork and steering on data: choose distinctive products, build a private label with your own packaging instead of a logo on a standard box, and treat your listing as your business card. Factor your advertising costs into your margin, keep your stock and cash flow tight, and outsource the side tasks.
In our podcast we spoke to Jurre and his father Robert. Jurre started selling on bol at fourteen; Robert has been an entrepreneur for years and helped him get going. In just over a year they built a bol store together with several private labels in consumer electronics. Below we list their most important lessons for (starting) sellers, from their first miss to the way they now choose products and grow them.
Why can you not build a bol store on gut feeling?
Because the market is too competitive to hit a promising product without data. Their first product, an elbow brace, they chose on feeling: it seemed nice, and at most they looked at the revenue of a few competitors and the search volume. Of the first hundred units they sold sixty, after which it came to a standstill. Looking back, they see exactly why.
They were in a market with strong competitors that had many reviews and a good ranking, with a product that was almost identical to those competitors' product. If you then stand there with one review, the customer buys the familiar name and not you. On top of that, they neglected the listing, assuming that a product sells by itself once it is online.
Now everything revolves around data. Before they buy a product, sometimes months of research go into it, with tools like ours and with the emphasis on how strong the competition is and whether there is room to be different. How to approach that research in a structured way is explained in the framework for product research on bol.
Why a private label instead of a logo on a standard box?
Because only with a truly own product do you keep control of quality, appearance and continuity. Their drive is to build a brand that meets all regulations and is recognisable, not to quickly dump lots of products with a small supplier logo under one name. They are now building several brands, with a third brand as a playground to try things outside their fixed niches.
That private-label thinking is in everything: the same style in packaging, well-thought-out products and the wish to eventually be able to go beyond bol as well. An unbranded product with a cheap box is easy to copy and says nothing about quality. The difference between private label, white label and reselling is explained in private label, white label and reselling on bol.
How important is your listing really?
Your listing is your business card: it is the only thing the consumer sees, and that is what they buy your product on. Quality that you cannot show through the screen, how something feels, sounds or smells, you have to make visible on the listing. If what the customer gets in their hands matches what they saw on the page, you can also ask a bit more than the very cheapest seller.
In their view, distinctiveness weighs even more heavily than the listing itself, but without a convincing listing you still do not sell. The core lies in a few elements: a sharp (but not necessarily the lowest) price, a clear difference, and continuity in packaging and presentation. How to back up your difference with competitors' reviews is explained in distinctiveness and review analysis.
How do you deal with reviews and returns?
Treat reviews as material for growth and returns as information, not as punishment. They analyse every review that comes in, and where possible they find out the reason behind it. If a product turns out to be too big or not pleasant to use, for example, they talk to the supplier to adjust it in the next batch. That way the product improves along with what customers feed back.
They get reviews with personalised emails per product, not one generic email for everything, and with sharp customer service. If someone requests a return, a message often follows within minutes asking why. If a product is defective, a new one lands on the doormat without fuss, without the customer having to send a photo. That attitude, the customer as king, keeps the ratings good and the return rate low: in a quiet month around 2.9%, against an average of about 9% and peaks in Q4 due to gift purchases.
Their attitude towards returns themselves is important. They do not see the fact that returning on bol is easy as a disadvantage: it lowers the threshold to order, which means you also sell more. How to collect more reviews in a proper way is explained in getting more reviews on bol.
Why is compliance part of it from the start?
Because regulation in the Netherlands and Belgium is getting stricter and bol enforces it. In the beginning they asked the supplier for the CE mark and the paperwork and checked with the naked eye whether everything was right. That is not how it works: a certificate with a signature and a logo says little on its own.
They now have the products analysed by a compliance party and make sure the packaging contains all mandatory information, including the correct statements for products with a battery. Why you should ask for a test report instead of a certificate, and how to check it, is explained in CE certification on bol. The broader explanation of product compliance is in product compliance and CE marking on bol.
The basis of good products starts with sourcing. They deliberately built a strong relationship with one main supplier, request samples several times and choose quality over quantity, even if that takes months. For new or more expensive suppliers they bring in a freight forwarder. How that sourcing and transport process works is explained in sourcing from China: the step-by-step plan and forwarding from China to the Netherlands.
How do you keep your margins and your stock healthy?
By calculating your margin including advertising costs and keeping your stock moving quickly. They only start on a product at a minimum margin of 30%, precisely because advertising eats up a large part. In their calculation they include an average advertising cost of around 10%, so that the margin that remains is really margin. If you do not factor that in, you are left with profit on paper that does not exist in practice.
On a new product you often make no profit on the first few hundred sales, because you are advertising heavily to buy visibility and ranking. Once you rise organically, you scale back the advertising and the profit comes. Exactly how those advertising costs and that build-up work is explained in launching a product and the advertising costs on bol.
Cash flow is just as important. Stock that sits idle is money you cannot put into a more promising product, so their rule of thumb is that a product may sit for three to four months at most. They prefer to steer on fewer SKUs with higher revenue than on many products that each do a few hundred euros a month, and they focus on evergreen products with a peak in Q4. To keep that manageable they automate as much as possible, from reorder point to revenue value. How to calculate your profit in advance is explained in calculating profitability for bol.
What do you outsource if you want to grow?
Almost all side tasks, so you keep time for product research, listings and suppliers. From the start they placed the administration and VAT with an external party and put their stock with Logistics via bol (LVB), with a fulfilment party as a backup for urgent cases. Later someone was added for the ads. That outsourcing immediately also produced a network, something that is hard to build as a starter, especially without peers in the trade.
The result is that they stay small and agile: a handful of products in a few niches, with its own packaging and a well-thought-out whole for each product. All the skills that come into play here are bundled in what you need to be able to do to succeed on bol.
In short: growing as a starter on bol
- Steer on data, not on gut feeling. Their first product chosen on feeling got stuck; since then, sometimes months of research go before a purchase.
- Build a private label with your own packaging. A logo on a standard box can be copied and says nothing about quality.
- Treat your listing as your business card and make sure the product matches what you promise.
- See reviews and returns as material for growth: personalise your emails, deliver sharp service and improve your product based on feedback.
- Arrange compliance from the start: ask for test reports, not certificates, and put all mandatory information on your packaging.
- Calculate your margin including advertising costs (aim for at least 30%) and keep your stock and cash flow fast and tight.
- Outsource administration, logistics and ads as soon as you seriously want to grow.
Read more:
- The framework for product research on bol
- Distinctiveness and review analysis
- Launching a product and the advertising costs on bol
- Product compliance and CE marking on bol
- What you need to be able to do to succeed on bol
Preguntas frecuentes
At what age can you start selling on bol?
There is no minimum age to learn, but a minor cannot open a business account and register a company themselves. Jurre started at fourteen, first to practise through his father's company and then with his own general partnership co-signed by a parent. So in practice you need an adult co-director.
Why does the first product of many starters on bol fail?
Usually because of three things at once: it was chosen on gut feeling without data, it is not distinctive from existing sellers, and the listing is weak. If you then face competitors with hundreds of reviews and a strong ranking, customers buy from them and not from you.
Why a private label with your own packaging instead of a logo on a standard box?
Because that is the only way to keep control of quality, appearance and continuity, and to be able to grow beyond bol. A box with only a small logo from your supplier is easy to copy and says nothing about quality. A well-thought-out own product with its own packaging also justifies a slightly higher price.
How much margin should you keep on bol?
Factor in your advertising costs. Jurre and Robert only start on a product at a minimum margin of 30%, precisely because advertising eats up a large part. Keep in mind that you often make no profit on the first few hundred sales; you build that up once you rise organically and can scale back the advertising.
How do you get reviews and keep your returns low?
With personalised emails per product and sharp customer service: respond quickly to a return request, send a replacement product without fuss in case of a defect, and analyse every review to improve the product or the packaging. That is how their return rate was brought down from around 9% to 2.9% in a quiet month.
How do you avoid cash flow problems when buying stock?
By not letting stock sit too long and not putting all your money into slow-moving products. Their rule of thumb is that stock may sit idle for three to four months at most; they steer on a reorder point and turnover rate, and automate that as much as possible so cash stays free for more promising products.
What is the most important advice for anyone starting on bol?
Base everything on data and make sure the basics are right before you chase profit. Choose a distinctive product, get your listing and your compliance in order, do not cut corners (bol punishes that immediately), and calculate your margin including advertising costs.