Why does a new product on bol start at the bottom of the search results?
Lars HurkmansCo-founder8 July 2026Temps de lecture 9 minutesA new product on bol almost always sits at the bottom of the search results. The platform shows what sells most at the top, and you have no sales yet. That creates a cycle: without sales you are not relevant, and without relevance you stay at the bottom. You break that cycle by buying visibility with ads, getting your first sales, and using them to build the relevance that makes you rise organically.
Many starters think their photos or their title are to blame when their product stays at the bottom. They tweak all sorts of things, while the problem lies somewhere else. To understand where it really lies, we start with the question of how bol itself makes money.
How does bol make money, and why does that shape the search results?
Bol makes money in two ways, and that explains how the search results are set up. On every sale the platform receives a commission, and on every ad it earns per click. In the organic spots, the positions that are not ads, bol therefore shows the products that sell the most. The reasoning is simple: a product that sells often is apparently what customers are looking for, so it makes sense to show it high up. A product that does not sell gives bol no reason to put it at the top, because there is no proof that customers want it.
Why does a new product start at the bottom?
Because you have no sales yet, and without sales you are not yet relevant to bol. As a newcomer you immediately run into a wall here. You have no sales yet, so you are not yet relevant. Because you are not relevant, you rank low. Because you rank low, almost nobody sees you. And because almost nobody sees you, you sell nothing. That is the cycle: you need sales to rank high, but you need a high position to get sales. Whoever is just starting out has neither.
An example makes it concrete. Suppose you sell exactly the same product as a competitor who has been active for two years, and your version is objectively just as good, maybe even slightly better. Still, you sit at the bottom and your competitor at the top. That is not because bol thinks your product is worse, but because bol has no proof that customers want your version too. That competitor already has that proof, in the form of hundreds of sales and reviews. You still have to build it.
This is not something unique to bol. Amazon works this way, Google Shopping works this way, and really every marketplace algorithm works this way. The reason is always the same: the platform wants a visitor to find what they are looking for, and the best proof of that is that other visitors have already bought.
Does the bol algorithm work against you as a starter?
No. The system is not unfair, it simply does not know you yet. The platform puts the best-selling products at the top because it wants customers to have a good experience. A satisfied customer buys more often and keeps using bol. If the platform shows products nobody buys, the chance of a disappointing purchase is greater. If it shows products that have already proven to sell well, the chance of a satisfied customer is greater.
For you as a starter this means the following: as soon as you show that customers want your product and rate it well, the system automatically moves with you.
How do you break that cycle?
By advertising. An ad spot works like an auction, independent of the organic ranking. You pay per click and with that you buy a visible spot, even if you are nowhere organically yet. You use that visibility to bring in your first sales, and precisely those sales are the signal bol needs to then also show you higher organically. That way you climb step by step out of the ad spots into the organic positions, and you can slowly scale your advertising back down.
Keep one thing in mind: advertising only increases your visibility. It says nothing about whether that visibility turns into sales. That depends on your price, your photos, your title, your description and your reviews. If you advertise a product nobody wants once they see it, you are throwing money away: you pay for clicks that do not become sales, and so you build no relevance.
When does advertising on bol pay off?
Only if your product page and your price are already right. Only once that foundation is in place does advertising make sense. A calculation shows why. Suppose the average winning bid in your category is 0.40 euros per click, and on average you need a hundred clicks for one sale. Then every sale costs you forty euros in advertising costs, on top of your purchase price and other costs. If your margin per sale is below that, you lose money on every sale. In that case more advertising is not the solution, because you only increase the loss. The problem then lies in your product page or your price, not in your ad budget.
The amounts are an example and differ per category; the rule of thumb stays the same. Work out what a sale costs you in advertising and make sure your margin can carry it, before you scale up.
Why does your product title count towards your findability on bol?
Because sales are the strongest signal, but not the only one. The platform also looks at how well your product page matches what someone is searching for, and your title largely determines which keywords you are found on, organically and through ads.
An example. If you sell a water bottle with the title "drinking bottle 750 ml", that is correct, but very generic. The platform then has little to go on to determine which specific searches your product is relevant for. If you do mention specific features that people type in, such as the material or the use, you give bol more hooks to link you to the right searches.
That does not mean you should stuff your title with as many words as possible. An unreadable title actually puts buyers off. Find the balance: relevant enough to be found, readable enough to appeal. Take a dog leash. If you only put "dog leash" in it, you cover a broad keyword, but you give bol little to go on for someone searching for "dog leash with handle" or "reflective dog leash". If you work those features into your title, and they are actually accurate, you are found better on those specific searches while still riding along on the broad word "dog leash".
That is why it is worth looking in advance at how competitors in your category build their titles. Not to copy, but to see which features the top sellers apparently consider important enough to include. How the algorithm weighs titles, categories and specifications against each other, we have worked out in our article on the bol algorithm and findability.
What happens in the first weeks after your launch on bol?
In the first weeks you build proof. It goes roughly like this: bol does not know your product yet, so you start advertising to buy visibility. If your product page is in good shape, that visibility brings you your first sales. Those sales are the evidence bol needs to take your product seriously. Your first reviews help indirectly, by convincing new visitors to buy.
A question that then comes up: how many sales do you need before bol takes you seriously? There is no fixed number for that. It depends on how competitive your category is and how many other products compete with you for the same keywords. What does stay the same is the direction: consistent, quality sales build relevance faster than a few random peaks.
So do not panic if in the first weeks you mainly sell through ads and almost nothing organically. That is how the system is designed. It only becomes a problem if that is still the case after a few months. Then your product has not built relevance, and the time has come to look critically at your product page, your price, or at the question of whether there is enough demand for this product.
To see whether you are actually climbing out of the ad spots, you want to be able to see your organic position separately from your sponsored position. If you only see a combined position, you do not know whether your product is rising on its own merits or whether your ad budget is propping up the position. Our My Rankings shows the organic position separately from the sponsored one, so you can track whether the cycle is really being broken.
What role do reviews play in your position on bol?
Reviews do not drive your position directly; they work indirectly, through your conversion. Good reviews give a hesitant buyer the confidence to order anyway, so a larger share of your visitors actually buys. That higher conversion means you sell faster, and precisely those sales build the relevance that makes you rise. A product with poor reviews sells more slowly, and so builds relevance more slowly too.
For you as a starter this means the quality of your first sales counts through your conversion. A few honest, good reviews win over new buyers, so you sell faster and therefore build relevance faster. A product whose quality you know for certain is right simply gets a better start.
What happens to your position after the launch?
Your position is not an end point. Two things can knock it down again: your stock and the competition.
The first risk is stock. If you run out, you stop selling and your relevance falls back, even if you were ranking well just before. When your stock comes back in, you partly rebuild that position. Stock planning is therefore just as important as your advertising strategy.
The second is that the market does not stand still. As soon as a category looks attractive, other sellers try to break exactly the same cycle you have just broken. Building relevance is therefore not a one-off job, but ongoing maintenance: stock at the right level, quality consistent, and where needed some ad budget again when your position comes under pressure.
This also explains why established sellers have a head start. They not only have more sales and reviews, but have also had the time to refine their listing based on what works and what does not. So do not expect to stand next to such a name within a few weeks. What is realistic: steadily building your own relevance, and choosing niches where the competition is less fierce than in a market that is already completely locked down.
Summary: how the bol algorithm treats a new product
In short:
- In the organic spots bol shows the products that sell the most, because sales are the best proof that a product is wanted.
- A new product does not have those sales yet and so does not automatically come into view.
- Advertising is the way to get those first sales, but it only works if your product page and price are already right.
- Sales are the strongest signal. Your title determines your relevance; your reviews work indirectly, by raising your conversion.
- Once you have built a sales history, the mechanism works for you instead of against you, as long as you keep your stock at the right level.
So the system does not work against you; it simply does not know your product yet. Give it the proof that customers want your product and rate it well, and it moves with you.
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