Bol.com

Why is your new product not selling on bol?

Lars Hurkmans·Co-founder·15 July 2026·Temps de lecture 7 minutes

A new product that barely sells in its first weeks has not failed straight away: it has no sales history yet, and bol therefore does not simply show new products at the top. It only becomes a problem if it keeps lagging while you are advertising. Then something structural is wrong, and almost always it is one of six causes.

You have done your product research and you are probably convinced your product is going to sell well. And then it does not happen. In this article we walk through the most common causes when your product does not sell from the start, and for each cause we show you what you can concretely do about it.

When is it normal that a new product is not selling yet?

In the first weeks, few sales is normal. A new product has no sales history yet, so bol has no proof yet that customers want it. Without that proof you do not automatically end up at the top. That does not mean your product has failed.

It only becomes a problem if your product is still lagging after a few weeks, even though you are advertising. Then something structural is not right, and that is exactly what we go through below. Why a new product almost always starts at the bottom and how you break that circle with ads is explained in our article on the bol algorithm and new products.

In short, these are the six causes we walk through:

1. There is too little demand for your product.
2. Your price does not match the market.
3. Your product page does not convince the visitor.
4. You have no reviews yet.
5. You cannot be found on the right keywords.
6. You are not advertising, or not enough.

1. Is your product not selling because there is too little demand?

The main cause is often the simplest: there is just too little demand for your product. That sounds obvious, but it happens more often than you think. Someone picks a product on gut feeling, sees it somewhere and orders a batch without properly checking whether enough people search for it and actually buy it.

You check this afterwards on two points. Look at the search volume of the keywords that belong to your product, and above all look at the revenue that flows through the market. If that market revenue is low, you have your explanation right there, because even the best product page sells nothing if hardly anyone is searching. In our Product Database you see, per search term and per product, an estimate of that search volume and revenue, so you judge this on numbers instead of gut feeling.

If demand is structurally too low, no ad budget and no better photo will help. The honest conclusion is then that you are better off letting this product go and putting your time into something with more market potential. That is a bitter conclusion, but better now than after months.

2. Does your price match the market?

If your price does not fit the market, the customer picks the competitor. If you sit well above comparable products without your product giving a clear reason for it, the customer goes for the cheaper alternative. Setting it too low can be a problem too: some customers associate a very low price with low quality, especially in categories where quality weighs heavily.

Look up comparable products in your category and see where most of the sales come from. Often that is a particular price segment. If you are outside it, you know straight away where the problem lies. Move your price towards that segment and keep an eye on your margin, because your asking price still has to be feasible. Which costs you need to include in that margin before you lower your price is explained in our article on profitability on bol.

3. Does your product page convince the visitor?

If you do get visitors but they do not buy, the problem is on your product page. You see this in your statistics: many views, few sales. So customers do find your product, but drop off before they check out.

Go through your page from top to bottom:

• Main image. This is the first thing a customer sees in the search results. If it does not stand out or is unclear, nobody clicks through.
• Other photos. Do they show the product clearly, from several angles and in use?
• Title and description. Do they include everything the customer wants to know, and are they clearly written?
• Specifications. Are they fully filled in? An incomplete page inspires less trust, and a customer who hesitates does not buy.

An example makes it concrete. Suppose you sell a backpack and your main photo shows only the backpack from the side on a white background. A competitor shows that same backpack in use, worn by someone out hiking, with an extra photo of the inside and the compartments. In those same few seconds of scrolling, that competitor gives the customer much more information, and so wins the click more often and then the sale.

4. Are you not selling because you have no reviews yet?

Without reviews customers hesitate, and that costs you sales. If a customer has to choose between your product without reviews and a comparable product with hundreds of positive reviews, they almost always go for the safe choice.

This is a tricky one, because reviews only come after sales: if you do not sell, you do not get reviews either. You cannot get around it, you have to get through it. Make sure you land your first sales, through ads if necessary, and politely ask satisfied customers for a review. Asking is allowed, as long as you do not pay for positive reviews and do not make reviews up. That is against bol's rules and can put your account at risk. How to collect more reviews in a permitted way is explained in our article on reviews on bol.

Also bear in mind that this takes time. A customer buys, uses the product for a while, and only then writes a review, if they do at all. So between your first sale and your first review there are easily a few weeks. Do not see it as a sign that something is wrong if you have no review yet after a few sales.

5. Are you being found on the keywords that matter?

Customers do search for your kind of product, but do not find you because you are not linked to the right keywords. That happens when your title is too generic or too specific, or when you do not use the most important keywords at all.

Behind the scenes, bol matches searches to your product information. If that match is off, you simply do not come up. So look up which keywords comparable products in your category are found on, and check whether those words actually appear in your title and description. If you are missing an important keyword, add it in a way that stays readable. How to build your findability step by step, from keywords to listing, is explained in our article on findability on bol.

6. Are you advertising enough to break out of the starting circle?

Without sales history you get hardly any organic visibility, so without advertising often nothing gets going at all. Many starters shy away from the ad costs and try it purely organically, but with a new product that rarely works.

Start advertising on your most important keywords, with a budget that fits your margin. After a few weeks, check how much a sale costs you through ads, and whether that goes together with a healthy margin. If it does not, the problem probably lies not with the advertising itself, but with one of the other points above. More budget then only increases your loss.

In what order do you tackle these causes?

Always start with demand, because if it is not there, the rest makes little sense. Is there structurally enough demand for your product? How to map that demand thoroughly, from first idea to purchasing decision, is explained in our article on market research on bol.

If demand checks out, look at your price and your product page, because those are the things you can adjust the quickest yourself. Then tackle your reviews and your keywords. Finally, look at your ads and whether they have enough budget and the right goal.

Do not change everything at once. Adjust one thing, give it a few weeks and see what the effect is. If you change everything in one go, you will not know afterwards what helped and what did not, and that knowledge is exactly what is valuable for your next product.

Summary: why a new product does not sell on bol

Go through these six in order, change one thing at a time, and within a few weeks you will know what is really going on.

Read more:

• Why does a new product start at the bottom of the search results on bol?
• Market research on bol: from first idea to purchasing decision
• Findability on bol: how it works and how to improve it