Success story: auto-products.nl grew 10x in sales on bol.com

Selling on bol.com and other marketplaces. What is actually involved? Is it suitable for everyone and what steps do you need to take? In this blog, we asked Arjan Stok of auto-producten.nl about his experience with bol.com and other marketplaces.

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Who are you and how did you start auto-producten.nl?

I am Arjan and after my technical commercial education I got into the automotive industry through an internship. After 5 years at a wholesaler in car materials to have worked, I have in 2017 the bold shoes and auto-products.nl founded. Auto-products.nl is a webshop specializing in as the name suggests car accessories. You have to think of, for example, hubcaps and car covers. Auto-products.nl is located in Giessen and consists of an office and warehouse. Everything that is for sale in the webshop is also in the warehouse. I believe that delivering from stock is a must. Especially if you want to sell on Bol. Delivering directly from stock is therefore an important condition. Delivery reliability and delivery speed is also very important, a good dropshipping partner is obviously just as valuable.

So how can you post your articles on Bol and other marketplaces?

My webshop runs via Shoptrader. They have a good partnership with EasyAds. EasyAds actually takes care of the communication between the webshop and the marketplaces and advertising channels. EasyAds synchronises articles, stocks and orders between the marketplaces and the webshop. I mainly focus on Bol, but you can also offer your articles on other marketplaces and channels.

What other channels do you sell on?

Through EasyAds, I also manage Google Shopping, Marktplaats and 2ehands. You can choose which items you offer per channel and for which budget. You can easily set this up via the EasyAds dashboard. You can use EasyAds as a tool to place your ads on various marketplaces. Optionally, you can have your ads managed/optimised by the specialists of EasyAds.

And selling through Amazon?

To be honest, I tried that but it did not work for me. The competition on Amazon is fierce and bigger than on Bol. If you offer the same EAN numbers, it's ultimately about the price and it's difficult to win that from very large German suppliers. It is different in the Netherlands. I have been given the right to sell certain brands on the Dutch market. But this can be exactly the other way round for someone else.

How many more sales have you actually made since using EasyAds?

My ROAS has increased dramatically since starting with EasyAds. ROAS is a bit of a marketing term but comes down to Return on Ad Spend. So yes, I am definitely benefiting from it. About 40% of all my orders come from Bol, 60% from my own webshop.

What do you think of the support and assistance provided by EasyAds?

Well, they also offer Managed Services for Bol. They help you with the set-up, they also train and coach you on what to do and what not to do. Some products you should lower your prices for to get into the Buybox and others you should probably not offer. They will also help you optimise your texts and titles.

What I really appreciate most about EasyAds is their patience and honesty. So they take time for the customer and when a certain channel or product is not running, they are honest and advise against continuing with it. So they really work in the interest of the customer and not from their own interest.

What do you need to consider if you want to offer products on Bol.com?

The other day, I had a shipment that fell through the cracks at DHL. There was nothing I could do about it as I had delivered to DHL on time. The delivery had not arrived on time. Fortunately, you do not receive a warning immediately after a delayed delivery. Different points are calculated and checked every week. If you fall below the norm, you get a strike. The standard is a percentage. In case of multiple strikes, Bol will send you a message to make sure you improve your performance or adjust your offer/delivery time to meet the (delivery) promise.

If not, Bol might not accept you anymore. You have to be careful with that, especially if you really become dependent on Bol. That's why it's so important to have the stock under control and that works well with Shoptrader and EasyAds.

The great thing about EasyAds is that they synchronise the stock from Shoptrader to Bol more than 12 times a day. Orders are created directly in the webshop administration and therefore also directly updated in the webshop.

Of course, you pay commission to Bol of about 15%, which is quite an amount! But advertising through Adwords or other channels often costs the same too. For me, the disadvantages do not outweigh the big advantage of Bol. You immediately have a huge range and I can sell a lot through Bol.

Do you also want to start selling on Bol or other Marketplaces?

Shoptrader and EasyAds have been successful partners for years and have the perfect connection ready to start selling on Marketplaces immediately. Request the EasyAds add-on via your Shoptrader back office. Do you need help and guidance with selling on marketplaces, then request EasyAds Marketplace Management.