Subject areaChannels and tools
Also known asBol.com
bol.com is the Dutch e-commerce platform that leads the market in the Netherlands and Belgium, according to the Ecommerce DB 2025 rankings and RetailDetail in November 2025.
It started as an online bookstore and grew into a marketplace (a platform where third-party stores also sell) covering almost every product category. In the history of European e-commerce it is a one-off, because it manages to compete almost on equal terms with Amazon in its home markets, which makes it a concrete case of European digital sovereignty.
The name can be confusing: Italy once had BOL, the online bookstore of Bertelsmann and Mondadori, which has since become mondadoristore.it and has no connection with the Dutch platform.
Source: Ecommerce DB, classifiche 2025, e RetailDetail, novembre 2025, per la posizione di bol.com nei Paesi Bassi e in Belgio.
An example
A tool manufacturer that wants to sell in the Netherlands opens a store on the bol.com marketplace instead of relying on Amazon alone, because that is where Dutch and Belgian shoppers look first.
Enrico Giubertoni. Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0: you may quote, translate and adapt this entry with the author’s name and a link, stating any changes. For commercial use, write to info@enricogiubertoni.com
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