Ahold gives suppliers marketing space on its website

Online marketing space

In physical retail stores, suppliers have several options to launch specific marketing campaigns to boost sales. They can also easily see there how often consumers buy something, but the online world does not give suppliers the same options. Web shops are a step into the unknown for suppliers, but Ahold now wants to remedy that situation.

Web shops can be very interesting for suppliers as information on virtually anything can be gathered, and a web shop like Bol.com welcomes 820,000 people on a daily basis, which is twice as much as the largest Dutch newspaper. Thanks to its huge consumer base, Bol.com has become an excellent place for suppliers to go to reach the consumer.

Ahold aims to expand its online platform even more: currently, it has a 1.4 billion euro online turnover, but it wants to boost that to 2.5 billion euro by 2017. Bol.com currently brings in about half of Ahold’s total online turnover, at 680 million euro. The company expects the web shop to maintain that trend in 2017, which means Bol.com will have to reach 1.25 billion euro by then. To stimulate sales, Ahold will invest 60 million euro into its online platforms over the next three years.