Amazon still does not have a complete web shop in Dutch, but that does not stop the American eCommerce giant to launch new services in the region. Starting today, Amazon Prime is available in the whole of Belgium and the Netherlands.
Free shipping
Customers with an Amazon Prime subscription can get their orders delivered at home for free and get access to Prime Video. Members also get discounts, can store photographs online for free and get a paid account for gaming streaming service Twitch. The entry level price is 3.99 euros per month or 49 euros per year. Starting April 2018, it will increase to 5.99 euro per month. In order to use the free shipping, customers will have to order off the German web shop, which includes iDeal as a payment service. A entirely Dutch web shop does not seem likely in the near future: Amazon.nl does exist, but only sells eBooks.
For the Dutch-speaking people, the subscription will be a lot cheaper than for the Germans, who have to pay 7.99 euros per month. However, they do get access to the German web shop’s full product range. Bol.com has a similar service, called Select, but that only costs 9.99 euro per year. It also included free shipping and same-day delivery (and Sunday deliveries), which Amazon does not offer.
Prime’s expansion is meant to build a large customer pool here, after Amazon had already added the Dutch language to its iOS and Android apps, which enabled Dutch-speaking customers to place orders more easily.
French-speaking Belgians have had access to Amazon Prime since late last year, but have to go to the French website.
