Amazon launches attack on Netherlands with "millions of products”

Dutch retailers, brace yourselves: Amazon is serious about its expansion to the Netherlands. The previously announced Dutch webshop is opening its doors later this year and will offer “millions of products” straight away. Will Belgium follow in the slipstream?

Twenty product categories

Amazon will storm the Dutch market in 2020 and will be recruiting plenty of external suppliers. The e-commerce giant has announced that it is looking for retailers in more than twenty categories, including fashion and electronics. Those who want to offer their products on Amazon.nl, can start registering at the American juggernaut as of today.

Alex Ootes, Amazon’s responsible for EU expansion, says his company is pleased to offer both large and small Dutch companies the opportunity to sell on Amazon.nl and other European sites. He thinks the advantage is twofold: it will increase the offer for Dutch consumers and the reach – at home and abroad – for Dutch retailers. At the moment, only e-books are for sale on Amazon.nl; for other products, customers are forwarded to a Dutch version of Amazon.de. A launch of a full-blown Dutch version would put a huge amount of pressure on current market leaders bol.com and Coolblue.

It is expected that the Dutch move will also be felt in Belgium, RetailDetail editor in chief Stefan Van Rompaey says. As Amazon is already number one in French-speaking Belgium and Dutch-speaking Belgians already find their way ‘en masse’ to Dutch platforms such as Bol.com, everything points to a massive success in the North of Belgium as well. “Bol.com, Coolblue and others should brace themselves”, Van Rompaey concludes.