Bol sees turnover grow 6.3 %

Bol(.com) managed to raise its sales and market share, owner Ahold Delhaize says. The e-commerce company’s sustainability report also makes for some interesting reading.

On the up

Since this year, Ahold Delhaize no longer reports separate figures on e-commerce subsidiary Bol. Accordingly, the strong quarterly results the retailer published yesterday did not contain any details about the online branch. However, Belgian newspaper De Tijd managed to get hold of the figures: online sales raised 6.3 %to 0.7 billion euros, spokesperson Isabelle Meltzer said. “The market share grew by 20 basis points to 18.3 %, while the market grew only slightly this year.”

The years of exponential growth for e-commerce are over since the normalisation of buying behaviour after the pandemic. Moreover, with Amazon, a solid competitor was added in the Benelux.

Without packaging

Bol’s 2023 sustainability report also contained some interesting – albeit non-financial – figures. For example: the online store shipped more than 5.1 million items packaging-free, up 20 % from the previous year. In doing so, the company saved 480,000 kilograms of cardboard and emitted 500 tons of CO2 less. 1.7 million items with sustainability benefits now carry the Good Choice label, to help customers more easily make conscious choices. 90 % of the 170,000 items returned last year were given a second life as Return Deal (when only the packaging is damaged) or Breezy Return Chance (when the product is slightly damaged but functional).

Bol’s 13,000 solar panels generated nine gigawatts of energy, the consumption of some 1,800 households. Another power saving measure was the closure of Tower B of the headquarters in Utrecht each Friday: this saves the electricity consumption of about fifteen households. Bol celebrated its 25th anniversary this spring: during that time the platform sold 38 million items to now 13.5 million active customers.