Customer Reviews' service standard removed from the performance score

The service standards 'Items on time', 'Cancellations', and 'Track & trace' will remain part of the performance score. The Customer Reviews score will remain visible with the displayed items on the bol website.

We have removed the 'Customer Reviews' service standard from the performance score because it was the only component of the performance score based on personal opinions. The performance score is part of the scores considered for the buy box. The higher you score on the service standards, the greater the chance of obtaining a position in the buy box. Since the buy box is important for our partners, we believe it is essential to only include facts. Therefore, we have decided to remove this score entirely from the performance score, so that it now consists only of objective scores.

In this way, we are working together to create an even better functioning platform for all of us.

This means that the Conditions of Use Professional Sales via bol will change. One sentence will be removed (see the bolded sentence)

Conditions of Use Professional Sales via bol

Article 12 - Ranking

1. On the Platform, items are presented according to various ranking mechanisms, namely via i) the list page, ii) the search page, iii) the item page, and iv) recommendations.
2. The ranking mechanisms mentioned in paragraph 1 each use different parameters, which will be explained below:

i) The list page is the page displayed after using the selection menu on the Platform. Which items appear on a list page is determined by the category in which the items are placed. The list page is a reflection of the items in the relevant category. The order of the items on a list page is determined by an algorithm that calculates the popularity score. This algorithm uses customer interaction data, with recent days being important. This includes, among other things:a. the number of sales of an item;b. the number of clicks on an item.

It is possible for the professional partner to appear higher on the list page by advertising.

ii) The search page is the page displayed after using the search bar on the Platform. Which items appear on a search page is determined by a combination of a popularity score (see under i) above) and a so-called 'relevance score'. The relevance score is determined based on the information known about the items, including their title and specifications. An item can thus 'match' to a greater or lesser extent, which yields a relevance score. Professional partners can appear higher on the search page by advertising.

iii) If multiple professional partners offer the same item on the Platform, bol tries to serve the customer by recommending one professional partner. Based on the so-called 'buy box algorithm', that professional partner has the best offer for the customer at that moment and thus obtains the Buy Box. The most important parameters used to evaluate a professional partner's offer are:

a. orderability of the item;b. quality of the item (e.g., new, second-hand, returned, etc.);c. price of the item including shipping costs and VAT;d. delivery conditions, consisting of:

• delivery time of the item;
• period within which item delivery takes place (e.g., ordered before 11:00 PM, delivered tomorrow);
• additional delivery options: allowing the customer to choose a different (later) delivery time.

e. performance score of the professional partner which is based on:

• delivery reliability;
• cancellations of orders by the professional partner;
• customer reviews; => Please note: this sentence will be removed
• traceability of deliveries based on track & trace.

iv) On various pages, bol displays recommendations that bol expects to be relevant in relation to the item the customer is viewing, such as “Others also viewed”. The order of the recommended items is determined by an algorithm that calculates the popularity score. This algorithm uses customer interaction data, where more recent data is more important than older data. In addition, bol uses content from the catalog, as mentioned in Article 9.1 of the Conditions of Use. The information used for customer interaction data and content includes:

a. what customers who viewed the item also clicked on;b. which items those customers ultimately bought;c. the comparability (including title, description, brand, category, price, etc.) of the item with the potentially recommended items.