Price Policy

To prevent customers from having negative experiences when buying something via bol, there are a number of guidelines for pricing. This keeps things fair and clear for everyone.

1. Relevant market prices

To determine the optimal selling price, we calculate the relevant market price. First, we look at the price of the same item from other providers. If there are none, we look at the recommended retail price and the historical platform price. When we compare your price with the price of the same item from other providers, these are the guidelines:

• Anything that can be shipped to the Netherlands or Belgium within acceptable delivery times, including shipping costs, is a valid benchmark. Does a benchmark have a longer delivery time than 14 days? Then we will not compare your item with it.
• We sometimes include benchmarks from physical stores.
• We exclude benchmarks from business-to-business, second-hand, or unreliable providers.
• Benchmarks do not have to be exactly the same:
  • Items with the same specifications but a different “whitelabel” also represent a competitive market price.
  • We also do not distinguish between items based on product specifications that generally do not cause a price difference, such as different colors/sizes.
• To determine the optimal selling price, we calculate the maximum allowed market price, in short: MTP. bol does not display items with a price above the MTP on the platform. To arrive at the Maximum Allowed Price, a buffer is included on top of the benchmark and shipping costs. This means you do not have to use the exact price of the benchmark including shipping costs. You retain room to determine your own price.
• If we do not have benchmarks (a benchmark is a price comparison with another webshop), we calculate and use the historical price. We compare the average price of each item between 6 and 8 months ago with the average price in the past 2 months. Promotions, second-hand items, and seasonal items are not included in this. Based on this calculation, we determine the Maximum Allowed Price*: a price that is good for you and for our customers.

  *When calculating the Maximum Allowed Price based on the historical price, we take into account a certain buffer on top of the historical price. In this way, we also account for possible inflation/price increases.

2. Equal prices

Customers compare prices online. Therefore, it is important that prices for the same item are as equal as possible. The shipping costs are part of the relevant market price.

3. Logical second-hand prices

Are you selling a second-hand item via bol that is also offered as a new item? Then the price of the second-hand item (including shipping costs and excluding service contribution) may never be higher than the new price - €1.99. If no new price is known? Then we look at the maximum price for which a new item could be sold.

In Belgium, additional rules apply to some things:

• There are legal conditions for sales periods;
• Items may be sold twice a year at heavily reduced prices;
• These periods are legally defined;
• Additional rules apply to the product categories of clothing, leather goods, and shoes;
• All information on this can be found on the website of the Belgian government.

In the Netherlands, many books have a fixed price. You can't sell these books for more than this set price. We check whether your offers comply with the Fixed Book Price Act. Your selling price in the Netherlands cannot exceed the fixed price plus a maximum of €7 shipping costs. Do you want to look up the fixed price of a title? Please visit devasteboekenprijs.nl.

These rules currently only apply to new books. We don't include second-hand books in our enforcement yet.

What this means for you

If an offer doesn't follow the rules, we'll take it offline. Once you adjust the price to the correct level, your offer automatically returns online. At a later stage, we'll also check for a minimum price. We'll inform you about this in good time.

Het is belangrijk om bij het instellen van je prijs rekening te houden met een aantal dingen:

1. De door jou ingestelde verkoopprijs is inclusief verzendkosten. De verzendkosten kun je niet los in rekening brengen.
2. Bij het berekenen van de relevante marktprijs wordt bol als aanbieder niet meegenomen. We kijken alleen naar concurrerende aanbieders en adviesprijzen. Het is namelijk mogelijk dat je inkoopprijs hoger ligt dan de prijs die bol voert. De inkoopprijs kan voor ons lager zijn, omdat bol groot inkoopt. Daardoor kunnen we een lagere verkoopprijs hanteren.
3. Het is mogelijk dat je de adviesprijs volgt, maar dat de prijs alsnog boven de relevante marktprijs ligt. De fabrikant en de leverancier bepalen de adviesprijs. Als andere relevante aanbieders hetzelfde artikel goedkoper dan de adviesprijs aanbieden, kan de relevante marktprijs lager uitvallen.