You sell through a marketplace like Bol and it works. Orders keep coming in and the platform brings the buyers along. Until something changes in the way your offering is displayed, and you realize that you have little to say about that.
This summer it became clear how that works, at bol itself.
What the ACM and Bol agreed on this summer
The Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) investigated the behavior of bol. On August 3, 2026, the ACM announced that bol had made commitments. The ACM wants to declare those commitments binding and then stop the investigation into that behavior. Comments on that proposed decision could be submitted until September 13. By early October, the final decision had not yet been made.
Part of these commitments directly concerns sellers. bol will communicate faster and handle complaints more quickly, make the general terms and conditions for business sellers clearer and explain better how to file a complaint. bol will also improve how it determines which offers a consumer sees first. And bol states that it will not use data from the platform to give itself an advantage over other sellers.
What this says about selling on a marketplace
An agreement is not a condemnation; for sellers, the rules are made even clearer. But look at what the agreements cover: who is at the top, under what conditions you sell, and how a complaint is handled. These are exactly the things that are determined by the platform on a marketplace, not by you.
The fact that a supervisor had to be involved to get more clarity about that says something about how little a sole seller has the power to say about it themselves.
And there’s something else involved. A customer finds you through the platform, and there’s a good chance that they’ll start searching there again next time. Not with you.
What you decide yourself regarding your own webshop
Running your own webshop revolves around the same questions; only you answer them. You choose your own terms and conditions, within The basic rules for a webshop These apply to everyone. You decide how your products appear and which ones you highlight. And you can later reach out to a customer who has ordered from you with their permission, for example with a newsletter.
That comes with a price, and you need to weigh that carefully. A marketplace brings buyers together. An own online store needs to be found easily, via Google, through ads or via social media. That takes time and effort, especially in the beginning.
No choice between two, but a question
This is not an argument for leaving a marketplace. A marketplace can be a great additional channel, just like a new channel as TikTok Shop. It only becomes a risk if it is your only channel.
The question you can ask yourself is short. What part of my revenue will I lose if the platform changes something tomorrow regarding how my offerings are displayed? If the answer is almost everything, then your business depends on rules that are determined by someone else.
Start with an overview. List by channel where your revenue comes from, and see what’s left if one falls short. If that’s the case, this is a good time to think about a separate webshop next to it. We would be happy to discuss this with you.
