Dutch e-tailer Bol.com has again posted a double-digit growth in the last quarter, mainly thanks to rising sales from trading partners. Advertising revenue is also growing explosively for the Ahold Delhaize subsidiary.
Growing share of sales partners
Bol.com’s Gross Merchandise Value rose to 1.4 billion euros in the second quarter, up 10.5 % from a year earlier, parent company Ahold Delhaize reported in its recently published quarterly update. The growth of the online platform is mainly due to strong performance of third-party sellers, where trading volume increased by 13.3 %. The 52,000 sales partners now account for 66 % of sales and that share still continues to rise.
An increasingly important source of income for Bol.com is advertising revenue, which raked in 73 % more – but Ahold Delhaize does not provide a concrete sales figure. The group also does not disclose profit or loss figures for the web shop. CEO Frans Muller built on the good results by telling Bloomberg that a potential Bol.com IPO is still a possibility – despite last year’s cancelled attempt.
Overall, Ahold Delhaize’s online sales grew by 9.3 % to 2.9 billion euros. That figure includes not only sales at Bol.com, but also e-commerce sales of supermarkets.
