Discover the advantages and disadvantages of logistics via bol.com in this blog post. Learn why a good delivery promise is important and how Logistics via Bol (LVB) works. Increase your revenue and customer satisfaction with smart choices in order processing.
Expanding your reach and increasing your revenue, that's why you sell on marketplaces. Making smart choices is crucial to ensure your profit also grows. When selling on marketplaces, the logistics of order processing is a topic you'll deal with extensively. The impact of cut-off times, optimizing delivery times, and deciding whether to handle logistics yourself or outsource it is significant. In this blog post, we'll take you through the advantages, disadvantages, and opportunities of self-shipping and Logistics via Bol (LVB).
When listing items on a marketplace like bol.com, you need to provide a delivery time for the product. This delivery time depends on when the item is ordered This is called the delivery promise.
One of the most important parameters for achieving the buy box on bol.com is meeting your delivery promise. Bol.com strictly checks for compliance with your delivery promise. If you do not deliver according to your promise, you receive a strike. If you receive too many strikes, your account on the marketplace will be closed.
A good delivery promise also helps increase customer satisfaction, resulting in better reviews (another parameter that counts towards achieving the buy box).
With Logistics via bol.com, you offer your customers fast, reliable, and flexible delivery by outsourcing your logistics process to bol.com. Orders placed before 23:59 via bol.com are often delivered the next day in both the Netherlands and Belgium.
Logistics via bol is not suitable for all types of products. There are maximum dimensions of 75x55x45 cm and a weight limit of 10 kg for items that can be sent via LVB. So if you sell washing machines, you cannot use LVB for your offerings.
You may have to pay a surcharge for certain items such as fragile items, products with limited shelf life, watches, bags/leather goods, baby and toddler clothing, sports clothing, and shoes. Dangerous or flammable substances cannot be shipped via LVB.
Logistics via bol is not always cheap. Whether LVB is cost-effective in your situation depends on multiple factors.
The rates for Logistics via bol.com depend on the weight and dimensions of the order. On average, the costs range from EUR 2.37 to EUR 6.54 per item (excluding storage costs). You can find an up-to-date overview of the costs on bol.com's rates page. Generally, the LVB rates include the following costs:
Keep in mind that bol.com increases storage rates for items leading up to the holiday season (November/December).
This cannot be answered definitively. It depends heavily on your product offerings and the agreements you have made with carriers. It is worthwhile to calculate the costs of self-shipping vs. Logistics via bol.com.
It is valuable to consider whether a hybrid approach is beneficial for you. This means using both your own warehouse and the marketplace's fulfillment center.
You can do this by looking at the distribution of your orders throughout the day. If most orders come in before your own warehouse's cut-off time, then fulfill those orders yourself. This way, you save on LVB costs. Anything that comes in after this cut-off time can be handled via Logistics via bol.com. This allows you to maintain a maximum delivery promise of "ordered today before 23:59, delivered tomorrow," significantly increasing your chances of achieving the buy box (and thus better conversion rates). Additionally, you save significantly on your fulfillment costs. A win-win situation!
At EffectConnect, we always think about these practical situations. That's why we have come up with a clever way to automate the above situation. With our software, you can automatically switch between listings that are fulfilled by the marketplace and listings that are shipped from your own warehouse. You can even set cut-off times per location, so the software automatically switches between your own inventory and the inventory at LVB. By making this strategic switch, you often generate a lot of additional profit per day without having to increase your revenue!
Want to learn more? Request your personalized demo now, and let us show you EffectConnect in action!
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