Bol.com or your own webshop?

Design by Karina is a strategy-first boutique Shopify agency in Rotterdam for premium fashion and beauty brands. We design and build Shopify stores for brands across the Netherlands and Belgium, and we turn what makes your brand different into a reason to choose you, so you know which side I'm on. But bol.com has real strengths, and I'd like to go through them fairly. This guide sits next to Selling online as an independent fashion brand, and if you're thinking about Etsy too, there's Shopify vs Etsy.

What bol.com is good at for fashion and beauty

Bol.com is a marketplace, and people shop there by product, price and how fast it will arrive. That works for you when your product is easy to compare, like a clear skincare format or a defined clothing category, and you want orders coming in while you're still building the brand. You sell inside bol's rules, in bol's look and with bol's return terms, and in exchange you get reach you didn't have to build on your own.

Where it's weaker is being remembered. Ask someone where they bought something and they'll probably say bol, not the name of your brand. Your size chart, the story behind your ingredients, your ritual and your email list all get less room than on a store you design yourself.

And that room can matter a lot. Thereza Pedrosa Gallery sells art jewelry by more than 40 makers, and collectors follow the artist first and the piece second. So its Shopify store has a page per maker and picks in Thereza's own words, and that wouldn't fit into a listing. On the beauty side, Zourani's store has a skin-concern selector and a product comparison, in Dutch, French and English.

How bol commission works (official, checked November 5, 2026)

This comes from bol's Partnerplatform page on commission (partnerplatform.bol.com/nl/idp/commissie, checked November 5, 2026):

• Listing your assortment on bol is free. You pay when something sells.

• Commission has two parts, a fixed amount per item and a variable percentage of the selling price including VAT. Both depend on the type of item and, in some cases, the selling price.

• Bol publishes a category table as an estimate. The exact rate for your article and price is in your seller account under Artikelen.

• If your business is based in the Netherlands, bol charges 21% VAT on the commission, and you'll see it on the seller invoice. Sellers in other EU countries provide a foreign VAT number, so commission is invoiced without VAT under the reverse-charge rules.

So there's no single commission for fashion or beauty. It varies by category, by the type of article and by the price, which is why I'm not putting numbers here. You can download the current table from bol's commission page, and for your own products, look up the article and the price in your seller account. That number counts more than anything you read on a blog, this one included.

Because the percentage is on the price including VAT, do your margin math from that price. If you're not sure how the VAT works out for your business, check with whoever does your books.

Fees change, so look at the Partnerplatform again before you set your prices.

When your own Shopify store should come first

Open Shopify first when the brand is what you're selling. That's when the story, the photos, the size chart or skin advice next to the button and an email list for your next collection are what make people choose you. You'll also want a say in the checkout, in how you explain returns and in how your variants show. And you need to be ready to bring people to the store yourself, through search, email and social, even if it's only a few people at first.

This is the part we help with. We start by working out who is buying and what they need to know, design the pages around that and build them on Shopify.

When bol.com helps first (or beside the store)

Selling on bol.com helps when you need sales from people who already search there, or when your product sits in a clear category that matches how people shop on the platform. I'd see it as one place where you sell, and not as your brand. So bring the same photos, the same facts about size or ingredients and the same returns promise you'd have on your own store, because if a buyer finds you on Shopify later, you want them to recognize you.

If you want both, the order depends on your product and where your brand is. A product that's easy to compare can start on bol while you build the store. A label people choose for its story needs a place of its own sooner. Either way, this is how I'd keep it under control:

• Give your story, your product pages and your email signup a place on your own store as early as you can.

• Put a selection on bol, the products that fit how people search there.

• Keep your own store out of the parcel. Bol's seller terms don't allow folders or samples with an order, and buyer details are only there to handle the order, so you can't use them to bring people to your webshop. Talk about your store on your own channels, like social.

• Connect the two, so you don't keep orders and stock in two places. We can connect your Shopify store to bol.com. The listings themselves stay with you, because we don't do listing work.

• Look at your margin after commission every quarter, so you know what bol is bringing in.

I go through the choice in more detail in own store or marketplaces.

bol.com and Shopify side by side

Good to know in the Netherlands

• KVK and BTW. To sell on bol you need an active KVK registration and a valid BTW number, or the Belgian equivalent if you're based there. Bol's seller terms ask for both.

• BTW on commission. A Dutch business pays 21% BTW on the commission and sees it on the seller invoice. Belgian sellers give their BTW number, and the commission is invoiced without BTW under the reverse-charge rules.

• Returns. Bol's terms give buyers 30 days to change their mind. On your own store the legal minimum is 14 days. If you run both, decide what you want to promise, so a customer doesn't get two different stories.

• Payments. On bol, the payment runs through bol. On your own Shopify store you offer iDEAL yourself, at €0.29 per payment through Shopify Payments, and it's moving to Wero step by step, which I explain in Shopify, iDEAL and Wero.

• Your own store has rules too. Your KVK number, BTW number and contact details have to be on the site, and since June 2026 you need a withdrawal button.