Bol.com is going to help its sales partners become more sustainable by offering a network of advisory and support parties. This should make it easier for bol.com’s 51,000 sales partners to quickly find good help in mapping their carbon footprint, reducing and offsetting emissions and making their assortment more sustainable. Bol.com already offsets its own CO2 emissions and those of sales partners as much as possible, with this step the company will also help partners to become more sustainable themselves. In the initial phase, hundreds of sales partners are expected to make use of this network.
How it works
Through Apps & Services on bol.com’s Partner platform, bol.com already put sales partners in touch with third parties who can support them in their growth. Among other things, these parties can help with the automation and optimisation of pricing or provide strategic advice. For these services, bol.com previously entered partnerships with third parties, such as with Rabobank for applying for financing and with insurer Insify. Sustainability support has now been added.
The advantage for the sales partner lies in bol.com’s pre-selection of reliable parties and the easier connection through the new network of advisory and support parties. Currently, The Terrace, Rainbow Collection, Vaayu, Returnless and GroenBalans are part of the network. These are parties that can help sales partners gain insight into emissions and provide concrete advice on how to make purchasing or producing items more sustainable. In time, more parties and thus other services will be added.
83% sales partners want to make business more sustainable
Leontine Gast, director at consultancy firm The Terrace: ‘There is a huge drive and need to become more sustainable. While we see that many entrepreneurs don’t know where to start. What is expected of you? How do you prioritise, set goals, measure your impact and communicate about sustainability? Complicated questions, especially if you have your hands full with day-to-day business as a company. A trusted advisor with a lot of knowledge about sustainability can really make a difference then. That’s why it’s so great that bol.com is now making it easier for their sales partners to find the right sparring partner.’
Boukje Taphoorn, Chief Marketing & Sustainability Officer at bol.com: ‘83% of our sales partners want to make their business more sustainable, but many of them don’t know where to start. In addition to the steps we take ourselves as a company, we like to help sales partners with their own sustainable development. For this, we use the existing expertise in the market, sustainability is a big task that we have to do together.’
Sustainability at bol.com
From 2022, bol.com will be climate neutral according to the Climate Neutral Certification standard. More information on sustainability at bol.com can be found here.