When you think of large Dutch e-commerce companies, the first two names that will come up are Coolblue and Bol.com. With a revenue of respectively 884 and 1220 million euro’s they are the biggest online retailers in the Netherlands (Retailtrends, 2018). E-commerce is a booming business, as the growth rate of e-commerce sales raised with 10,9% last year (Customertalk, 2019).
The Ecommerce Foundation (2018) did research on the Dutch e-commerce market. They found that when Dutch consumers shop online, they prefer to shop at a Dutch online retailer and 95% of sales are from national sellers. After that come the Chinese online retailers and after them English and German retailers. So, for now Chinese online retailers are the biggest competitors from outside the country for the Dutch online retail market. The biggest competitive advantage that Chinese webshops have, involves the low prices that they offer. Also, in most cases, they do not ask for any shipping costs, even not for their lowest priced products (Extendure, n.d.). The second point is very important for Dutch consumers, as The Ecommerce Foundation (2018) found that they are very price sensitive regarding deliveries.
But, there are also large disadvantages for Dutch consumers to order from Chinese retailers. The biggest problem is that deliveries can take several weeks because the goods have to be shipped all over the world. Also the prices from Chinese online retailers can be a bit misleading. Because of regulations and costs that come with that, a price can be much higher than the mentioned price on the webshop. The report of The Ecommerce Foundation (2018), shows that after low delivery costs, it is very important for Dutch consumers to know the day and time of delivery at the time of purchase, and that the process is fast. These criteria are both not met by Chinese retailers and therefore, these proof to be a big disadvantage.
To conclude, there are several advantages and disadvantages of buying goods at Chinese retailers. You can buy stuff at a very low price and sometimes you don’t have to pay any delivery costs. It can however happen that you have to pay a higher price due to regulations and you also will have to wait several weeks for your goods to arrive. Therefore, Chinese e-commerce companies will not take over the Dutch retail market anytime soon in my opinion. The focus should be more on online retailers who can offer the same services Dutch online retailers provide, at a lower price.
https://retailtrends.nl/news/53996/bol-com-blijft-de-grootste-webshop-zalando-terug-in-top-drie
https://www.customertalk.nl/nieuws/de-omzet-in-e-commerce-blijft-gestaag-groeien-in-nederland/
Ecommerce Foundation. (2018) Ecommerce Report The Netherlands 2018. Retrieved 5 October 2019 from: https://www.safeshops.be/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Dutch-Full-Ecommerce-Report-2018.pdf
https://www.extendure.com/veroveren-chinese-webshops-de-nederlandse-markt/
https://www.mhlnews.com/global-supply-chain/us-online-shoppers-turning-international-retailers
