Data study: Amazon's battle with Bol.com for Dutch eCom dominance

We've been tracking organic product visibility in the Netherlands for months. The data shows something that might reshape Dutch e-commerce: Amazon overtook Bol.com in search volume during December 2025, and their organic shopping visibility grew nearly 50% since October.

This isn't about revenue. Bol.com still dominates with €3.1 billion in annual revenue compared to Amazon's estimated €1 billion. But the shift in visibility signals a change in how Dutch consumers discover and compare products. When people search more often for Amazon than Bol during the peak shopping season, that matters.

Note: This research was initially published on Emerce. This article shows the complete data and methodology behind that report.

The story starts with Amazon's €1.4 billion investment announcement in October 2025. That money goes toward logistics, technology, and attracting Dutch third-party sellers. The investment triggered an aggressive marketing push. YouTube ads, TV commercials, social campaigns. The "Ga voor romantiek" commercial alone got 3 million views in 9 days. This visibility campaign worked.

The search volume shift

Google Trends data shows the moment Amazon crossed over. For years, Bol.com dominated branded searches. But in late November and December 2025, Amazon's search volume exceeded Bol's for the first time.

Branded searches signal more than awareness. They indicate purchase intent and trust. When someone types "amazon" into Google instead of "bol," they're actively choosing where to shop. Google's algorithm notices this. Higher branded search volume contributes to domain authority and can influence organic rankings across the board.

Organic shopping visibility grows 50%

Beyond search volume, we tracked what actually appears in Google's product carousels. These are the horizontally scrollable product displays that show up when people search for items like "draadloze oordopjes" or "gaming muis."

Our dataset tracks over 400,000 organic product listings on Google's first page every week. Bol.com holds the largest share. But Amazon's growth is striking.

From November 17, 2025 to January 19, 2026:

• Bol.com: 57,620 → 52,348 listings (-9.15%)
• Amazon Retail: 4,396 → 5,084 listings (+15.65%)
• Amazon Seller: 6,780 → 11,068 listings (+63.24%)

Amazon Seller grew faster than Amazon Retail. This confirms what Amazon stated publicly: more than 60% of products on Amazon.nl come from third-party sellers. Each new seller brings products that Amazon doesn't stock, expanding the catalog and creating more opportunities to rank in Google's organic results.

How third-party sellers drive growth

Amazon uses a two-seller strategy in Google Shopping:

1. Amazon.nl - Retail: Products Amazon sells directly
2. Amazon.nl - Seller: All third-party seller products

This differs from competitors. Bol.com lists everything under one seller name ("bol.com"), regardless of whether Bol or a marketplace seller fulfills it. Walmart in the US fragments each seller ("Walmart - Store Name"), creating thousands of unique seller identities.

Amazon's approach sits between these extremes. Third-party products get grouped under "Amazon.nl - Seller," sharing collective brand authority while maintaining differentiation from Amazon's own retail products.

The strategy works because product feeds determine organic visibility. Every product a seller adds creates another opportunity to rank for relevant searches. When those products group under a single seller name with Amazon's brand authority, they benefit from shared trust signals while scaling the catalog rapidly.

The product feed foundation

Organic shopping visibility depends heavily on Google's Shopping Graph, which indexes over 50 billion products worldwide. Retailers submit product feeds through Google Merchant Center containing titles, descriptions, prices, images, availability, and attributes. Feed quality directly impacts rankings.

This becomes more important as shopping evolves. Google's Universal Commerce Protocol aims to standardize product data sharing across platforms for "agentic commerce" - where AI assistants make purchases on behalf of users. Product feeds become the foundation for how people discover and buy products through multiple channels.

Amazon's third-party seller model scales feed optimization. Each seller manages their own product data, but Amazon's infrastructure ensures consistency and quality across the entire catalog. The result: thousands of well-optimized products entering Google's index simultaneously.

Why this is relevant

Product carousels appear on over 80% of product-related searches and sit at the top of mobile results. Even the #1 organic listing gets pushed down. This changes where e-commerce competition happens.

Amazon's 50% growth in two months shows momentum. Each new third-party seller adds products that create more ranking opportunities. The platform that aggregates and optimizes the most seller products wins visibility at the exact moment consumers are ready to buy.

One interesting finding: Amazon.nl sellers don't appear in German, French, or UK search results organically yet. The "worldwide reach" works within Amazon's platform, but Google Shopping visibility stays national. Dutch sellers benefit from Amazon's brand in the Netherlands, not globally through Google.

The battle continues

Amazon surpassed Bol.com in search volume during December's peak shopping season. Organic visibility grew 50% in two months. But Bol.com still leads significantly in revenue and total product listings.

Amazon's €1.4 billion investment runs through 2027. The money funds logistics for faster delivery, technology for better feed management, and efforts to attract Dutch sellers. If they onboard thousands of sellers like in other markets, catalog expansion continues and ranking opportunities multiply.

Bol.com has 47,000+ sellers, Dutch consumer loyalty, and years of feed optimization experience. The data shows they need to respond to Amazon's growth, but they're not without advantages.

The winner will be determined by continuous feed optimization and which platform attracts more sellers. Organic product carousels capture visibility at the moment consumers are ready to buy. We'll keep tracking the data.