Positioning Bol.com as a sustainable forerunner
With some 11 million customers in the Netherlands and Belgium, bol.com is at the heart of society. Every day they help customers make a more conscious choice when it comes to their purchases. For example, bol.com opened the “sustainable store” in 2019. In this store, items are labeled with independent sustainability labels, refurbished or made by social entrepreneurs. To make it clear which items carry an independent hallmark, bol.com collaborated with information organization Milieu Centraal. In this way, bol.com is making it easier for its customers to make a conscious choice online. De Wolven was asked to generate maximum positive publicity for ‘the sustainable store’ and thereby position bol.com as a sustainable pioneer.
Approach: bold statement
Bol.com launched the store just before the holidays, the busiest period of the year in terms of online purchases. It is therefore all the more important that it is clear to consumers what they are buying. The news was not groundbreaking, which is why a catchy bold statement is desirable to increase the news value. We therefore investigated what claim we could make regarding the assortment. This turned out to be the widest responsible assortment in the Netherlands and Belgium. The collaboration with Milieu Centraal was also highlighted in the press release to emphasize that the sustainability hallmarks had been validated by an objective party. Two press releases were written to address the widest possible audience. One aimed at trade media and (sustainable) news media and one at lifestyle media that also included sustainable gift ideas for the holidays.
Results
From AD to Flair and from Emerce to Twinklemagazine, the ‘Sustainable Shop’ of bol.com did not go unnoticed. This resulted in more and more consumers making a more conscious choice and the sustainable gifts scored well during the holidays. The opening of a ‘Sustainable Shop’ not only had an effect on the shopping behaviour of customers, but also bol.com’s partners who sold items on the platform were encouraged to make their assortment more sustainable as well. And the sustainable assortment is growing fast: already in 33 percent of all bol.com store shelves, from children’s clothes to care products, they offer a sustainable alternative together with their partners. On to 100 percent in 2022!
"Because bol.com is such a large company, it can really make a positive impact on our society and the environment with its efforts. Sustainability has therefore become an important spearhead in their strategy in recent years, and rightly so. It is valuable to be able to contribute to making their sustainable activities visible."
Marre de Visser, PR advisor
