Prerequisites Before Activating bol
Before activating the bol marketplace in Shoppingfeed, make sure the following requirements are met and consistent across your seller account and product catalog:
- An active bol seller account in the Seller Dashboard
- Valid EANs for the products you want to publish
- Sales prices that are properly configured and consistent with your pricing strategy
- Available inventory that is up to date and synchronized
- A fulfillment method configured: FBB (Fulfilled by bol) or FBR (Fulfilled by Retailer), depending on your fulfillment model
- Product content available in the languages required for the country where you are selling
Important Data Required to Publish Offers
To successfully publish an offer on bol, the following information must be present and up to date in Shoppingfeed:
- EAN: Required product identifier used to match your product with the bol catalog.
- Price: An active selling price with the correct currency and pricing rules applied.
- Stock: Available inventory to prevent listings from going offline or becoming out of stock.
- Country of sale:
- NL – Netherlands
- BE – Belgium
Language to Use for bol Product Pages
The language of the product page depends on the target country of sale:
Netherlands: Dutch should be prioritized.
Belgium: French can be used for product pages intended for the Belgian market.
bol supports several languages depending on the targeted regions:
- nl: Netherlands and Dutch-speaking Belgium
- nl-BE: Dutch-speaking Belgium only
- fr: France and Wallonia
- fr-BE: Wallonia only
Even though bol may enrich or translate certain product information, it is best not to rely solely on this translation. An incomplete or untranslated product page may delay publication or limit the display quality on the marketplace side.
Do I Need to Create Two Shoppingfeed Accounts?
In most cases, no. A single Shoppingfeed account is sufficient if you manage only one bol seller account.
You should create two Shoppingfeed accounts only if you need to keep your catalogs, pricing, or fulfillment operations completely separate. This may apply in situations such as:
- Separate product catalogs with different business rules
- Independent pricing structures
- Separate fulfillment operations requiring distinct configurations
The decision to use multiple Shoppingfeed accounts should therefore be based on your commercial and technical organization, not solely on the language of your listings.
bol Fulfillment Methods: FBB and FBR
FBB (Fulfilled by bol)
Inventory is managed by bol. This fulfillment method is suitable if you want bol to handle the storage, order preparation, and shipping of your products.
FBR (Fulfilled by Retailer)
Inventory is managed by the seller. This fulfillment method is suitable if you ship orders yourself from your own warehouse or through a third-party logistics provider (3PL).
Configuring the Delivery Promise for FBR
When using FBR (Fulfilled by Retailer), you must configure a delivery promise. This information allows bol to display an accurate estimated delivery time to customers. If the delivery promise is missing or inconsistent, bol may take your offer offline.
BOL_DELIVERY_PROMISE
The standard delivery promise defined by bol. Use this option if you fulfill orders yourself and want to apply one of bol's predefined delivery promises.
Depending on the configuration, you may need to provide:
- The minimum delivery time
- The maximum delivery time
- The order cut-off time
MY_DELIVERY_PROMISE
A custom delivery promise created in the bol Seller Dashboard. Use this option only if you have already created a custom delivery promise in your bol seller account.
Important: If you send
MY_DELIVERY_PROMISEwithout having a corresponding custom delivery promise configured in the bol Seller Dashboard, bol may take your offer offline.
SHIPPING_VIA_BOL
This option is intended for sellers using Shipping via bol. It should only be used if your seller account has been enrolled in this service by bol.
Which Value Should You Use?
Choose the appropriate configuration based on your fulfillment setup:
- Fulfillment is managed by bol → FBB
- You fulfill orders yourself using bol's standard delivery promise → FBR + BOL_DELIVERY_PROMISE
- You fulfill orders yourself using a custom delivery promise created in bol → FBR + MY_DELIVERY_PROMISE
- You use Shipping via bol → FBR + SHIPPING_VIA_BOL
Best Practices for Configuring bol in Shoppingfeed
Before enabling your exports to bol, make sure the following items have been verified:
- Valid EANs are present for all products.
- Prices are correctly configured.
- Inventory levels are up to date.
- The correct country of sale has been selected.
- The selected fulfillment method matches your configuration in bol.
- The configured delivery promise exists in the bol Seller Dashboard.
- Product content is available in the appropriate language.
- The relevant products are enabled in Shoppingfeed.
- Any Shoppingfeed rules applied to the bol channel do not incorrectly modify required values.
Common Issue: Offer Is Offline
If a bol offer appears to be offline, first verify the following:
- The product EAN
- The submitted price
- The submitted stock level
- The country of publication
- The selected fulfillment method
- The configured delivery promise
- The language and completeness of the product content
- Any publication errors or rejection reasons returned by bol
If the offer uses MY_DELIVERY_PROMISE, make sure the corresponding custom delivery promise exists in the bol Seller Dashboard.
If the offer uses SHIPPING_VIA_BOL, verify that your seller account is enrolled in the Shipping via bol service.
Common Issue: The Product Exists in Dutch but Not in French
If your product is successfully published in Dutch but the French product page is missing or incomplete, check the following:
- The French fields are present in your source catalog.
- The French fields are correctly mapped in your bol channel configuration.
- All required attributes are populated for the French language.
- The BE (Belgium) country of sale is enabled if you are targeting the Belgian market.
- bol has successfully processed or enriched the product information.
For sales in French-speaking Belgium (Wallonia), it is recommended to provide French product content directly whenever possible, rather than relying solely on automatic translation or content enrichment by bol.
Key Takeaways
- In most cases, a single Shoppingfeed account is sufficient if you manage only one bol seller account.
- The essential data required to publish offers are the EAN, price, stock, and country of sale.
- Dutch should be prioritized for the Netherlands, while French can be used for the Belgian market.
- When using FBR (Fulfilled by Retailer), you must configure the correct delivery promise.
- If an offer is offline, start by checking the EAN, price, stock, country of sale, and fulfillment configuration.