Bol.com sees 70 percent sales increase in the past quarter

In the last quarter of 2020, the online electronics store Bol.com saw a 69.9 percent sales increase. This was shown in statistics presented by their parent company Ahold Delhaize, NU.nl reports.

For the upcoming year, Ahold Delhaize expects sales for Bol.com to grow by a further 30 percent, totaling five billion euros by the end of 2021.

Ahold Delhaize, who is also the owner of the supermarket chain Albert Heijn, said the sharp increase in Bol.com sales is largely due to the closure of all non-essential stores in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus. When stores first closed during the third quarter of 2020, Bol.com saw a 45.6 percent sales increase which rose to a 69.9 percent increase in the fourth quarter.

The total online turnover of Ahold Delhaize was 7.6 billion euros in the past year, 4.3 billion euros of which were attributed solely to Bol.com. Overall, Ahold Delhaize sales rose by 14.3 increase in 2020 making 74.7 billion euros in revenue.

The parent company of Bol.com and Albert Heijn invested 680 million euros in enforcing coronavirus restrictions. This included 45 thousand new jobs and higher wages for some workers. “2020 has shown how vital the role of the supermarket is and I am incredibly proud of how we handled it”, CEO of Ahold Delhaize, Frans Muller, said to NU.nl.

The extra restrictions caused Ahold Delhaize to lose 9 million euros in the third quarter of 2020. Additionally, 11 million euros were set aside for higher mandated pension expenditure. This resulted in Ahold Delhaize's overall profit for 2020 dropping to 1.4 billion euros, 21 percent less than a year prior.