Amazon to the Netherlands: what are the consequences?

In the corridors it is now more than clear: Amazon is going to do a serious shot at the Dutch market. Recovery: Amazon.nl will go live in February 2020. With the name Amazon you might think of 'the American Bol.com', but with that description the power and influence of Amazon are underestimated. The expected impact of the arrival of Amazon in the Netherlands is overwhelming. Not only consumers, but also retailers, wholesalers, web shops and manufacturers will notice the major consequences, online and offline. Where Amazon goes, the entire market simply changes.

Size Amazon: Gigantic

A nice fact to talk about during your next drink evening: of every dollar spent online in America, about 43 cents go to Amazon. One of the major strengths of Amazon is the enormous scale on which the company operates. Did you know, for example, that Amazon has its own planes, so that goods can reach consumers as quickly as possible? Low prices and a huge range are achievements with which Amazon binds customers. But it doesn't stop there.

Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime, Amazon's subscription service, is perhaps the most important weapon in Amazon's arsenal to win and retain customers. For a few dollars or euros per month you get access to, among other things, a streaming film / TV service, the Prime Day (an annual shop event specifically for Prime members), cloud storage, photo storage, Twitch Prime (for online gaming) and special offers. Amazon Prime is already available in the Netherlands, but without the unlimited music, radio and ebook access that you do get abroad. However, it is not expected to take too long before Dutch consumers can also experience these services via Amazon Prime. To illustrate: of all British online shoppers, about 33% (!!) has a subscription to Amazon Prime.

Amazon to the Netherlands?

For years rumors have circulated that Amazon is coming to the Netherlands. Amazon.nl is currently still a book site, but not long ago, Amazon.de was expanded with the Dutch language variant and the option to pay with iDeal. Dutch consumers can order items there and have them delivered to the Netherlands, which means that Amazon is already a strong market position here has.

The online department store is in place 28 of websites with the largest reach - startling for a platform that is hardly ever active in the Netherlands - and already converted some 250 million euros in the Netherlands last year. The group is thus already leaving major players such as Media Markt behind.

Death by Amazon

What will be the impact of Amazon's arrival in the Netherlands? In one word: huge. Where Amazon enters the market, it does like an elephant in a china cabinet. Not for nothing has there been such a thing as the 'Death by Amazon 'index: an index of 54 large retailers that are expected to have the most impact with competition from Amazon. Players like Bol.com and Coolblue will have to look at their business model again and have to ask themselves what makes them unique compared to Amazon. With Amazon as your direct competitor, you are rarely the cheapest or the fastest.

Voice is the All New business

Finally: where concerns like bol.com stop, Amazon goes on. Alexa, Amazon's own speech assistant that you can link to numerous devices and use as a personal assistant, is a good example of that. If you want to order an item, you can just tell Alexa in the near future. With this kind of new business models, Amazon is constantly building a superior customer loyalty and customer experience. That superiority will make Amazon, also in the Netherlands, hit like a bomb.

Amazon follows the blue ocean strategy: creating new markets without competition. Because once you've brought that cheap and super-handy Alexa home, you only order from Amazon or from partners. This way Google and Facebook are put out of play. And while they are also busy with voice as a channel, Amazon already has the complete infrastructure for a successful e-commerce.