Amazon launches online store in The Netherlands
Amazon has launched its Dutch ecommerce site. Starting tomorrow morning 8 AM, customers can order ebooks and Amazon’s Kindle ereaders online on Amazon.nl. The site offers more than 20,000 Dutch ebooks, as well as 3 million ebooks in other languages. As a result of the launch of Amazon in the Netherlands, the apps and ereaders from the American retailer are now also available in the Dutch language.
Dutch consumers were already able to order Kindles and electronic books using the international Amazon websites, but until today it was impossible to order Dutch books. According to news website Nu.nl Amazon will try and differentiate itself from its competitors with its devices and the features of its apps. The American ecommerce giant doesn’t think it can make a difference with the price of ebooks. “Mostly the price of an ebook is decided by the publishing company or the author”, says Jorrit van der Meulen, vice president of devices for Amazon in Europe.
“Dutch book market is modern”
Negotiations with Dutch publishing companies went smoothly, says Ezequiel Szafir, vice president of Amazon Europe. He says the Dutch book market is modern and has embraced electronic publishing early on, compared to other countries. “So the publishers were ready for this and they reacted positively.”
Amazon.nl has partnered with most major publishers and states that most Dutch bestsellers can be found on the new ecommerce site. One major publisher however, Podium, is still not working together with Amazon as it looked with some scepticism at the alleged expansion of Amazon to the Netherlands.
Although Amazon will offer more than 20,000 Dutch titles, it still won’t be the biggest ebook seller in the country, as the major local ecommerce player Bol.com offers about 30,000 Dutch ebooks. But Amazon on the other hand offers 3 million international books, compared to almost 2 million international titles Bol.com offers. It’s said that 60% of all Dutch ebooks sales are happening on Bol.com.
Interesting tweets about Amazon.nl:
the weird prices of #Kindle devices in the Netherlands launched today €80.33 €100.66 €161.67 €192.17 €253.18 https://t.co/YuIthDxsHh
— Marcello VENA (@marcellovena) November 12, 2014
Amazon.nl also doesn't seem to support iDEAL, good luck trying to gain traction in the Netherlands with just Visa/Mastercard.
— Johan Bruné (@Menthix) November 12, 2014
Stoked to hear Amazon launched in The Netherlands today, too bad it's Kindle ebooks only 🙁
— Jantine Zandbergen (@thequietcold) November 12, 2014
Comments