Bol

Customer journey optimisation: bol enhances shopping experience.

Case Information

Client
Bol
Type
Brand strategy
Sector
Retail
Date
2025
Summary

This case demonstrates how community research provides valuable insights into the customer journey of top customers. By thoroughly understanding their path-to-purchase, you uncover concrete pain points and priorities. This enables you to specifically improve the online shopping experience and thus strengthen your position as a market leader.

The Question

How does Bol strengthen its relationship with customers?

The online retail market is constantly evolving, with new players entering the Dutch market. As a market leader, bol aims to maintain its position by offering customers the best possible shopping experience. To elevate customer journey optimisation, bol wanted to precisely understand how to make customers even happier. What factors influence the ‘path-to-purchase’ and how can a seamless experience be ensured?

6475d7d3b108339bb3c31f79_Bol.com-path-to-purchase-940-x-380

The Challenge

How to gain insight into a complex customer journey?

The challenge was to thoroughly understand the entire customer journey, which starts from the product need and ends with the product’s use or return. This process has many touchpoints and can be influenced by factors such as the device used and the nature of the purchase. Bol wanted to identify the hurdles experienced by top customers, which required a deep, context-rich approach.

the approach

Community research as an agile solution.

Blauw developed an online community of 100 customers from the Netherlands and Flanders to explore the customer journey step by step. Over a period of one and a half weeks, various topics related to the path-to-purchase were covered through forum topics, challenges, and questionnaires. Additionally, deeper insights were gained through focus groups with top customers, specifically addressing topics that required extra dialogue. This agile approach ensured quick results and profound contextual understanding.

The result

bol optimises the online shopping experience.

By placing the path-to-purchase within the context of customer experience, bol identified concrete pain points and priorities for the short and long term.
The research results provided bol with a clear understanding of the optimisation opportunities for the path-to-purchase within the customer journey. By specifically removing the identified obstacles, bol can significantly improve the shopping experience for its top customers, thereby strengthening their loyalty.

Consequence of the Result

How insights have led to action.

Agile insight gathering.

The community remains available to bol, allowing them to continuously and flexibly respond to new questions and changes in customer needs.

Targeted improvement actions.

The online retailer has established concrete priorities for both short-term and long-term improvements, leading to efficient and impactful implementation.

Increased customer loyalty.

By removing obstacles and perfecting the shopping experience, bol enhances the satisfaction and engagement of its top customers, contributing to sustainable growth.

Grolsch

How can Grolsch get more people to choose its beer?

Remia

How does Remia accurately identify which sauce consumers choose for maximum brand growth?

Want to know more?

Want to sharpen your brand positioning around consumer needs and opportunities for growth? Contact us.

Together, we’ll explore where your brand can make a difference.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Customer journey research maps out the entire customer journey, from initial need to post-purchase. This helps you understand and optimise every touchpoint for a smoother and more satisfying experience for your customers.

Community research offers a flexible and fast method for gathering in-depth insights. By maintaining continuous dialogue with a dedicated group of customers, you uncover the context, emotions, and pain points in their journey. This allows for agile responses and more targeted optimisation.

Various methods can be applied during customer journey research, such as forum discussions, challenges, questionnaires, and in-depth focus groups. This mix of methods ensures both quantitative and qualitative data, providing a complete picture of the customer experience.