Your bol dashboard broke in January. That was not an outage and not a sales dip, but a new way of measuring. Since then a second change has landed on top of it that weighs more heavily on your position in the buy block, and it received far less attention.
This article sets out what actually changed in 2026 about the way bol measures and rates you. We stay with what bol publishes itself, and we point out explicitly where bol makes no claims at all.
January's trend break: a new measurement system
bol renewed its measurement system for advertising and e-commerce data according to IAB Europe standards. The rollout was phased:
| Component | Date |
|---|---|
| Seller account | 6 January 2026 |
| Branded Shelves | 13 January 2026 |
| Managed Advertising | 28 January 2026 |
| Supplier account | 16 February 2026 |
The data was adjusted retroactively to 1 January 2026. That explains the kink in your graphs: same period, different calculation method.
What matters is what bol says about it, and above all how little that is. The announcement of the new measurement system states that customer behaviour is measured in a new way, and that search volumes and customer visits on product and landing pages may therefore come out slightly differently than before. bol gives no further technical detail.
That is worth noting, because elaborate explanations circulate in the market about what supposedly changed under the bonnet. We could not trace those back to bol documentation. What is established is the trend break and the date. What the measurement difference is per metric, bol does not publish.
The practical consequence still stands: do not compare data from after 1 January 2026 with data from before it. A drop of tens of percent can sit entirely in the measurement method. Treat Q1 2026 as your new baseline and build your trend analysis on that.
The change that weighs more: the quality score
On Wednesday 24 June 2026 the quality score took over from the performance score in the buy block. This hits your revenue more directly than January's measurement change, because the buy block decides who gets the sale.
There are two substantial differences from the old performance score:
| Performance score | Quality score | |
|---|---|---|
| Measurement period | 6 weeks | 22 weeks |
| Service standards | 3 | 5 |
The measurement period goes from 6 to 22 weeks. Returns and customer questions now count as well, where previously they did not. Together those two changes alter the character of the score: it reacts far more slowly and it looks at more than logistics alone.
Slow reaction cuts both ways. A bad stretch lingers longer than you were used to, and a recovery effort will not show up within a month. Fix a problem in September and you will not see it fully absorbed until spring. Plan your improvements accordingly.
The thresholds bol names:
- From 70 you can join Select deals.
- From 75 you automatically receive compensation on a strike when your score for Items on time temporarily lands between 90 and 93 percent.
- For the Growth Reward, since 1 July you need a quality score of at least 69, plus a delivery promise score of 60.
That 75 is worth reaching. It is effectively an insurance policy against one bad logistics month, which would otherwise cost you your place in the buy block.
The fact that returns and customer questions now count also changes who inside your company owns the score. Returns and questions largely originate at the listing: if your page sets a wrong expectation about size, colour or contents, that comes back later as a return or a question. The score has therefore partly become a content problem, not only a logistics problem.
The image requirements, and why they work differently than you think
This is where the biggest correction sits on what circulates about bol. The image rules are more generous than is often claimed:
| Property | bol requirement |
|---|---|
| Minimum dimensions | 500 x 500 px |
| Maximum dimensions | 6000 x 6000 px |
| File size | 30 KB to 10 MB |
| Zoom works from | 1200 x 1200 px |
| Main image | white, neutral background without visible shadows |
On the main image the product sits front and centre and outside its packaging, with exceptions. No models, no text or claims, no logos or watermarks, and no mood shot.
Note what is not on that page: a mandatory file format, a colour profile requirement, and a recommended number of images. Anyone telling you that bol prescribes sRGB or demands four to six photos is not citing a source line.
And then the point that surprises most sellers: bol states that since 1 July 2025 it no longer enforces the image guidelines. The exception is self promotion inside the image, which is still enforced.
That is not a free pass, it is a shift in who decides. While bol enforced, image quality was a compliance question: meet the bar and move on. Now that bol no longer enforces, it has become purely a conversion question. Nobody rejects your weak main image any more. You only notice it in your sales figures, and that is a much later and much more expensive signal.
For brands that want their catalogue to work, that is a prompt rather than an escape. The 500 pixel floor is a technical minimum, not a recommendation: below 1200 by 1200 the zoom function does not even work. How you fill that space is a design question, and we cover it in product listing design.
The ACM commitments still coming
bol has made commitments to the ACM, the Dutch competition authority, that touch exactly this subject. The ACM saw indications that bol gave its own offering and that of certain sales partners a preferential position in the buy block without performance justifying it. bol commits to stopping that. On top of this, extra data and analyses become available to sales partners, and they may join Select deals on equal terms.
That data point is the most interesting one for anyone reading this article. Part of the blindness around January's trend break came from sellers simply not having enough figures to see what was happening.
Watch the status, because it is often reported incorrectly. Some of the measures have already been implemented: business sellers can now offer Select deals too, the Seller ratings parameter has been removed from the buy block algorithm, and that algorithm now works with actual delivery time. What is still running is making the commitments binding. The draft decision for that is open for inspection from 3 August to 13 September 2026.
What to do now
Set your baseline at 1 January 2026. Everything before it is a different metric. Record which changes you make yourself and on which date, so you can separate effect from method later.
Check where your quality score sits against 69, 70 and 75. Below 75, the route upward is the cheapest insurance you can buy on bol. Count on months rather than weeks, because the score measures across 22 weeks.
Treat returns and customer questions as content work. Pull the items with the most returns and questions and read their listing as if you were the buyer. Which expectation does the page set that the product does not meet? That is now score relevant.
Check your main images against the real requirements. Not against the myths. Below 1200 pixels you lose zoom, and that is a concrete conversion loss nobody will come and tell you about.
Further reading: how to optimise a bol listing, why A+ Content does not exist on bol and what you can do instead, and why brands fail on marketplaces.
Revision note
This article was revised on 10 August 2026. The earlier version described January's measurement change as a switch from renders to views. We could not trace that explanation back to bol documentation and have removed it. The image requirements and the rollout date for supplier accounts have been corrected to bol's current published figures, and the quality score has been added.
