Latest adjustments to the delivery process

Mandatory as of December 31, 2021

News

The delivery process at bol.com

For the optimization of the delivery process at bol.com there are many changes that you as a supplier should take into account. Below you will find an overview of the changes that have taken place or will take place so that you can deliver in 2022 without any problems.

  • Delivery conditions
  • SSCC labels
  • Timeslot reservation
  • Innovations

Delivery terms 2022

As usual, we have updated the delivery conditions. This mainly concerns adjustments to existing conditions. We will enforce them more strictly in 2022. Please read these carefully so that you can prepare yourself optimally and, where necessary, make changes to the way in which you deliver to bol.com.

Want to know where to find them?

Suppliers Portal under the button ‘Manuals’:
https://portal.bol.com/supplier/manuals/

Supply Chain Portal under ‘Help’:
https://supplierportal.bol.com/

SSCC Labels

As of 31 December 2021, all logistics shipping units delivered to bol.com must be provided with GS1 label(s) with the ‘serial shipping container code’ – also known as the SSCC label. The quality of delivery is becoming an ever greater bottleneck and the effects of this are felt throughout the entire process. The changes that are now being implemented enable bol.com to process shipments faster and more efficiently. This way bol.com ensures that the items you deliver are available to our customers as soon as possible.

For suppliers with an EDI link, these SSCC codes must also be specified in the DESADV message. Suppliers who use the SCP can generate SSCC codes there or report them in the aforementioned process.

See article 4.4. and article 5.6.1 of the new Delivery Conditions for more detailed information on the conditions relating to SSCC. Please read them carefully.

Benefits of using SSCC labels

When incoming load carriers are provided with SSCC labels, bol.com can

  • handle the inspection of incoming goods faster;
  • give you timely feedback on whether or not we have received certain shipment units;
  • Match the delivered products more accurately to invoices, allowing them to be processed more quickly.

The benefits to you are:

  • unloading your carrier’s trucks will be faster because of the quicker check;
  • This time saving can reduce your transport costs per delivery;
  • With SSCC, you, your carrier and bol.com have one common reference
  • With SSCC, you, your carrier and bolcom have one common reference to identify and track shipping units throughout the shipping process;
  • The more accurate bol.com invoice matching means that you spend less time consulting with bol.com about non-matched invoices.

Timeslot reservation

To speed up the delivery to bol.com we offer the possibility of making a slot reservation. This is mandatory and you will be actively approached about this.

The purpose of using slot reservations is to give carriers the opportunity to book a specific time period at a bol.com distribution center in advance. For deliveries that are booked in advance by means of a time period, a dock will be made available that is adjusted to the capacity. As a result, carriers no longer have to queue up and can report to the doorman.

Want to know more about how this works? Then read here.

Innovations in the order process

Since week 45 (8 – 12 November 2021), we have implemented new innovations in our order process. In short, this means the following:

  1. Purchase orders will more often be further back in time
  2. Stricter enforcement for deliveries that deviate from the requested delivery date
  3. Shorter queues at the warehouses

When placing orders, we will take into account the available inbound capacity of our warehouses and adjust our requested delivery date accordingly. This will ensure a better distribution of inbound volume over the days. This reduces the chance of long waiting times and disruptions at the warehouse. This innovation makes the requested delivery date even more important (we reserve capacity for unloading with this requested delivery date) and it may mean that we plan orders with a longer delivery time than you are used to.