Targeting The Netherlands : A Few Essential Tips
SMALL COUNTRY, LARGE POPULATION, ACTIVE ONLINE SHOPPERS
Even though the Netherlands is a tiny country, it can be very interesting to target its emarket. But why would you put effort into targeting such a small country? Well, The Netherlands is very densely populated, it is home to approximately 17 million people. In fact, The Netherlands has the 65th largest population of the world while it has but the 133rd largest surface of the world’s countries. In addition, the Dutch emarket is very active. In 2015, 71% of Dutch inhabitants had made at least one purchase online and this number still continues to grow.
DUTCH SHOPPING HABITS TO KEEP IN MIND
Clothing is one of the main online shopping sectors for the Dutch, and they have no preference for domestic products over foreign products. The Dutch tend to favor high quality products, and will be willing to spend more money if they think the quality of the product is equal to its price. It is therefore good to stress that your product is made of high quality materials and that Teezily uses the best printers of the industry in your campaign descriptions and advertisements. In addition, Dutch consumers show high brand loyalty, so once they have had a good experience at your shop it is likely that they will be back for more, especially if you reward them with consumer credit!
NICHES
Popular subjects to consider for finding a niche on the Dutch e-market can have to do with sports and pets. The most kept pets are dogs, cats, rodents, birds and small turtles. The most popular hobby sports are soccer, volleyball, hockey and gymnastics. On the 27th of April the Dutch celebrate King’s day, which is a great opportunity for making sales… But more on that later on the Teezily Blog!
SOCIAL MEDIA
96% of Dutch people is on social media. The most used social media platform is still Facebook, although its popularity is decreasing among younger people, while simultaneously increasing among older people. Snapchat and Instagram are increasing in popularity among young people. Other popular social media platforms are Twitter and Youtube.
Dutch people visit the Teezily website mostly on Sundays and Mondays between 16h and 23h, so be sure to time the launch of your campaigns. For more consumer statistics click here: http://university.teezily.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/NETHERLANDS.pdf
LANGUAGE USE
After French and German, Dutch is the most popular language into which English ecommerce websites are translated. This is quite remarkable because The Netherlands has a considerably smaller population that on average speaks English rather well. Yet, English websites apparently find it worth the effort to have their websites translated into Dutch. This goes to show that the Dutch emarket is a lively one that is worth targeting, and with Teezily’s free translation service, why wouldn’t you?
The preference for use of formal and informal language differs per situation in The Netherlands, however in T-shirt marketing you should be safe using informal language. Here you have a few useful translations to use in your marketing!
PAYMENT METHOD
The overall most preferred method of payment by Dutch internet shoppers is iDEAL. 56% of online payments is made using iDEAL, and as the second most popular way of payment 12% of online payments is made by credit card. Therefore it is definitely worth mentioning in your ads that iDEAL is an offered payment method.