Jesse Vonk on what it means to be Ecosystem Business Developer at bol.com

What should you say when your grandmother asks what exactly you do at work and you are Ecosystem Business Developer at bol.com?

Together with another colleague I am the only Ecosystem Business Developer in the Netherlands, yes I checked on LinkedIn just to be sure. This role only exists at bol.com and is incredibly interesting and I'm sure there will be many more Ecosystem Business Developers in 10 years' time. 

So what exactly do I do?

There are many thousands of sellers selling products on bol.com. All those sellers have different (technological) needs. For example, there are sellers who want to sell new products but are not so sure which products to sell, sellers who want help calculating the profitability of products, sellers who want to automate certain operations, such as creating and sending VAT invoices, etc. Now, for all these needs, software services (or apps) have emerged to help sellers with this. These apps have existed only recently and are rapidly modernising the e-commerce industry. As an ecosystem business developer, I look for these apps, and if they add value and meet certain bol.com conditions, we sign a partnership with them. We did this with Rylee as well.

How did you get in touch with Rylee?

Ryon from Rylee had applied through the ecosystem application form last year. Now Rylee is a silver partner; it is used by several hundred bol.com sellers. Among other things, the software helps partners:

• Picking the right products to sell. 

• Calculating profitability.

• Giving (product listing) insights for further growth of current assortment. 

What I personally like is that Rylee has included price stars in its tool. The price stars indicate how products are priced in relation to the market and help sellers set the right prices. It is also great fun to occasionally brainstorm with Ryon on new features for the tooling.

What makes the job so much fun?

What is enormously cool about this job is that this world has grown enormously in a short time and we are discovering it. We are literally and figuratively building the digital e-commerce ecosystem. 

There is one thing this job shows me every day that I think everyone should see: 

Focus on what you like, what you are good at and enjoy doing. And so: let others do the things you can't or don't like!

You don't have to be good at everything or come up with a solution yourself. Use tools that are already available; if you don't feel like making and sending VAT invoices yourself for every order, use a service that does this automatically. Then you can focus on the things you are good at and enjoy doing. 

Almost every week I come across a new app and sit around the table with creative and innovative entrepreneurs. I am often amazed at how quickly they can build software that helps sellers sell on bol.com. This gives me an enormous amount of energy. 

We already have more than 100 apps in the bol.com ecosystem and there are more all the time, click here to see the apps. In my opinion, we are only at the beginning of this revolution. In short, I am sure there will be many more Ecosystem Business Developers in the Netherlands in a few years' time.