The Dutch online market doesn’t seem to differ all that much from UK or US markets. Google is the main search engine used, so there’s no need to tailor content to the Dutch market, right?
Wrong! Like any individual market, the Dutch population also has particular preferences when searching and buying online or the manner in which they would like to be spoken to. Follow this four-step guide and you’ll be one step closer to win over the hearts of this (generally) stubborn population.
Get straight to the point
People in the Netherlands tend to be very direct and to the point. This is something you need to be aware of when working in the Dutch market: Don’t mess around, be short and concise and people should be willing to listen to you.
We like to know exactly what you’ve got to offer us and whether this aligns with our vision. However, NEVER directly talk about money, we find this a very awkward subject.
Payment
When the Dutch shop online, they generally are not prone to use credit or debit cards. More than 84% of Dutch online shoppers make their purchase via iDeal. Therefore, to improve conversion rates in the Netherlands, it is suggested for companies to look into this option.
Language
Another issue to take into account in this market is language. The Dutch are very capable of speaking in English.
This is due to the fact that we do not dub foreign programming (no, it’s not because we don’t like our language, but because we are eager to learn other languages!).
We know it’s not the nicest language out there (just try and pronounce the word verschrikkelijk ironically meaning horrible) BUT that doesn’t give businesses the excuse to ignore it. If you want to sell in the Netherlands you need to use the local language.
Normal is strange enough
We are a quite down to earth and moderate people: our favourite saying is normal is strange enough. Subsequently, we Dutch do not like to see aggressive and pushy sales messages.
We would rather see informative messages that give us a good deal hence, free samples and money-off deals would work perfectly (who doesn’t like free samples!?).
Of course, we do still prefer quality over quantity, so don’t just assume you can trick us with deals, its not that easy!
Insights
