Coolblue B.V. is a Dutch

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...

company that was founded in 1999 by Pieter Zwart (CEO), Paul de Jong, and Bart Kuijpers. The company operates in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. it has 22 physical stores. In 2022, Coolblue reported a revenue of €2,35 billion, with a profit (

EBITDA A company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (commonly abbreviated EBITDA, pronounced ) is a measure of a company's profitability of the operating business only, thus before any effects of indebtedness, state-mandat ...

) of €43,4 million.

History

The company was founded in 1999 by Pieter Zwart (CEO), Paul de Jong, and Bart Kuijpers. Coolblue operates in the

, and

. The company started as separate webshops such as MP3man.nl, PDAshop.nl, and Laptopshop.nl, but all domains were merged into the Coolblue.nl domain in 2018. The company currently has a Dutch, Belgian, and German website and has 32 physical stores in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. The company started with a distribution center in

Capelle aan den IJssel Capelle aan den IJssel ( ; ) is a large town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality had a population of in , and covers an area of , of which is water. It is situated on the eastern edge o ...

, but moved to an entirely new distribution center in 2013. Over the years, this

Tilburg Tilburg () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. With a population of 22 ...

distribution center expanded to its current size of 88,000 m2. In 2016, Coolblue launched its own van delivery service, CoolblueDelivers. The company further expanded its delivery proposition in 2018, when it introduced CoolblueBikes. The name Coolblue is the opposite of Hot-Orange, which used to be an online warehouse that outsourced its operations to third parties, was financed externally, and didn't have a customer service. Coolblue's founders wanted to do the exact opposite, and reflected this intention in the name of their company. Coolblue was voted best

webshop Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser or a mobile app. Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the ...

in the Netherlands in the consumer electronics category by Thuiswinkel Awards in 2012 and 2013. From 2013 to 2022, Coolblue won the Tweakers award for Best Webshop of the Netherlands and Belgium every year. In July 2020, Coolblue expanded to Germany.

Product assortment

Coolblue currently offers a wide assortment of

consumer electronics Consumer electronics, also known as home electronics, are electronic devices intended for everyday household use. Consumer electronics include those used for entertainment, Communication, communications, and recreation. Historically, these prod ...

. Additionally, it sells and installs

solar panels A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

and charging stations, and offers Home Office Stores for employers. In January 2021, Coolblue announced its energy label, Coolblue Energy.

Owners

All shares were owned by the three founders. On 31 March 2016, acquired a 20% stake. On 6 July 2017, this was increased to 30.1% when the shares of two of the three founders were sold. On 14 June 2019, this percentage was increased to 49%, making HAL Investments Coolblue's main investor.

References

External links

*
Official Website
Online retailers of the Netherlands Companies based in Rotterdam Consumer electronics retailers Retail companies of the Netherlands {{Netherlands-company-stub