Bol sponsors Lowlands, the largest annual festival in the Netherlands, by building a connected on-site shop and e-commerce platform. With Lowlands attracting tens of thousands of visitors each year, the partnership allowed bol to reach festival-goers with a curated selection of essentials, blending convenience with festival spirit. 

The available products were handpicked and tailored to meet the needs of festival attendees. Think: toiletries, camping gear, phone chargers, portable speakers, and sunglasses. By offering these products on-site, bol sweetened the festival experience and reinforced itself as a platform of convenience.  

In just two months, DEPT® built a Shopify store that mirrored the bol experience. The store had to be a seamless, user-friendly platform that could handle a large influx of traffic. It also needed to be open before and during the festival weekend. 

Our expertise in commerce and UX was crucial to the project’s success. It’s no small task to deliver a fully operational store within an ambitious timeline, while ensuring it reflects the bol brand and the unique festival experience.

In 2025, we enhanced its homepage for a streamlined experience, enhanced PLPs, and reconfigured the process around VAT.

An essential requirement was the real-time synchronization of product availability, order processing, and stock levels. If an attendee ordered a product, bol needed to be absolutely sure they had it in stock.  

The technical integration required close collaboration between bol’s team and our developers. This integration assisted bol in managing their curated festival inventory on the Shopify store with the on-site festival team, all while handling the high demand expected at the event. 

By leveraging a robust warehouse management solution, we synchronized stock updates directly with the Shopify store. This ensured that every sale was instantly reflected in both systems. By eliminating any risk of overselling, festival-goers could trust that the products they purchased were in stock and ready for quick fulfillment.

Building on the seamless integration between bol’s warehouse management system and Shopify platform, we used Shopify’s Point of Sale (POS) system to facilitate on-site sales and a click-and-collect experience. This unified commerce approach allowed festival attendees to enjoy the convenience of pre-ordering essentials for on-site pickup through bol’s custom Shopify store, while also enabling spontaneous, in-person purchases at the event.

The Shopify POS system was central to this strategy by offering a flexible, mobile-friendly solution for processing sales directly at the festival. Integrated with the online store, it allowed bol to track inventory in real-time across both pre-orders and walk-up sales, ensuring stock levels were always up to date. 

This year, the store’s overall sales grew 86%, with an average order increase of 16%.

While conversions dropped slightly, bol still witnessed a 3.55% conversion rate during its run. This success is largely attributed to the site’s simple and recognizable UX/UI, easy ordering and pick-up processes, and curated product listings. 

Great news for future Lowland attendees: bol will revive the shop for at least one more year, and DEPT® will continue to optimize the site experience, add new features, and ensure reliability before and during the fest!