Short answer. Price stars are the score bol gives your price, from one to five stars. The more stars, the sharper your price against the relevant market price. At one star bol does not show your offer in the shop until you lower the price.
What each level means
| Stars | Meaning according to bol |
|---|---|
| ★★★★★ | Most competitive |
| ★★★★ | Competitive |
| ★★★ | Slightly above market |
| ★★ | Above market |
| ★ | Above an acceptable price point: the offer is not shown |
The score belongs to a price level, not to one exact price: between two boundaries every price gets the same number of stars. bol recalculates the boundaries about four times a day. Not every item has stars. Boundaries exist for about 60% of the range, for new items in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Why stars matter
- Visibility. bol links more stars to more visibility in search results.
- Advertising. From three stars an item qualifies for the budget bol itself spends on Google ads.
- Staying online. At one star your offer disappears from the shop. It returns as soon as your price comes down.
bol does not list price stars among the buy box factors. A sharp price helps there too, but by a different route.
Where you see them
In your seller account the stars appear in the item overview. Through the Retailer API you request the boundary prices per EAN (price-star-boundaries): the highest price for 5, 4, 3 and 2 stars. Above the 2-star boundary it is 1 star. With those boundaries, the price stars checker shows how far you need to drop for the next star and whether that stays above your floor price.
Since 2 September 2025 bol no longer adds the €2.99 shipping cost to the star calculation for LVB items under €25. According to bol this does not change your chance of winning the buy box.
Stars and margin
An extra star is not always worth it. Every star costs margin on every item you sell, and a star below your floor price is bought at a loss. Work it out per item. Offerboxer fetches the boundaries per item and brings an offer that bol hides for being too expensive back into bol's band, never below your floor price.
More on hidden offers: price too high on bol, how to restore a hidden offer.