Dutch for Wholesale and Purchasing (Groothandel en Inkoop) - Suppliers, Prices and Orders

Wholesale is the step between the factory and the shop, and purchasing is the work of buying well at that step. In the Netherlands both are organised trades with their own vocabulary of prices, terms and conditions.

A buyer who cannot name the difference between korting, contantkorting and betalingstermijn will lose money on every order. The words are not decoration; each one changes what the company actually pays.

The Words of Wholesale

Dutch term	English meaning
de groothandel	the wholesale trade
de detailhandel	the retail trade
de grossier	the wholesaler
het assortiment	the product range
de hoeveelheid	the quantity
de korting	the discount
de handelsmarge	the trading margin
de omzet	the turnover

A wholesaler buys in large quantities and sells smaller ones, and the business lives on the handelsmarge between the two. That margin is thin, which is why every percentage in a supplier negotiation matters and why the buyer must read an offer carefully.

Finding and Assessing Suppliers

Dutch term	English meaning
de leverancier	the supplier
de aanbesteding	the invitation to tender
de offerte	the offer, the quotation
de referentie	the reference
de betrouwbaarheid	the reliability
de levercapaciteit	the ability to deliver
de certificering	the certification
de kwaliteit	the quality

A Dutch buyer assesses a supplier on three things: whether the price is stable, whether the delivery date is kept, and whether the quality stays the same from batch to batch. A cheap supplier who delivers late costs more than an expensive one who is reliable.

Negotiating Price and Terms

Dutch term	English meaning
de inkoopprijs	the purchase price
de lijstprijs	the list price
de staffel	the quantity scale
de betalingstermijn	the payment term
de leveringsvoorwaarde	the delivery condition
de contantkorting	the discount for prompt payment
de minimale afname	the minimum order quantity
de voorwaarden	the terms of trade

A Dutch negotiation separates the price from the conditions, because a two per cent contantkorting for payment within ten days is worth more than a small cut in the unit price. Staffels reward larger orders, and the voorwaarden are agreed in writing before the first delivery.

Placing the Order

Dutch term	English meaning
de bestelling	the order
het bestelnummer	the order number
de orderbevestiging	the order confirmation
de levertijd	the delivery time
de deellevering	the part delivery
de nabestelling	the repeat order
de raamorder	the framework order
de annulering	the cancellation

An order is only binding once it has been confirmed, and the confirmation must repeat the price, the quantity and the delivery date. Where a supplier cannot deliver in full, a deellevering with a fixed date for the rest is normally better than a late complete delivery.

Managing the Supplier Relationship

Dutch term	English meaning
de samenwerking	the cooperation
de leveranciersbeoordeling	the supplier evaluation
het leveranciersgesprek	the supplier meeting
het leveranciersbestand	the supplier master file
de klacht	the complaint
de verbetering	the improvement
de relatie	the relationship
de voorwaarden	the terms

Large Dutch firms score their suppliers every year on price, quality and delivery, and the score decides who keeps the business. The annual meeting is therefore a formal event, and arriving with figures rather than opinions is what makes a buyer credible.

Documents and Numbers

Dutch term	English meaning
de factuur	the invoice
de pakbon	the delivery note
de creditnota	the credit note
de betalingstermijn	the payment deadline
het bewijs	the voucher, the document
de boeking	the posting
de btw	the value added tax
de administratie	the accounts department

Purchasing and accounting must agree on every invoice, because a mismatch between the order, the pakbon and the factuur stops the payment. A three-way check of bestelling, pakbon and factuur is standard practice in Dutch companies.

Stock, Turnover and Planning

Dutch term	English meaning
de voorraad	the stock on hand
de omloopsnelheid	the stock turnover
de afzetprognose	the sales forecast
het seizoen	the season
de minimale hoeveelheid	the minimum quantity
de overbestelling	the over-ordering
de uitverkoop	the clearance sale
de planning	the planning

Buying too little loses sales, and buying too much ties up cash and ends in an uitverkoop at a reduced price. Dutch planning therefore works backwards from the forecast, setting order quantities so that the stock cover matches the season rather than the mood of the buyer.

Import, Customs and International Suppliers

Dutch term	English meaning
de invoer	the import
de douane	the customs authority
het douanetarief	the customs tariff
de invoer-btw	the import value added tax
het preferentiebewijs	the proof of preferential origin
de douaneaangifte	the customs declaration
het land van oorsprong	the country of origin
de Incoterms	the international delivery terms

A Dutch wholesale business buys far beyond its own borders, so the buyer must know how an import is cleared. The douanetarief number decides the duty, and the invoer-btw is charged on the value of the goods plus the freight.

Incoterms look like jargon but they decide who pays for transport and who carries the risk. A buyer who agrees to DAP has accepted the whole journey, while FOB puts the freight in the buyer's hands from the port of loading.

A preferentiebewijs can reduce or remove the duty when goods come from a country with a trade agreement, and the document must be correct before the shipment arrives. A missing certificate is expensive and cannot always be produced afterwards.

The land van oorsprong is not always the country of dispatch, and stating the wrong origin counts as a false declaration. Dutch customs can audit a company years after the import and then demand the duty with interest.

Buying internationally therefore needs a second language, and English is the working language of most freight paperwork. Dutch is what the buyer uses with Dutch customs, auditors and carriers. If you want to negotiate a price and read the conditions in Dutch, learn Dutch with the purchasing vocabulary built into the course.

The bars show the order of the stages; each value is a sequence number rather than a duration.

Working in Purchasing in the Netherlands

Purchasing is a respected career in the Netherlands and one of the routes into management, because the decisions made there are measured directly in money. Employers look for numeracy, firmness and the patience to read the small print.

The language of the job is a closed set of terms: korting, contantkorting, betalingstermijn, staffel. If you want to learn Dutch for commercial work, this is one of the most rewarding vocabulary sets to master.

Dutch purchasing turns language into money through precise terms and conditions. Learn Dutch with supplier, price and order language built into the course.

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