I came across a very promising marketplace a while ago. A UK-based platform that is showing signs of tremendous growth.

A place where you can find millions of products in a variety of industries from thousands of sellers around the world. The majority of vendors are British but the company has plans to expand globally in the next years.

OnBuy is being discussed on a plethora of online channels, forums, and review sites and people want to know more. Whether it is a legit site and if they can sell their products effectively.

Can it compete with Amazon and the other giant marketplaces?

In this review, we’re going to discuss what to expect, the company’s background and history, the product categories, product tags, traffic and related statistics, popular brands in their catalog, how selling products works, the selling fees, account packages, pricing plans, integrations, upcoming services, their partners, how to get help and support, blog examples, careers, the news, and the company’s funding.

Additionally, we’ll examine all the related online reviews and discussions on other properties and I’ll give you a detailed overall rating score based on all the reviews I could find so you can decide on your own with confidence.

Let’s dive right in!

The Homepage

Main slogans:

• The UK’s most trusted marketplace  – you’re in safe hands, we come well-recommended
• The world’s fastest-growing marketplace

About

We launched in November 2016 and are now the fastest-growing marketplace in the world.

Since launching in 2016, we’ve welcomed sellers of all sizes on board, from household names to smaller independent retailers. By making a fairer platform for sellers, they work with us to offer you a wider product range than other marketplaces. With our competitive fees, they can price better too – all so we can bring you the best products, prices and service possible.

Headquarters in Dorset.

Statistics: 

• 30,000,000+ products
• 8,000,000+ buyers
• 6,000+ sellers
• 6x year-on-year growth

• Cas Paton: founder & CEO
• Jason: head of operations
• Daniel: head of development
• Shawn: front-end
• Richard: senior developer
• John: eCommerce
• Philippa: head of communications

Timeline: 

• November 2016: launch
• July 2017: first national TV campaign
• July 2018: a partnership with PayPal
• February 2019: #1 Uk-founded marketplace
• 2020: global marketplace in 140 countries
• 2020: mobile app
• Upcoming (2023): become a global top 10 marketplace

RWB marketplace awards 2020 winner.

How it works

1. Browse: Find an item and compare price, delivery cost, delivery times, seller reviews, and warranty
2. Buy: Payments are securely processed by PayPal and eligible orders are backed up by Buyer Protection
3. Enjoy
4. Review: By reviewing your order, you’ll be entered into their monthly prize draw!

Why OnBuy?

1. Low prices and even more savings with OnBuy deals
2. A huge amount of choices with over 30M+ products
3. Simple, secure checkout powered by PayPal
4. PayPal buyer protection on eligible orders
5. Only verified reviews for genuine orders
6. Support a UK business that pays its fair share of tax

FAQ

Where are OnBuy sellers based?

The vast majority of OnBuy sellers are based in the UK. We do allow some sellers outside the UK and EU to join as long as certain conditions are met. You can see a seller’s address from their storefront – just click their name on the product page.

Why can I buy the same product at different prices?

It’s a marketplace that operates a catalogue system. A product is created then a variety of sellers can come and list it. This means the price and delivery cost can vary from seller to seller.

Is OnBuy the same as Amazon?

Yes and no! The way the site works for sellers is similar to Amazon, but as a buyer, it’s a world apart. We don’t sell anything ourselves, so you’ll always see the best deal in the lead listing box rather than something we’re selling. We’ve structured our website to be as clear and informative as possible, to make buying simple and straightforward.

Product categories

• Arts, crafts & sewing
• Baby & toddler
• Books
• Business, office & industrial
• Cars & automotive
• Clothing, shoes & accessories
• Collectables & memorqabilia
• Electronics & technology
• Food & drink
• Health & beauty
• Home, garden & pets
• Jewelry & watches
• Movies, videos games & music
• Musical instruments & DJ
• Refurbished electronics
• Sports & outdoors
• Tools & DIY
• Toys & games
• Collections

Product tags

1. Deal: the best offers from our sellers exclusively for OnBuy customers
2. Popular: popular products
3. Price: great price compared to other websites

The most popular brands on OnBuy

• Apple
• HomeDiscount
• Cards Against Humanity
• Asmodee
• Samsung
• Calvin Klein
• Wella
• The Magic Toy Shop
• Charles Jacobs
• Sony
• Microsoft
• Comfy-Living
• Oypla Business
• Tower
• URBN Living
• Lego
• Playmobil
• Whiskas
• Gucci

and so much more.

Selling

Reasons why

• Competitive selling frees: You can price lower and attract more buyers – without losing profit.
• Get paid immediately: Mark an item as dispatched, get paid by PayPal straight away. It’s that simple.
• Subscription waiver guarantee: We give you time to integrate and list your products without being charged a recurring subscription fee until your sales pick up.
• PayPal seller protection: Sell with peace of mind that eligible orders are covered for 180 days by PayPal Seller Protection.
• We don’t compete with sellers: We don’t sell anything – our efforts are focused on promoting your products.
• Dedicated UK-based support team: You’ll get a personal account manager and our friendly Support Team at your fingertips.
• Transparent fee guarantee: Our fees are as fair and transparent as we are: all of our sellers, no matter their size or volume, pay the same fees.
• We offer global opportunity: Grow your business alongside us as we scale up into 42 additional countries worldwide in 2020, with over 100 more to come by 2023.

Fees

No listing fees.

All you’ll pay is OnBuy’s sales fees (plus VAT where applicable) plus PayPal’s payment fees.

5-9% sales fee.

1.9-3.4% payment fee.

Account packages

Standard: product marketing, unlimited listings, seller support, PayPal seller protection, integration access. £19/mo excl. VAT. Plus £500 sales guarantee. *Pay your first month’s subscription fee of £19. For any month you make under £500 in sales, OnBuy will waive the next month’s subscription fee.

Partner: product marketing, unlimited listings, seller support, PayPal seller protection, integration access, improved search ranking, lead listing authority, priority support. £39/mo excl. VAT. 

How it works:

• Register
• Upload
• Sell
• Earn

They use a catalogue system, so multiple sellers may sell the same product. Products can be listed using their unique GS1 barcodes, however there are a few exceptions and prohibited products.

You can create products manually, use their templates, integrate with a channel.

Integrations – examples:

• OnBuy API
• CSV
• 247 Commerce
• Channel Advisor
• Cloud Commerce Pro

See all the integrations.

Additional marketing with Boost:

As an OnBuy seller, you can benefit from additional marketing. They offer a Boost service that enables you to achieve greater visibility for your listings, both on and off OnBuy.

• Instantly increased visibility
• You only pay for what sells
• You’re in complete control
• Improve your product rank

Upcoming services:

OnBuy Fulfillment Network: When launched, their fully-fledged fulfillment network will help you put your products in more buyers’ hands.

Partners

Channels system partners examples:

• DespatchCloud
• LinnWorks
• MintSoft
• OnePatchParcel2Go

Fulfillment network partners examples:

• Bezos
• DHL
• DMS Matrix
• ecomHub
• FedEx

Delivery solutions partners examples:

• ParcelHub
• ReturnHelper
• SendCloud
• ShipTheory
• SmartFreight

Financial services partners: 

• Avalara
• Avask
• HelloTax
• SimplyVat

Seller consultancy partners:

• InterCulturalElements
• Muloot
• RichInsight
• Tambo

Other partners:

• CedCommerce
• GS1UK

Help & Support/Contact

The help page includes a knowledgebase and guides:

• Order inquiries
• Product & general inquiries
• Delivery information
• Returns & exchanges
• Payment information
• Account information
• Cover genius

The contact page helps you navigate through the various options:

• Order inquiry
• Seller inquiry
• Contact us
• Report a product violation
• Marketing & promotion
• Other

Blog

Examples of articles:

• Love in lockdown – 10 ways to celebrate Valentine’s day this year
• Naughty but nice recipes to try this world nutella day
• What your face mask says about you
• Why and how you should diversify your product range
• The top 10 biggest celebrity fashion influencers
• Weird and wonderful – the strangest sex toys you can buy in 2021

Careers

Current career opportunities:

• Web content writer/copywriter: 2 positions available, full-time, listed on Sep 01, 2020, closes on June 30, 2021.

FINAL RATINGS CALCULATION

X 22,400 reviews

X 40 reviews

X 75 reviews

X 26 reviews

X 5 reviews

X 8 reviews

X 8 reviews

Traffic and Related Statistics/Domain

Alexa:

• Rank 90-day trend (site’s popularity): #26,736 in global internet engagement
• 3:38 daily time on site
• Country rank (UK): #1,311
• Most visited by countries: UK, USA, India
• Daily pageviews per visitor: 3
• Bounce rate: 49.4%
• Total sites linking to: 70

SimilarWeb:

• Global rank worldwide: 10,451
• Country rank (UK): 426
• Category rank (eCommerce and shopping): 17
• Total visits: 6.86M
• Average visit duration: 2:24
• Pages per visit: 2.14
• Bounce rate: 71.93%
• Most visited by countries: UK, USA, Ireland, Sweden, Poland

Domain:

• Registrar: GoDaddy
• Registered on: June 06, 2005
• Expires on: June 06, 2023
• Registrant Organization: Visor Commerce Ltd
• Registrant State/Province: Dorset
• Registrant Country: UK

Interesting News

OnBuy Saves Teddy Rocks Festival With Two-Year Sponsorship:

The marketplace has committed to a new two-year headline sponsorship of music festival Teddy Rocks, creating a much-needed financial lifeline after the event was forced to postpone this year’s festival due to Covid-19. Teddy Rocks Festival raises money for children’s cancer charity, Teddy20.

This new sponsorship deal means that OnBuy will have donated a total of £120,000 to the event since first sponsoring the festival in 2018.

800% Sales Growth In January Puts OnBuy In Strong Position To Launch Series B Funding Round:

OnBuy.com has reported a record-breaking start to 2021, confirming that it has seen 800% year on year growth so far in January, beating last year’s sales figures in the first three days of the year. This growth announcement comes as founder and CEO, Cas Paton, prepares to launch Series B funding round.

This growth for the marketplace, which is on a mission to revolutionise the eCommerce sector by providing a fair, transparent and ethical marketplace that benefits buyers and sellers, follows an exceptionally successful 2020 which saw OnBuy achieve 605% year to date growth, further highlighting the unmatched upward trajectory of the business.

OnBuy Helps Bring Christmas To Children At Diverse Abilities:

The Grotto, hosted at Coping with Chaos in West Moors, saw 42 families attend to meet Father Christmas and receive presents for the children.

Amy Topp, Short Breaks Coordinator at Diverse Abilities, commented: “I am really proud of the team for pulling together this Grotto for the children. We made many precautions to ensure the whole process was fully COVID-secure for both our staff and the families we support.

Booming Year For ECommerce Puts OnBuy On Track For Unicorn Status:

OnBuy is on a mission to revolutionise the eCommerce sector by providing a fair, transparent and ethical marketplace that benefits both buyers and sellers. The UK-based online marketplace has now set its sights on unicorn status, which is awarded to privately held start-up firms valued at over $1 billion (£750 million), within the next two years.

OnBuy is already valued at an estimated £180 million ($240 million) after launching only four years ago and, having achieved its third consecutive year of over 600 percent growth in 2020, the eCommerce business is quickly gaining market share.

OnBuy Joins Dorset Chamber Amidst £10m Investment Into Home County:

OnBuy has seen meteoric growth in the past year, on the back of a successful £5m Series A fundraiser in June 2020. Sales grew 870 percent from November 2019 to November 2020 and have shot from a run rate of £24m to over £170m in one year. The marketplace’s sales are forecasted to hit £2 billion before year-end 2023. The company’s Series B fundraiser is on the horizon in early 2021, allowing it to accelerate its phenomenal growth and continue expanding.

OnBuy is a marketplace where you can find products from a wide range of industries. It’s pretty much like Amazon and other similar marketplaces.

You can track popular brands and that is a good sign of authority, credibility, and status.

You can sell your products and they take care of the promotions. They also offer a premium marketing package that boosts your listings and rankings.

On their website, the footer copyright mentions that they are active since 2010. I checked their domain whois data and they purchased it in 2005. 

On the about page, they say that they launched in November 2016. 

Now, taking into consideration that it is a funded company, we may think that this was a project well-thought and planned for many years until they were able to fund their cause.

The majority of online reviews are positive and of course, there are negative reviews as well. You can’t satisfy everyone. Especially when a company is cooperating with thousands of sellers and vendors worldwide, problems will arise.

They have over 22,000 reviews on TrustPilot, it’s a company that it’s discussed.

The overall rating score based on all those 22,560+ reviews on 7 review sites is 91.6%. That’s a very good score.

Additionally, from the traffic statistics I overviewed, I come to the conclusion that this is a very popular site, with millions of visitors. That means it’s indeed a company that is growing.

I discussed the company with some partners and friends that happened to purchase goods from the marketplace and everyone assured me they had a great shopping experience without any problems whatsoever. 

From a seller/vendor standpoint, OnBuy seems like a great deal. They are not retailers and they do not compete with their sellers.

They are focused on helping their sellers and their promotions.

Their service integrates with numerous apps and other related services and they co-operate with names like DHL, FedEx, PayPal, and Google.

They run a very interesting blog which is a pleasant surprise for a marketplace. That means they do their best to satisfy both sellers and buyers and improve their experience.

I should also highlight that OnBuy is a funded company and has already grown into a multi-million organization.

They participate in charities and they spend a lot on advertising.

For all these reasons and taking into account the very positive reviews, I believe it’s a company with a bright future.

Final Words

I hope you enjoyed this review and that it can help you shape an opinion. 

If you have experience with OnBuy either as a customer or as a seller, I would like to hear from you.

I’m looking forward to their growth in the highly competitive eCommerce space. They can do miracles if they use the funding rounds wisely.

Do you think they can compete with Amazon after all? Taking into consideration the latest news regarding Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, retiring as CEO, maybe a battle has already started.

Another review has finished, here on WebMarketSupport. I’m waiting for your comments and thoughts. Till next time.