What is OnBuy?

 

Popular UK online marketplace OnBuy recently announced its intention to expand to the EU and US markets. But what is OnBuy, and how is it different from Amazon & Co?

 

 

Introducing OnBuy

Founded in 2016 and based in the UK, OnBuy provides a platform for third-party sellers to connect with consumers. OnBuy itself is not a retailer and does not directly sell products. The company prides itself on being a “fairer, more transparent marketplace that puts its buyers and sellers first,” and “a UK business that pays its fair share of tax.”

 

OnBuy has around 5.1 million monthly visitors, most of them from the UK (87.69%), Pakistan (2.59%), India (1.37%) and China (1.04%).  The marketplace claims to have over 6 million customers in the UK alone.

 

The company is valued at $203 million and has raised $58.7 million in four funding rounds so far. OnBuy’s revenue is currently estimated to be an annual $29.7 million.

 

 

Screenshot of the homepage of onbuy.com

 

 

OnBuy is a generalist marketplace, offering over 35 million products in all categories, including fashion, electronics, home and garden equipment, perfumes, food and drink, baby care, pet supplies and automotive products.

 

Besides new items, OnBuy also offers sellers the option to list refurbished products. This allows buyers to shop more climate-friendly while saving money.

 

Discover all the advantages of refurbished products!

 

 

How to sell on OnBuy

The marketplace advertises itself to potential sellers with simple fees, easy onboarding, clear policies and fair treatment. Sellers can choose from three monthly plans with various features ranging from 25 to 250 GBP (ca. 30 and 300 euros).

 

In addition, OnBuy charges a fee for each sale. Depending on the product category, sellers have to hand over a sum between 7-20% of the product price to the marketplace.

 

OnBuy helps its sellers with various marketing tools, including ads and product listing boosts. The platform provides easy integration options with fulfilment providers and channel management systems like WooCommerce, Shopify, Royal Mail Click and Collect as well as ShipStation.

 

Interested sellers have to fill out a registration form and wait for the results of the platform’s verification checks to become an OnBuy seller.

 

 

Seller verification on OnBuy

The platform promises its buyers to “carefully check each seller before allowing them to sell with us.” In accordance with this, OnBuy seller applicants have to provide various documents and information to verify their identity. This includes their basic contact info, bank account number, as well as business and VAT registration details.

 

In addition, the seller application has to include a link to their current selling place and 50 reviews from the last 12 months, with at least 90% of them reaching 4 stars or higher.

 

These requirements show that OnBuy takes seller verification more seriously than other marketplaces.

 

Find out how other platforms verify their sellers!

 

 

Cashback on OnBuy

Besides sellers, OnBuy offers advantages to its shoppers as well. The biggest and most unique of these is cashback. (No wonder that OnBuy’s tagline is “The Cashback Marketplace”.)

 

Shoppers on OnBuy get a certain percentage of the product price back on every purchase. They can spend it right away on another OnBuy purchase, or collect the amounts and once they reach 5 GBP, they can withdraw the money to their UK-based bank account.

 

 

Screenshot of onbuy.com/gb/cashback

 

 

Each listing informs customers about the cashback percentage as well as the actual amount of money they’ll get back.

 

 

Screenshot of a random product listing on onbuy.com displaying cashback info

 

 

This data is also displayed on the search results, ensuring that customers can quickly filter through listings based on their cashback options.

 

 

Screenshot of random search results on onbuy.com displaying cashback details 

 

 

According to a statement of the company’s CEO, OnBuy has so far awarded 1.6 million GBP in cashback to its UK customers.

 

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OnBuy expanding to the EU and the US

In the fall of 2024, OnBuy announced its intentions to expand its services to the EU by the end of 2024, and enter the US market in 2025.

 

To facilitate the expansion and improve the experience of both buyers and sellers, the company has recently partnered with Google Cloud. The partnership will increase OnBuy’s access to cloud infrastructure like storage, managed services and AI features. The venture is aimed to reduce costs and build new revenue streams.

 

Although the specific European markets are not named in the report, OnBuy expects to enter 14 countries on the continent with all the advantages offered to existing UK sellers and shoppers.

 

 

Online brand protection on OnBuy

The marketplace has an IP protection policy, listing all products that infringe on somebody’s IP rights as prohibited on the platform. Despite this policy and OnBuy’s above average efforts at seller verification, fraudsters with more sophisticated methods may be able to trick the system and enter the marketplace with their IP infringing products.

 

In such cases, OnBuy’s attractive perks like cashback may help draw customers to infringing products that can harm your brand. Don’t worry though, this doesn’t mean you’ll have to sift through every product listing on the marketplace to ensure that your IP rights are respected.

 

After all, that’s exactly what globaleyez is here for.

 

Our marketplace monitoring service combines state-of-the-art software tools and intuitive human expertise to zero in on IP infringing product listings on over 150 online marketplaces worldwide.

 

Our image monitoring service does the same with stolen or copied images all over the internet, which comes in very handy as it allows us to uncover connections between seemingly independent fraudulent listings.

 

When we need to gather more information about the product and/or its seller, we recommend a test purchase. This service allows us to learn as much about the origins of the product and the identity of the seller as possible.

 

Once we have all the details, we reach out to the marketplace (or social media platform, domain registry, etc.) and enforce your rights by demanding the removal of the infringing content.

 

 

Conclusion

While relatively unknown outside of the UK, OnBuy’s imminent international entry and unique perks may soon make it a household name in the EU and the US. Should that happen, make sure your brand can profit from working with this marketplace - and prevent fraudsters from doing so.

 

Contact us and let’s talk about your online brand protection needs on OnBuy and anywhere else online!