OnBuy Reports Record Sales For Black Friday Fueled By Unique Seller Friendly Promotion

UK marketplace OnBuy said that its Black Friday sales event, which included a price drop on every single item across the marketplace, resulted in a record day with sales totaling nearly £2.5 million. The price drop was achieved by the marketplace’s unique offering of reducing its fees for sellers over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales period.

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This initiative allowed buyers to enjoy discounted product prices without the sellers’ profit margins being impacted – a disruptive move not seen in other online marketplaces.

“We’re more than a marketplace – in a market dominated by behemoth retailers, we provide an opportunity for independent retailers of all sizes to succeed. We chose to discount our seller fees for Black Friday to show our sellers just how committed we are to driving their success. Unlike other platforms, where sellers are pushed to lower their prices, we cut our fees to offer over £50 million in savings – meaning we take the financial hit instead of the independent retailers who need every bit of profit they can get, especially this year,” said Cas Paton, founder and CEO of OnBuy.

Moreover, Paton explained that OnBuy is a rapidly growing business that is going from strength to strength, and they want to use that success to simultaneously fuel growth for its selling partners.

Black Friday has traditionally been a huge business for big brands, but independent retailers often missed out on the opportunity because they simply are not in the position to offer big price drops.

The price drops drive business on that day and the big brands have monopolised the Black Friday space by being able to attract the bargain hunting consumer and squeeze the small retailer out of the picture.

“OnBuy is challenging the status quo, which is why we’ve put our hands in our own pockets to help our sellers benefit hugely from the Black Friday sales surge,” added Paton.

OnBuy Black Friday Sales Event Seller Reactions

Sellers are feeling the results of OnBuy’s efforts to support them. Georgina Pursch, business development manager at Paperback Shop, commented: “We saw an amazing 500% lift in sales on OnBuy during Black Friday. This is thanks to the fee discount given to help us drive down our price and the additional marketing campaigns they provided to drive customers to the site. OnBuy’s support during Black Friday has been unmatched by any other marketplace platform we work with and we greatly appreciate their refreshingly seller-focused attitude.”

Moheeb Khan, sales and digital marketing manager at MH Star UK Ltd, said: “OnBuy have shown some great out-of-the-box marketing which has resulted in sales increasing YoY during the cyber weeks. They have not only supported sellers by reducing fees during cyber week, but they pass on the savings to customers. OnBuy isn’t a normal marketplace, they’re more of a long-term partner in business.”

OnBuy Growth Exceeded Expectations Due To Pandemic

OnBuy’s seller base increased by 10% every month over the last three consecutive months, beating the company’s predictions for growth. Heading into the Christmas selling season, the marketplaces expected this trend to slow, but instead, revealed they added 600 new retailers in November alone.

“The second lockdown was of course a huge concern for retailers and with them being forced to physically shut up shop, it’s no surprise that so many quickly turned to online platforms like OnBuy. eCommerce has accelerated massively as a result of the pandemic and I don’t foresee that growth slowing anytime soon,” added Paton.

This Black Friday success for OnBuy and its retailers comes shortly after the marketplace was awarded eCommerce Company of the Year in the 2020 UK Tech Business Awards.

OnBuy has quadrupled its workforce to over 60 full-time staff members this year alone, and has just announced plans to expand its offices into Manchester in the new year, creating at least another 100 jobs over the next two years to support its global expansion into over 140 countries by 2023.

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