Black Friday profits rocket for independent retailers on OnBuy

OnBuy.com has reported a record-breaking Black Friday this year. The online retail expert claims this is as a result of its price drop on every single product across the marketplace, where it reports sales totalled nearly £2.5 million on one day alone.

The marketplace’s offering of reduced fees for sellers over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales period was said to be instrumental for sellers. This initiative allowed buyers to enjoy discounted product prices without the sellers’ profit margins being impacted.

Cas Paton, founder and CEO of OnBuy, said: “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.

“We’re a rapidly growing business going from strength to strength and we want to use that success to simultaneously fuel growth for our sellers. For too long, big brands have monopolised the Black Friday space and independent retailers have missed out on the opportunity to make sales. Simply put, independents aren’t in the position to offer the big price drops which attract consumers, which allows the big operators to squeeze them 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.”

Georgina Pursch, business development manager at Paperback Shop, said: “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.”

Cas said: “Our seller base increased by 10% every month over the last three consecutive months, beating our own predictions for growth. With Christmas around the corner, we were expecting the trend to slow as retailers are busy preparing for the festive season. However, the opposite has happened – we secured 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.”

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.

Like this content? Sign up for the free PCR Daily Digest email service to get the latest tech news straight to your inbox. You can also follow PCR on Twitter and Facebook.