OnBuy’s exponential growth is furthered by eCommerce boom and remote recruitment success

It’s no surprise that consumers have moved in their droves to buying online during the pandemic. But what IS a surprise is that the online marketplace which tops the Trustpilot tables isn’t one of the long-established names, such as eBay or Not On The High Street. It’s Dorset-grown eCommerce site OnBuy.com – founded just four years ago and already knocking the competition out of the park when it comes to customer satisfaction. But how has OnBuy created a culture of trust and satisfaction amongst its growing consumer base?

Having reported a record-breaking start to 2021, OnBuy.com has grabbed the top Trustpilot spot with a strong 4.6/5 customer rating across 20,000 reviews. OnBuy aims to bring fair, transparent, and ethical eCommerce around the world, offering customers more choice, savings and convenience while championing retailers’ success and creating growth for them. Trust among customers has been built from the business’s transparent model. OnBuy lists all the retailers selling a product on the product page – including each retailers’ price, delivery information and reviews – so customers are fully informed and can choose which retailer to buy from. Crucially, OnBuy showcases product price history to foster full transparency with customers. This transparent approach has enabled OnBuy to become a reliable platform for connecting retailers and customers, ultimately claiming its stake as the UK’s most trusted online marketplace.

With sales soaring from a run rate of £24 million to over £200 million and with monthly users trending at almost 7 million, OnBuy is quickly acquiring market share and has expanded its seller base by 10% each month since September 2020. Reviews for the marketplace on Trustpilot increased by 680% from 2019 to 2020, highlighting the popularity and credibility of the brand.

The company, founded in November 2016 by Cas Paton, witnessed a 800% growth in sales in January, compared to the previous year, and beat January 2020’s sales in the first three days of 2021.

Cas Paton, founder and CEO of OnBuy, said: “OnBuy has been built on the foundations of transparency. We’ve grown by offering retailers a better, fairer platform to trade on, which has attracted the attention of growing numbers of customers.

“Other marketplaces don’t always give customers the full picture, and some even promote their own products over those of the retailers selling with them. Naturally, this has led to a lack of consumer confidence in the online shopping experience.

“OnBuy set out to do things differently, with fairness, transparency, quality and trust for both retailers and customers being top of the agenda. That’s why becoming the UK’s most trusted marketplace, while achieving such incredible sales growth, is a welcome achievement for our team.”

OnBuy’s strong start to 2021 comes after the business announced its best year yet in 2020, which saw the marketplace achieve 605% year to date growth.

Cas said: “Four years of hard work have meant we’re in the position to maximise our ability to support retailers transitioning to online sales this year, bringing more deals and unbeatable service to consumers. Not only was there a huge shift to online shopping, but we also benefited from consumers looking for more ethical ways to shop and ways to support small businesses from home. 

“We’re committed to bringing more value to customers through our fast-growing network of retailers – and as we’re a true marketplace, not a retailer, all of our success is shared by the independent businesses that trade through our platform. As we don’t hold our own stock, we’re never in competition with our sellers. It’s a fair, transparent and ethical business model which the figures prove is a winning formula.”

Commenting on what’s in store for OnBuy in 2021, Cas said: “Our plan is to double sales by June; we’ll soon be hiring for another 30 positions to bolster the team as we scale up into over 140 countries. We’ll also be opening our Series B funding round soon. We aim to secure backers that want to be a part of the groundbreaking journey we’re on to change the way the world looks at eCommerce.”