Known as the "British Amazon", another platform is accelerating its expansion!

During the peak season of cross-border e-commerce, sellers will complain more about major platforms, especially the e-commerce giant Amazon. "Order volume plummeted", "system bugs", "warehouse explosion caused delayed delivery", "overcharged by the platform", "accidental product infringement"... A series of similar problems are emerging one after another.

Some sellers have been clinging to Amazon since they joined, while others know that "all eggs should not be put in one basket", so they began to dig deep into other e-commerce platforms, hoping to get their own piece of the pie. For example, in the past two years, there have been many cross-border big sellers who have reaped the benefits on domestic platforms Temu and TikTok.

In addition, with the expansion of overseas local e-commerce platforms, opportunities for Chinese sellers to achieve explosive sales will continue to emerge in the future. Recently, the performance of OnBuy, a British e-commerce platform that has accelerated its expansion, has attracted much attention.

Amazon UK continues to expand, with business covering 14 countries

Recently, foreign media BusinessLive reported that British online shopping platform OnBuy announced its ambitious plan to expand its business to 14 countries by the end of this year.

It is reported that this expansion plan will be implemented in the European Union first and will gradually expand to North America by 2025.

Speaking of OnBuy, people in the industry should be familiar with it. After all, it was rated as "one of the fastest growing e-commerce platforms" last year. Data shows that since its establishment, it has grown rapidly at an average rate of over 200% per year.

As for why the company has expanded so quickly, OnBuy analyzed that in recent years, it has made full use of the network layout of retailers and logistics partners to greatly reduce infrastructure costs.

At the same time, a previous partnership agreement between the company and Google Cloud also boosted its development speed.

It is understood that earlier this year, OnBuy received a strategic investment of 2.5 million pounds from technology giant Google, which not only improved the shopping experience of platform sellers and consumers, but also reduced its costs and helped OnBuy bring in new sources of revenue.

In addition, OnBuy CEO and co-founder Cas Paton also said that over the years, the platform has been focused on creating an online market that is fair to sellers, consumers and others. On this platform, sellers do not have to worry about delayed cashback, tracking by third parties or privacy leaks, and consumers can also use smarter ways to shop.

Today, OnBuy's potential continues to burst forth in the turbulent e-commerce market. After eight years of development, it has gradually transformed from an unknown new platform into a highly anticipated "rising star" in the cross-border e-commerce circle. Therefore, people in the industry call it "British Amazon", and OnBuy also calls itself "Amazon's direct alternative platform."

According to public information, OnBuy is a British B2C e-commerce platform headquartered in Poole, Dorset, and was officially launched in November 2016. At present, it has become the fastest growing e-commerce trading platform in the world.

Data shows that from October 2017 to 2018 alone, the traffic of the OnBuy platform increased by 1178%, during which time new sellers continued to pour into the platform. In 2023, OnBuy successfully entered the top 50 of the FT1000 list released by Deloitte. According to statistics, it has been on the list of the top 50 high-tech and high-growth companies for three consecutive years.

Some foreign sellers pointed out that the payment, delivery, customer service, etc. of the OnBuy platform have been continuously optimized. These advantages can help them conduct business more conveniently, which is a great convenience for sellers. Another seller said, "OnBuy is a blue ocean platform worth investing in, and it is truly worthy of its name!"

In fact, OnBuy has won high praise from sellers due to the following important reasons.

On the one hand, OnBuy is committed to becoming a partner of merchants around the world. It is an intermediary platform without a self-operated model. All the products sold on the platform are third-party sellers. Therefore, compared with Amazon, there are fewer unnecessary competitions between the platform and sellers.

On the other hand, OnBuy divides platform sellers into Standard and Partner, and the rent and commission ratios paid by sellers of different levels are different. Moreover, it has advantages such as low commission, fund security, seller and buyer protection plan, etc., which has attracted the attention of sellers from many countries.

At the same time, the platform also offers more than 35 million products, covering many categories such as automobiles, clothing, health and beauty, technology, toys, etc.

Overall, for Chinese sellers who want to expand their business in the UK and globally, OnBuy may be a new blue ocean platform worth trying.

The global e-commerce market, including the UK, continues to thrive

Data from authoritative organizations show that OnBuy has more than 10 million monthly views and over 10 million registered users, covering many countries and regions including the UK, Europe, the US, and Australia, and is still expanding at an accelerated pace.

In addition, the development speed of Fruugo, one of the largest local e-commerce platforms in the UK, is also worth mentioning.

Its website business covers countries and regions in multiple continents including Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, North America, South America, etc., providing up to 17 languages ​​and 22 currency options, greatly reducing the operational pressure on sellers.

Data shows that Fruugo's sales have increased by 200% year-on-year for three consecutive years, and the average number of visits to its independent website has exceeded one million. Last month, Fruugo also officially announced the reopening of Chinese sellers, which undoubtedly provides a new overseas opportunity for domestic cross-border sellers.

It is not difficult to see from the microcosm of the development of OnBuy and Fruugo that in recent years, the market size of e-commerce, from the UK to the global e-commerce, has continued to prosper.

Take the UK e-commerce market, for example. It is expected to reach a total value of $160 billion by the end of this year, firmly establishing itself as the world's third largest e-commerce market, second only to China and the U.S. Among local consumers' favorite e-commerce platforms, Amazon ranks first, followed by Shopify, and Temu ranks first in the country's shopping app downloads.

Let's talk about the global e-commerce market. According to the forecast report released by the agency, the total global e-commerce sales in 2023 will be 4.4 trillion US dollars, and it is expected to exceed the 6 trillion US dollar mark in 2024. At least half of it will come from China. By 2025, this figure is expected to jump to 7 trillion US dollars.

Not only that, the value of the global e-commerce market has also been rising year after year. According to Statista data, the global e-commerce market value is expected to reach US$4.117 trillion in 2024, a 90% increase from US$2.18 trillion in 2019, and will continue to grow in the next few years.

With the continuous development of the e-commerce industry, major markets will see business opportunities of varying sizes emerge in the future.

For cross-border e-commerce platforms and sellers, whether entering the promising British market, the South African market that e-commerce giants are competing for, or the recently hot Southeast Asian market, it means both opportunities and risks. Therefore, while platforms and sellers are rushing to seize new blue oceans, they must keep up with market trends and proceed from their own actual conditions.