OnBuy relaunches to take channel fight to Amazon

Online marketplace relaunches following MBO in 2014

Online marketplace OnBuy has relaunched in the UK as it looks to wrestle market share from the likes of Amazon.

OnBuy originally launched in the UK in 2013, but a disagreement among the shareholders - which included Centerprise International - led to the website being taken down in 2014, after which Cas Paton took control in a management buyout.

OnBuy works on a subscription basis of £49 a month, not a commission model, allowing sellers to trade in products including IT, clothing, cars and jewellery.

Paton told CRN that the issue in 2014 was between Centerprise and a third party, not himself, adding that he remains good friends with Centerprise boss Rafi Razzak.

OnBuy is a trading platform, not a retailer, meaning it does not sell anything itself and therefore does not compete against the sellers using its marketplace.

Paton explained that OnBuy will facilitate sales in various sectors, with a dedicated focus on IT, claiming that resellers currently get a rough time from others in the market.

"The core benefit of using OnBuy over any other channel system is we don't charge commission," he said.

"If you're on Amazon you're going to pay seven per cent, if you're on eBay it's going to work out at five and a half per cent, maybe five if you have good PayPal rates, but at OnBuy we have absolutely no selling fees."

Paton explained that selling through OnBuy could work out cheaper for resellers than selling on their own website, because OnBuy's payment handler Stripe often charges less than other firms.

"In many cases some of the smaller sellers don't truly appreciate the cost that's in their website," Paton added.

"They feel like it's just the payment fees - they almost wipe off the development costs, the upkeep and the improvements [but] they need to factor that in."

The computing categories on OnBuy are set to go live over the next couple of days and will cover segments including PCs and laptops, components and storage - aimed predominately at the consumer and SMB spaces.

Following the UK launch, OnBuy is set to roll out in 34 European counties in eight weeks.