Great UK Alternatives to Amazon for E-Commerce Businesses

Firstly, let’s talk Amazon – obviously, it’s too prominent to ignore. Due to its size and popularity, it’s a no brainer to go there first, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the only option. While the massive size is often an alluring feature, being able to boast the biggest market reach with a vast number of potential buyers is sure to persuade anyone – however, it’s a double-edged sword as it also means high competition. Amazon can be an amazing e-commerce selling platform for businesses, but for many it is a costly decision where there isn’t enough control given to the owner of the business.

This is why we have compiled a list of UK alternatives to Amazon and the benefits they have to offer. While we do not recommend you forgo the use of Amazon entirely, they can be good to look into alongside the use of Amazon to both increase your reach while giving yourself some added control.

1: Shopify/WooCommerce

Starting with something a bit different to Amazon, Shopify isn’t a marketplace in the same sense as Amazon and some others on this list. It’s an E-Commerce platform with the software to fully build your own store and sell online.

Some immediate advantages from this is the customisability of this store builder allowing you to convey a true sense of your brand not possible on Amazon without the use of Brand Registry. The ability to create a catalogue of webpages that not only act as a platform to sell your products but reflect the ethos and story of your business. It also comes with complete inbuilt SEO functionality to aid with findability alongside the ability to push social or paid advertisement traffic here.

Selling on Shopify gives you the power to build lists, unlike with Amazon where customers details are private, and you are unable to contact them. You would benefit from this in multiple other ways including much easier social traffic led here and allowing you to get buyers contact details to build an audience list and better remarket to repeat customers using discounts and deals.

These are just some benefits and while we didn’t touch on every aspect this doesn’t mean this platform is without fault.

2: OnBuy

What is it? OnBuy.com is the fastest growing UK marketplace, offering a direct alternative to Amazon with over already 10 million products listed only starting just in 2014. But why should I choose here over or as well as Amazon? The big one, Selling fees. The Selling fees on this marketplace are far lower – between 5-9%. Meaning you can price competitively without losing profit. Another advantage is compared to Amazon’s bi-weekly payment plan. OnBuy has an immediate payment by PayPal as soon as an item is dispatched, PayPal pays you directly.

Something that’s great for newer sellers, starting in the UK market is that OnBuy has a, £500/month Sales Guarantee. Meaning, if you don’t make £500 a month in sales, OnBuy.com will waive the next month’s Standard subscription fee. There’s already Millions of buyers already, but a fraction of the competition of Amazon in terms of sellers so you have the chance of dominating your given market.

And perhaps the best feature, OnBuy.com doesn’t compete with you. Instead, their efforts are focused on boosting your business with your own dedicated account manager who’s only interested in helping you grow.

3: Fruugo

While Fruugo is a gated marketplace that you have to apply to sell in. One big advantage of it is that it offers easy international expansion so a great marketplace if you’re a current or upcoming client of ours! All you need to do is upload your products and set the price in your own currency and Fruugo handles the rest, by translating the listing and making the product available on all 23 of its global marketplaces. Fruugo takes a commission of 15% of the sales price and does not charge sellers to list products or hold an account.

4: Newegg

While more niche due to its exclusivity to Computer parts, Electronics, gaming, appliances, and tech. Offering its own fulfillment service similar to Amazon’s FBA that even boasts an Amazon Prime-like service. Newegg sellers get paid weekly rather than bi-weekly as they do with Amazon, and the selling fees and sales commission are category dependent ranging from 8-14% compared to Amazon’s ranging from 6-20% with the average seller paying 15% – more than the highest range a seller would pay on Newegg.  

While there are others out there, that’s our list for 4 Amazon UK alternatives to investigate when expanding to the EU or even as a native UK seller looking to diversify their selling marketplaces.