Best online selling sites in the UK: 5 options for UK ecommerce businesses

An ecommerce marketplace, also called an online marketplace or an ecommerce website, is an online website that allows multiple third-party sellers to list and sell their products. You don’t need a brick-and-mortar storefront and can sell to anyone both inside and outside of the UK. 

Some examples of the best UK online selling platforms in 2026 include:

• eBay
• Amazon
• OnBuy
• Not on The High Street
• Your own ecommerce site 

For UK businesses, selling online can reduce the traditional limits involved with setting up a retail store including location, retail costs, and employee costs.

2.77 billion people around the world shopped online in 2025. That’s over one-third of the world's population. Ecommerce websites give you access to millions of potential customers and allow you to set up shop without the prohibitive start-up costs that come with renting and running a brick-and-mortar shop.

Compared to brick-and-mortar traditional selling, ecommerce offers some big benefits:

• Large audience numbers. As two of the most popular ecommerce sites, Amazon has 319 million customers while eBay has 120 million.
• Access to a global customer base. Approximately 52% of online shoppers shop for products internationally.
• The ability to find buyers for niche products.
• A semi-nurtured audience. Rather than needing to be sold to, online shoppers are often actively looking for a specific product. This shows high purchase intent which means that a purpose is highly likely to buy a product in the near future — meaning you need to put less effort into nurturing them towards a sale. The data shows that over 50% of searchers buy a product in the following 72 hours after running an online search.
• Learn from other vendors. Selling via an online marketplace gives you direct insight into the marketing and sales tactics of other online sellers, helping you to refine your skills.
• Cost saving from reduced overheads involved in operating a physical shop. This includes rent, energy, and utilities. 

While there are multiple ways that online marketplaces can grow an online seller’s business, there are also some cons you need to consider and factor into your decision-making process:

• Most ecommerce marketplaces take a percentage fee on products sold. Referral fees typically cost from 8% to 15% of the total product cost for most categories.
• Most sites have listing charges. Listing charges are the fee you pay to place a listing, you pay this even if you don’t sell an item.
• Less opportunity to develop personal relationships with customers that help support long-term loyalty compared to a local brick-and-mortar shop.  
• Online customers can be more fickle, they’re often motivated by price rather than service or product quality. 80% of consumers say price is the highest driver of purchasing behaviour.
• An online store can reduce traffic to your own website.

Convenience, choice, and a growing global audience will continue to grow the ecommerce industry throughout the next decade. Global ecommerce revenue was predicted to grow to approximately $3.66 trillion by the end of 2025 and reach $7.89 trillion by 2028. In addition, Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) is projected to hit 6.29% between 2025 and 2030. 

With low start-up costs and barriers to entry and a growing, engaged audience an ecommerce website is a great place to scale a thriving retail business. 

Amazon

As one of the best online selling sites in the UK., Amazon has over 315 million active customers worldwide — making it one of the best places for buying and selling products online. Amazon is also a great place for creators too. Amazon Handmade is specially designed to showcase small independent businesses with handcrafted products.

What are the pros of selling on Amazon?

There’s a ready-made audience

Amazon is one of the most popular shopping channels in the UK, around 86% of people in the UK shop on Amazon, with 70% of people using the platform at least once a month. This  means it’s a high-traffic platform that’s a great fit if you’re looking for high reach and visibility and want to get your products in front of millions of people each month. 

Profit margins

For small UK businesses, Amazon offers the opportunity to advertise products on a scale that’s hard to beat on other online marketplaces. It typically offers a good profit margin of up to 20%. 

Amazon collects huge amounts of customer data via its platform, giving it a detailed picture of shoppers’ purchase intention, sellers can benefit from the platform’s targeted advertising functionality that allows it to target shoppers with high-relevance product suggestions that are likely to convert. 

You can Fulfil with Amazon

Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) is a unique offering that allows you to ship your products to Amazon warehouses to be picked, packed, and shipped directly when someone purchases your item. This reduces the amount of physical space you need to store stock, allows you to offer faster delivery and supports you to sell across Europe without handling any of the physical challenges yourself.

What are the cons of selling on Amazon?

It’s competitive

It’s not just Amazon’s visitor numbers that are high, their seller numbers are too. There are nearly 9.7 million businesses selling on the platform. Increase your chances of getting seen by potential customers by:

• Selling a niche product: Niche products come with less competition than oversaturated product categories, helping you stand out and attract high-intent buyers.
• Creating optimised listings with relevant keywords, high-quality images, and appealing and clear title names.
• Using Amazon ads: On the Amazon Ads console, you can choose from manual or automatic targeting — the first allows you to select specific keywords or products to target. The second, automatic targeting, relies on Amazon's algorithm to automatically match your ad to relevant customer searches (keywords) and product detail pages (placements), allowing you to quickly uncover new opportunities without additional research outside of the platform.

Restricted brand control

As Amazon is product-focussed, brand exposure opportunities can be limited in comparison to some smaller online marketplaces, which typically give you more creative control and often allow you to feature your branding more heavily. If your business is very brand focussed, you may find this restrictive as consumers primarily use Amazon for product selection, reviews and low prices.

Selling fees

As with most marketplaces, Amazon charges a fee for selling on their platform. Amazon's UK selling fees depend on whether you use an Individual or Professional plan. The Individual plan costs £0.75 per item sold, while the Professional plan has a monthly fee of £25 (excl. VAT). Referral fees are typically 8-15% of an item’s sale price and vary by product category. While FBA fees depend on an item's size, weight, and storage costs. 

Before setting up on Amazon, it’s a good idea to explore their options and choose the best-selling plan based on your margins and forecasted sales. Other costs to consider are referral fees, fulfilment fees and more. 

Onbuy

As a British marketplace, Onbuy is a great choice for UK ecommerce businesses. Claiming to be the fastest growing marketplace in the world, their aim is to put sellers and buyers first. As an up-and-coming marketplace, Onbuy offers the benefit of an ever-expanding audience, without the competition that comes with larger online selling platforms like Amazon.

What are the pros of selling on Onbuy?

Less competition

Since it launched in 2016, Onbuy has grown to more than 6 million buyers. The platform also shows a high level of customer loyalty as 51% of GMV comes from returning customers, giving you a great opportunity to drive revenue with return customers. 

Onbuy don’t compete with sellers

Unlike some similar platforms, Onbuy doesn’t sell any of its own products, it just provides a platform to connect sellers and buyers. This means you’re never in competition with the marketplace you’re selling on, giving you a fair chance when it comes to attracting buyers with your listings.

It’s UK based

Onbuy was founded and developed in Dorset, giving those who run it a unique understanding of the challenges faced by UK ecommerce businesses. All support is handled by a dedicated UK team and there’s also the option to upgrade to local Relationship Managers if you require additional guidance and strategic insight. This makes it a great platform if you’re looking to target local customers. 

What are the cons of selling with Onbuy?

A smaller audience

While Onbuy is growing, its audience is small in comparison to a larger marketplace like Amazon, especially when it comes to selling internationally. As Onbuy uses a 30-day rolling contract, you can always change your mind if it isn’t working for you.

Fees are pay-monthly only

Onbuy offers two choices when it comes to selling accounts: Standard or Partner. The Standard account comes with a monthly subscription fee of £25.00 The premium Partner account costs £129.00 excluding VAT. 

Discover whether you should sell on OnBuy in our detailed guide.

Not On The High Street (NOTHS)

Not On The High Street is a popular online marketplace for creators and small businesses specialising in original, homemade gifts — from ceramics to personalised jewellery. The platform prioritises quality, acting as the digital storefront for over 5,500 small creative businesses.

We have a whole article on NOTHS if you want to explore the pros and cons of the platform in more detail. 

What are the pros of selling on Not On The High Street?

Extra support for sellers

NOTHS offers excellent additional support compared to other online marketplaces. There are webinars and events to help you maximize your sales. You can also access an inspiration, a trend hub and other resources and toolkits to support your selling journey.

It’s a curated marketplace

NOTHS is a curated marketplace, made up of small businesses selected by NOTHS’ team. If you’re approved, they think your business is suitable for their audience. This means you’ll have a higher chance of success on their site. As a curated platform, you’ll get to enjoy being part of a supportive community of artisans and creators who are passionate about their products. 

A large, ready-made audience

There are over 39 million unique visitors each year to the NOTHS website. The combination of high visitor numbers and limited, selected sellers to compete with, gives you a greater chance of engaging with higher audience numbers.

What are the cons of selling on Not On The High Street?

It’s selective 

NOTHS is pretty selective about who can join their site and businesses have to go through an application process to sell with them. You'll need to be UK-based and provide product photography alongside your application. If your application is rejected, you can reapply but only with new products or photography.

Joining and transaction fees

There are no listing fees for NOTHS partners. Instead, there’s a one-off joining fee of £199+VAT plus 25%+VAT commission on everything you sell. This can be a barrier for businesses who are just starting out and have a limited budget. NOTHS is the best fit for businesses able to make the financial commitment and those selling high margin products.

Limited selling categories

NOTHS is a marketplace for homemade gifts, so it’s only available for selling products that fall into relevant categories such as homeware, accessories, and beauty products. Because of this speciality, sellers also have to adhere to guidelines relating to the look and feel of seller storefronts.

eBay

Launched in 1995, eBay is one of the earliest online market places and it’s consistently ranked among the top 10 online marketplace in the UK. eBay boasts over 2.3 billion live listings worldwide. Almost everything can be sold and bought on eBay, from vehicles and furniture to collectibles and electronics. 

Ebay offers both buy now and auction features, making it attractive to both buyers who are looking to gamify bargain hunting and those who want the immediate satisfaction of a purchase. 

What are the pros of selling on eBay?

You can sell almost anything

You can sell items across a range of categories, including both used and new. This makes eBay a great platform for vintage and second-hand sellers who aren’t making their own products. 

Electronics and automotive parts and accessories are routinely ranked as top-selling categories, while thrifted apparel has seen a 400% growth year-on-year.

Seller protection

Sellers can report buyers for abusing the system, prohibit feedback for unpaid items and are protected against fraudulent returns. They can also escalate situations where buyers have failed to pay.

A supportive community

Running a small business can feel lonely, but eBay’s community features allow you to connect with others via events, forums and more. There’s also a seller centre providing learning resources and 24/7 customer support.

What are the cons of selling on eBay?

Lots of competition

The freedom provided by eBay’s wide category range can be a double-edged sword. There’s potentially lots of competition for your product-related keywords, making it harder to get to the top of the listings. Significant SEO work can be required when listings high-competition items.

Policy restrictions

eBay’s seller protection policies come with restrictions, such as limited returns options you can offer your customers. While these policies are put in place to protect sellers from fraudulent claims, it does limit your freedom when it comes to creating your own policies.

Fees

Sellers are charged a final value fee of around 12.8% of the total sale for every item they sell. They're also typically charged a fixed £0.30 per order, however this rate varies based on which product category they're selling in. 

In addition, you also need to pay an insertion fee of around £0.35 per listing for any additional listings beyond your free listing allowance. To help forecast and manage your budget effectively, you can look into setting up a shop subscription, which offers a fixed cost of  £27 per month, it includes:

• 250 free buy-it-now price listings.
• 100 free 7-day auction-based listings.

Find out whether you should sell on eBay in our detailed guide.

Your own ecommerce website

Your own online store is a great place to sell products. It gives you full creative and practical control and also allows you to avoid the fees that come with using a dedicated ecommerce store. 

If you’re looking to launch your own website, it’s important to choose a build method that fits your time limits, technical skill level, and budget. For example, if you have a large budget, you could hire a web design company to create your professional website for you. Dedicated builds are often personalised and offer a great sleek, professional look as well as excellent functionality. 

If you’re working with a smaller budget or aren’t ready to commit to a big project, an all-in-one self-build solution like a Shopify online store. Online self-build solutions typically offer several benefits, including:

1. Customisable themes.
2. Integrations with a large number of apps for additional functionality.
3. Built-in marketing, operations, and SEO tools.
4. Integrated payment processing and support for a diverse range of payment options. 

What are the pros of creating your own ecommerce website? 

Control over listings and products

Unlike selling on a shared marketplace, there aren’t any terms and conditions to follow when listing on your own website. You also don’t have restrictions on what you can and can’t include, giving you full control of owner listings and how your products show up to visitors. 

Control over brand image

A strong brand image does several things:

• Differentiates you from your competitors.
• Endears you to potential customers.
• Increases revenue, with a consistent brand identity increasing revenue by up to 20%.
• Improves memorability with consumers.
• Provides a boost in memorability. 

Having your own website gives you the freedom to express your brand image and personality. You have more creative control and a greater ability to shape your brand on your own site than you do when you sell products on an online marketplace, which primarily features the marketplace’s branding. 

No listings costs

Online marketplaces often base pricing on either the number of products you list or the number of products you sell, which can make it harder to estimate and budget for expenses. Most self-serve website builders and hosting companies come with standard monthly fees which makes it easier to track your spend.

What are the cons of creating your own ecommerce website?

Website maintenance

If you’re selling on an online marketplace, all maintenance and website updates are handled by the platform provider, meaning all you have to worry about is running your business. In comparison, with your own website, you’ll need to undertake this work yourself. You’ll have full responsibility for account maintenance, updates and any upgrades you might want to make over time. 

It’s harder to be found

With your own website, you need to take the time to work on your search engine optimisation (SEO) and answer engine optimisation (AEO) in order to build both visibility and credibility with potential customers. 

While millions of people already use online marketplaces such as eBay to look for products, you’ll need to spend time, effort, and often money in investing in ads, content, and SEO tactics to drive traffic to your site.

It can be expensive

Creating your website, paying your fees, and maintaining your site quickly adds to your monthly expenses. Add in considerations like SEO and advertising costs and expenses rise further. Average costs for maintaining your website can range from £50-£1,500.

Let’s take a look at the biggest ecommerce trend predictions for 2026:

• 81% of customers prefer shopping with companies who offer a personalised experience. AI tools with predictive AI capabilities will help provide more personalized product recommendations and ads based on individual consumer needs, locations, and preferences.
• Live shopping is on the rise and the market has already grown by €10 billion. Successful up-and-coming ecommerce brands will look to integrate store checkout with their video content across platforms like TikTok and Instagram. 

There are many options available for ecommerce businesses in the UK who want to reach more people with their products. Selling across platforms can help you maximise the benefits of each channel and give you access to a wider audience. 

The best way to manage this is by multichannel selling on one single centralised portal. Mintsoft is a leading cloud-based WMS built for 3PLs & ecommerce brands that’s ideal for selling across the best ecommerce platforms in the UK. 

Mintsoft’s Multichannel Listings feature enables you to manage your orders from multiple online marketplaces and ecommerce sites directly from the Mintsoft application, giving you all the benefits of your chosen selling sites without the admin and time restrictions involved.

If you’re interested in learning more about selling on multiple channels via Mintsoft, book a personalised demo with one of our product experts today.