OnBuy get first sale and officially start selling

OnBuy tell us that they accidentally made their first sale while testing systems. They sold an £18.99 children’s magic set through trader Zizy Limited as it briefly opened up its checkouts for a live trial on Saturday the 7th of December.

The test was kept secret and was not intended to result in any sales to the public – but the successful purchase proved without doubt that the site was working flawlessly say OnBuy. After the successful test, OnBuy officially opened its checkouts on Friday the 13th of December and is now gradually bringing sellers online, making more products available for sale every day.

I thought now the site was live it was an ideal time to have a quick browse. I was instantly impressed to find that the magic set at £18.99 plus £1.99 delivery was cheaper than eBay where it’s up for £22.99.

Encouraged I had a look at the home page where they’re promoting the “HELLO KITTY” brand. I wasn’t quite so impressed to find the HELLO KITTY camcorder at £42.41 when it retails for £29.99 plus £3.95 on eBay and the HELLO KITTY 3DS game at £22.49 is only £19.99 on eBay.

If a new marketplace is going to promote products on their home page then they really do need to have keen prices to attract buyers.

OnBuy’s PR blurb says “OnBuy has been launched as a British alternative to Amazon and offers sellers lower rates than its rivals in every category – so the savings can be passed on to consumers”. It’s early days yet and I’m sure they’ll get keener on pricing and pass on savings once they have more sellers competing for sales, but it’s going to be tricky to attract today’s savvy buyers if they can still buy cheaper elsewhere in the meantime.

We’ll be watching OnBuy with interest in the New Year to see what steps they take to market the platform (they’ve mentioned all sorts of things including TV advertising (Tazbar tried TV too, but failed). Currently though it’s early days and they’re taking small steps so let us know what you think if you’ve registered as a seller, or if you’re a happy OnBuy buyer.