Flubit got their first sale as a full blown marketplace just 25 seconds after launching.
Having been a consumer demand driven website for almost six years, Flubit transformed into a full UK marketplace on Wednesday last week. At launch they had over 1,500 registered sellers with millions of products and crucially an existing pool of buyers, some of which had been using the previous Flubit for half a decade.
UK online sellers have been calling out for an alternative marketplace for years and Flubit, with their existing buyers is the most credible alternative to fully launch in the UK. There have of course been some incredibly successful niche marketplaces (NotOnTheHighStreet for gifts, Yumbles for food, Etsy for hand made and crafts immediately spring to mind), but Flubit is a first general marketplace encompassing all the main stream categories.
A couple of additional factors that should make Flubit attractive to you if you’re not already selling on the platform, are that they already have multiple integrations with some of the best known multichannel solutions available and that they’re essentially a free platform for sellers. Unlike most marketplaces where the platform takes a cut of your sale price, Flubit add on a little margin for themselves and you get the full price that you ask for.
You will need to tweak your pricing – if for example you have a product that sells for £100 on another marketplace that takes a 10% commission and 3.5% payment processing fee, you can afford to offer the same product for £86.50 on Flubit and make the same profit.
There have been some obvious objections to the Flubit model, for instance you have no direct relationship with the customer (hardly much different in reality to eBay or Amazon), pricing isn’t always cheaper than other marketplaces (well that’s down you to as a merchant to make sure your prices are keen) and search isn’t perhaps as good as it could be (give them time… they can only get better!).
For the time it will take to set up a product feed and a one of pricing algorithm adjustment to take account of no fees, there’s very little reason not to give Flubit a go and every reason to be hopeful. It is of course optional, but why would you turn down the chance of free sales with no commissions deducted and no set up fees?
Finally, if you’re interested and for the sake of posterity, the first product sold on the new Flubit marketplace 25 seconds after launch was Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Unsweetened 1L (pack of 12) fulfilled by My Beauty and Care.
15 Responses
Great, unfortunately, it looks like the buyer was suckered in by Flubits previous track record of beating Amazon’s price and have now paid more than Amazon (£20.64 on Flubit, £20.60 on Amazon) . Plus they lost the security of buying via Amazon.
To be fair that’s one of the smallest price differences I’ve noticed on Flubit, most items are considerably more expensive than last week.
Assuming that retailers are offering the product for the same amount they would get paid from other marketplaces as you suggest….. them it seems clear that Flubits ‘little margin ‘ is actually more than eBay or Amazon!
Why the lack of transparency about what their ‘little margin’ is?
So does that mean that Flubit is the seller to the consumer for VAT purposes and you only account for VAT on your price to Flubit?
“You asked and we listened” – Funny statement. Name just one consumer who’s asked for higher prices… Oh wait, you can’t!
Flubit has lost their USP. Having used their demand feature numerous times in the past, everything I want to buy is now either more expensive than Amazon, or the saving is so minuscule that it isn’t worth losing out on Amazon’s warranty for the sake of pennies.
Using a few items (many of which are featured on the front page) as as examples:
SanDisk Ultra 200 GB microSDXC Memory Card
Amazon £66.99
Flubit £74.99
LEGO Ninjago 70605 Misfortune’s Keep Playset
Amazon £44.99
Flubit £56.97
Sumvision Psyc Monic Wireless Bluetooth Speaker 20W
Amazon £38.05
Flubit £39.24
Nintendo WiiU Classic Controller / Nintendo Classic Mini Controller (Zelda Link)
Amazon £33.70
Flubit £54.07
Fisher-Price Roaring Rainforest Jumperoo
Amazon £69.99
Flubit £90.20
I rest my case. Flubit is no longer useful. Consider me another lost customer.
“Direct relationship” you can actually do this with eBay not so much with Amazon more so with FBA where you really are just the “cheapest price”.
Had a look in my sector all the normal characters are onboard, and yeah you are cheaper if you go direct. Glad I can see how the model actually works, they are adding a bit on.
Anyway we tried to sign up a seller account and seem to have been ignored.
Next one to try please.
“vertical or geographical location does not fit the criteria of vendor that we are currently integrating”
This is what we just had back, what does that mean in plain English we are a .co.uk based in Scotland
I had the same message, so I cannot buy on there now (as it is more expensive) and I can’t sell either!
Their first purchase was after 15 seconds. Was that their last too??
Used this a lot as a buyer in its previous format. Please can someone give me just one example of where flubit is now more competitive on cost. Just one please. I certainly can’t find it.
And as for the search engine. Try finding what you requested. It might turn up on page 2 of the search if you’re lucky. Total fail. Glad I haven’t sunk my investments into it.
I would weigh up the poorer returns policy v the saving made. Now everything is considerably more expensive than eBay and Amazon.
And what happened to the further announcements about Elite??
So sad to see this model destroyed.
Look at the recent feedback on their own site!!
Another disappointed buyer here.
The site’s a waste of time now.
As a Elite subscriber spending several hundred a month on the site I would have expected at least a email warning of the changes, but absolutely no communication from Flubit.
No communication, useless search, higher prices, I will not be going back.
The new Flubit has been offering the same four products to me since the relaunch on the main page.
Nintendo Classic Mini, Phillips Airfryer, a Brest Pumb, and a LEGO 70594 Ninjago set.
Only the Brest pump is cheaper than Amazon and then only by a few quid, the others are considerably more expensive than Amazon.
If they can’t even get the headline deals right there’s not much chance for the rest of the site.
What a pointless website, the original launch was innovative (but desparately lacking customer service). The new version is pointless, and they haven’t communicated any changes or new launch to me a a buyer! First I heard was today when I tried to ‘flubit’ and item!
On the few occasions I see similar products listed on Flubit, they are vastly more expensive than other identical products on Amazon.
I’ll give they 6 months to burn their investments and end up in the internet graveyard of failed ventures.
Really missing the old Flubit offering, where I would check prices on everything I would normally buy from Amazon and mostly would save sizeable amounts by going through Flubit. Since the change, which was signalled to be a great improvement, I have not bought a single item and often the items are 10 to 20% dearer on Flubit. I expect Amazon has seen a massive sales boost since the change.