Top UK Marketplaces Rankings Tracker – May 2020

We are tracking UK marketplaces over a whole year to compare performance between the different venues you sell on. As we track the runners and riders we expected all marketplaces to see a boost in traffic from the Christmas period compared to three months ago. Today we’re publishing the three months Top UK Marketplaces Rankings Tracker up to April 2020 to reveal their trading performance at the start of the Coroanavirus pandemic.

Data is taken from SimilarWeb and Alexa. Neither are 100% accurate but what they will reveal is a standardised measurement we can use to track increases or decreases in traffic overtime.

This series is sponsored by OnBuy.com, but their metrics will be measured in exactly the same way as the other marketplaces featured. Data for this post was gathered from SimilarWeb and Alexa on the 17th of May 2020.

Amazon.co.uk

Looking at Amazon’s traffic, there is an obvious dip from the peak Black Friday and Christmas period. However as the Corornavirus lock down took place in mid March there is a definite uptick in traffic. It is unclear why Amazon were so quick to pause incoming FBA shipments and freeze stock already in FBA as even in April traffic was below their normal Christmas volumes. However, what we don’t know is how many products were purchased by these buyers and it’s possible that although they weren’t seeing significant additional traffic that those who were visiting Amazon were buying rather than browsing.

eBay.co.uk

eBay saw a definite rise in traffic as the Coronavirus pandemic took place, and with a raft of measures rapidly rolled out to support their users and no throttling of sales (other than on PPE which only approved sellers are able to list to prevent price gouging), eBay appears to have done well.

Traffic is not only way above the Christmas peak, but is at it’s highest since we started tracking marketplace traffic nine months ago. It’s safe to say that those eBay sellers who were able to stay open and trade through the Coronavirus pandemic should have done very well as there were plenty of buyers.

Gumtree.com

It’s no real surprise to see Gumtree’s traffic slump the minute the Coronavirus pandemic started to be publicised. Who wants to buy in person from a random stranger when it literally might kill you? Added to the consumer ads, Gumtree are likely to have been hit by a lack of people browsing for motors, property and job ads. Gumtree’s traffic according to SimilarWeb has slumped to a nine month low and it’s likely that only as lock down measures become further relaxed that their service will pick up again.

Etsy.com

Etsy had a terrible start to trading through the pandemic, but as has been widely publicised saw a massive multi-million dollar selling spree of hand made fabric face masks which rescued their figures. Etsy are traditionally strong at Christmas, so in the last three months beating their Christmas sales is noteworthy. What will be interesting is the longer term impact on Etsy – if too many people lose their jobs or are on reduced income, then the crafty/hobby type goods Etsy sells might be cut from people’s discretionary spend.

notonthehighstreet.com

Notonthehighstreet always see a massive peak from Black Friday and through to Christmas so it’s expected that their sales would be down for the early part of the year. What’s noteworthy is that unlike eBay and Amazon where we can see the graphs trending upwards as early as March when the pandemic started to bite, Notonthehighstreet didn’t see an uptick in traffic according to SimilarWeb data until April. However an uptick is there, not to anywhere near the rise in traffic they saw at Christmas but you should have seen a later increase in sales than on the more general marketplaces.

OnBuy.com

OnBuy are the only marketplace who’s traffic stats on SimilarWeb were already back up to peak trading numbers by February, but nothing prepared us for the exponential increase in traffic they’ve experienced by the end of April. So far this year, their traffic has almost tripled.

Prior to the Coronavirus Pandemic hitting, OnBuy’s traffic was already showing positive growth this year so it’s hard to know how much of their huge spike in traffic to attribute to their expansion efforts and how much is as a result of the pandemic. It’s very likely that as soon as other marketplaces started to run out of stock (or practically shut their doors to sales), that consumers immediately turned to alternatives and if that’s the case then OnBuy were high up the list of marketplace to benefit.

OnBuy is one to watch and increasingly one to stop watching and start listing on if you’re not already. It’s worth noting some of the other steps they have put in place such as doubling their workforce this April and doubling affiliate commissions to attract more traffic – read our special report on OnBuy also published today.

Fruugo.co.uk

Fruugo’s traffic suggested that they weren’t having a spectacular start to 2020 but the Coronavirus soon sorted that out. Their sales have sky rocketed and there’s a good chance that at least some of that growth was from overseas consumers shopping internationally as soon as local retailers started to struggle or closed their physical store. Remember, not many consumers use Fruugo as place to start their buying journey, but Fruugo optimise your products on search engines and so have undoubtedly benefited from more consumers tapping a search query into Google and landing on a Fruugo listing.

Yumbles.com

You know the one thing you still have to buy in a pandemic? Yep, food so it’s no surprise that Yumbles traffic skyrockted as soon as people stopped buying toilet paper and started panic buying food. Can’t get vegan cheese or gluten free bread in the supermarket? There will be a small independent maker on Yumbles who are still operating and can ship to your door within days.

It would be a surprise if Yumbles hadn’t attracted a ton of traffic from foodies when they are locked up in their flats and got nothing better to do than crave their organic, vegan, or dairy free nibbles and if ever a marketplace was in the right place at the right time to serve their ideal consumers it was Yumbles during the UK lock down.