Why look past Amazon in 2026
Amazon remains the biggest shelf in UK ecommerce, and for many sellers the fees, competition and buy-box pressure that come with it are simply the cost of volume. But the marketplace landscape has broadened. Large UK retailers now run their own third-party marketplaces on platforms such as Mirakl, opening their traffic to outside sellers, while independent and curated marketplaces serve buyers who deliberately shop away from Amazon.
For a small brand, the appeal is straightforward: category-focused traffic, less direct competition per listing, and diversification away from a single account-suspension risk. The trade-off is more feeds to manage and smaller absolute volumes per channel. Here is where each option genuinely fits.
Retailer-run marketplaces: B&Q, Next, Debenhams and The Range
B&Q Marketplace (diy.com)
B&Q opened diy.com to third-party sellers and has grown the online range far beyond what its stores carry. Fit: DIY, garden, homeware, tools and building products. Applications are vetted; expect to demonstrate product data quality, UK returns handling and reliable delivery. Commission varies by category, broadly in the territory Amazon sellers will recognise. For home-improvement brands, buyer intent here is excellent.
Next
Next sells third-party fashion, home and beauty brands alongside its own label, and the bar is the highest on this list. It is brand-led rather than listing-led: Next chooses partners whose products complement its range, and onboarding feels closer to a wholesale relationship than a marketplace sign-up. If accepted, you reach one of the UK's strongest full-price fashion audiences.
Debenhams and The Range
Debenhams now operates as an online marketplace under Debenhams Group, focused on fashion, beauty and home, with a broad application process. The Range runs a marketplace for home, garden and leisure lines. Both suit value-to-mid-market products with fast dispatch; neither flatters premium positioning.
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Independent generalists: OnBuy and Fruugo
OnBuy, based in Dorset, positions itself as the seller-friendly UK marketplace: no listing fees, commission-only pricing that undercuts Amazon in most categories, and no first-party retail arm competing against you. Traffic is a fraction of Amazon's, so treat it as incremental revenue at healthier margins rather than a primary channel. Onboarding is quick and feeds are straightforward.
Fruugo, headquartered in Cumbria, takes your UK listings and localises them for dozens of countries, handling currency conversion and translation. You pay only when you sell. It suits sellers who want passive international reach without opening country-specific accounts. Do the maths on international delivery and returns before switching it on for heavy or low-value items.
Curated and creative: Notonthehighstreet, Fy! and Folksy
Notonthehighstreet is a curated gift marketplace with an application process that rejects far more sellers than it accepts. Commission is markedly higher than the generalists charge, but the audience arrives ready to buy distinctive, giftable products at full price, and personalised items perform especially well. If your products photograph beautifully and gift naturally, the application effort is justified.
Fy! serves design-led buyers with wall art, prints, homeware and lifestyle products, and suits brands with a strong visual identity. Folksy is the UK's handmade marketplace, with low listing fees or a small monthly plan, and fits makers of genuinely handmade goods. Beyond these, ManoMano is worth a look for tools, DIY and garden brands, and Superdrug's marketplace has opened health and beauty traffic to outside sellers.
Fees and application difficulty at a glance
- Easiest to join: OnBuy and Fruugo, with commission-only fees and self-serve onboarding measured in days.
- Moderate: B&Q, The Range, Debenhams and Superdrug, with vetted applications judged on product data, range fit and delivery performance; allow several weeks.
- Hardest: Next and Notonthehighstreet, both selective and brand-led; expect a genuine review of your products, imagery and positioning, and be prepared to be told no.
- Fee logic: generalists compete on low commission; retailer-run marketplaces charge category-dependent rates broadly comparable to Amazon; curated platforms charge the most and justify it with buyer intent.
- All of the above pay out on sale, and none requires significant upfront spend, so the real costs are integration time and ongoing feed management.
Key Takeaway
Diversify deliberately, not everywhere at once. Pick one retailer-run marketplace that matches your category (B&Q for DIY and garden, Next or Debenhams for fashion and home) and one low-friction generalist such as OnBuy or Fruugo for incremental sales. Reserve curated platforms like Notonthehighstreet and Fy! for giftable, design-led products that photograph well. Judge each channel on contribution margin after fees and returns over a full quarter, and centralise stock with a multichannel tool before you scale further.
Matching marketplaces to your catalogue and operations
Choose by category fit first. DIY and garden points to B&Q and ManoMano; giftable and personalised products to Notonthehighstreet; design and art to Fy!; fashion and beauty to Next or Debenhams; broad catalogues with sharp prices to OnBuy and Fruugo. Then be honest about operations: every marketplace adds a feed to maintain, an order stream to fulfil and a customer-service queue to answer.
Multichannel tools such as Linnworks, ChannelEngine and Mirakl Connect centralise stock and orders so nothing is rekeyed by hand. Start with two marketplaces, not six, and measure contribution margin per channel after fees, delivery and returns for a full quarter before adding more. If you want help shortlisting channels or wiring up the integrations, our ecommerce team does this work regularly.