OnBuy: everything you need to know
Best for: brands and retailers looking to reach UK shoppers, diversify beyond Amazon and eBay, and activate a broad product catalogue through the Octopia Network, across categories such as home, garden, tech, beauty, toys, pet supplies, fashion and everyday essentials.
|
|
|
|
Launch notes: Merchants already selling on Cdiscount can activate OnBuy faster because catalogue data, category mapping and operational workflows are shared through the Octopia Network.
✓ One feed, multiple marketplaces
✓ Centralised order management in Lengow
Through Octopia and Lengow, merchants can reach UK shoppers using the same infrastructure already connected to their Cdiscount feed.
OnBuy is a UK-born online marketplace that connects shoppers with independent sellers across a broad range of retail categories. The platform is positioned as an alternative to traditional ecommerce marketplaces, with a model focused on third-party sellers, competitive pricing, wide choice and customer cashback.
For marketplace sellers, OnBuy is especially relevant when UK visibility, catalogue breadth, strong pricing and product data quality are part of the strategy. Sellers can match existing products or create new product pages, but OnBuy operates a catalogue system, which means product creation depends on the correct manufacturer brand and barcode.
As part of the Octopia Network available through Lengow, OnBuy can be activated through an existing Cdiscount connection. Sellers benefit from shared catalogue infrastructure, centralised order management and a faster expansion path than a standalone marketplace integration.
Key figures
Sources: OnBuy Sell on OnBuy, Lengow Octopia Network announcement.
Available countries
Who shops here?
OnBuy attracts shoppers looking for choice, deals, everyday products and recognised brands across multiple categories. The platform is relevant for buyers comparing alternatives to major marketplaces, especially when price, product availability, cashback and delivery options influence the purchase decision.
Users come to OnBuy for competitive prices, cashback, offers and broad product choice across everyday retail categories. For sellers, this makes price positioning, product availability and catalogue quality central to performance.
The platform is particularly relevant for retailers targeting UK marketplace buyers who already compare products, sellers and delivery options before purchasing.
Home & Garden
Furniture, homeware, garden tools, outdoor products, cleaning, storage, DIY and household essentials.
Tech & Electronics
Mobile phones, tablets, gaming, smart watches, accessories, audio, computing and consumer electronics.
Beauty & Personal Care
Fragrance, skincare, haircare, styling tools, facial cleansers, shampoo, conditioner and everyday beauty products.
Everyday Essentials
Pet supplies, household supplies, toys, gifts, fashion, lifestyle accessories and recurring daily-use products.
What you need to know before applying
OnBuy is available through the Octopia Network. Sellers need an active Cdiscount/Octopia setup before activating OnBuy as an additional destination through the shared marketplace infrastructure.
Seller type
Professional sellers, brands, distributors and retailers with competitive prices, reliable fulfilment and catalogue data that can support product matching or creation.
Country
United Kingdom, with UK shopper expectations around price, delivery, customer service and marketplace trust.
Costs
Commercial conditions are shared during Octopia marketplace approval.
Time to launch
Fast if the merchant already has an active Cdiscount feed.
Product data
Accurate titles, brand data, barcodes, product descriptions, images, prices, stock, category data, delivery settings and marketplace-ready offer information.
Technology
Shared Octopia infrastructure through the Cdiscount channel in Lengow.
How to sell on OnBuy with Lengow
Through the Octopia Network, sellers can activate OnBuy from the same Cdiscount channel used to access other participating marketplaces. Product information is shared across the network, while orders are centralised in Lengow. This reduces operational complexity compared with managing several standalone marketplace integrations.
Lengow helps brands prepare, transform and automate marketplace-ready product data so they can improve catalogue quality, reduce manual work and manage OnBuy operations from a single interface.
| Marketplace challenge | What successful sellers do | What Lengow automates |
|---|---|---|
| Catalogue activation | Select products that fit OnBuy demand and prepare them for marketplace publication. | Catalogue segmentation to choose products by category, stock, price, margin or commercial objective. |
| Product matching | Match products to existing catalogue pages where available, or create new products when needed. | Feed preparation workflows that help structure product data for matching and product creation. |
| Barcode readiness | Use the correct manufacturer brand and corresponding barcode when creating products. | Rules and data checks to prepare brand, identifier and product attribute fields before export. |
| Category mapping | Map products to the right OnBuy categories to improve product discoverability and compliance. | AI Category Mapping helps reduce manual mapping work across the Octopia Network. |
| Localisation | Adapt product content to UK shoppers and local marketplace expectations. | AI Content Localisation helps adapt product content for local marketplace requirements. |
| Marketplace image requirements | Use clean product visuals that make products easy to compare across a broad marketplace catalogue. | AI Image Compliance helps prepare visuals for marketplace requirements at scale. |
| Stock reliability | Keep availability accurate to avoid overselling, cancellations and poor customer experience. | Automated stock updates and rules to pause or exclude unavailable products. |
| Marketplace market intelligence | Monitor competitor pricing, assortment changes and marketplace positioning to remain competitive. | Netrivals provides competitive intelligence, price monitoring and assortment benchmarking across marketplaces. |
| Order operations | Manage orders efficiently and identify the source marketplace within Octopia orders. | Lengow centralises Octopia orders and retrieves new or modified orders regularly. |
With Lengow AI Studio, AI is embedded directly into the marketplace workflow: AI Category Mapping helps classify products faster, AI Content Localisation supports international catalogue adaptation, and AI Image Compliance helps prepare visuals for marketplace requirements at scale.
Create’s European Expansion: a Marketplace Strategy Powered by Lengow
Create is a Spanish design-led home appliance and lifestyle brand combining functionality, style and digital-first distribution. The company uses marketplaces as a strategic growth channel to accelerate expansion across Europe while keeping catalogue and order operations centralised.
“Before working with Lengow, it could take us months to launch new marketplaces. Now it's a matter of weeks. This has resulted in cost savings and a clear acceleration in our expansion within the marketplace channel.”
Pedro Salazar, Digital Director, Create
Source: Create success story by Lengow.
Powering industry leaders
Discover more marketplace integrations
Take control of your e-commerce performance
Join thousands of brands and retailers using Lengow to manage, optimise and scale their e-commerce operations across every channel, with data-driven insights and full control.
