Case study: OnBuy.com
Guiding a hungry eCommerce startup to success as the UK’s most trusted marketplace
Background
Since its inception in 2016, OnBuy.com has existed to disrupt the status quo around eCommerce, taking on the industry giants that currently dominate the market.
With its ‘level playing field’ offering, OnBuy has now attracted more than 7,000 retailers, hosting over 36 million products on the platform. Built on a foundation of trust and transparency, OnBuy vows never to compete with its retailers, simply offering a fairer marketplace to host well-known brands both big and small at great prices.
Brief
OnBuy appointed Liz Lean PR at a critical moment in its scale-up journey. Founder and CEO Cas Paton was preparing to seek significant investment to take the online marketplace to the next level. In order to secure the desired investment, OnBuy needed to be a known entity among consumers, retailers, business peers and critically, investors.
LLPR was tasked with:
- Developing OnBuy’s brand reputation and credibility
- Creating widespread consumer awareness
- Raising Cas Paton’s professional profile
- Supporting retailer awareness and signups
- Support on development of brand messaging
- Strategic guidance on development of internal PR team
Results
During our project, OnBuy grew to become the UK’s fourth biggest marketplace, with only Amazon, eBay and Etsy ahead.
OnBuy also became the UK’s most trusted marketplace with a TrustPilot score of 4.7 / 5.
LLPR’s strategic mix of activity supported the business through a fast scale-up and investor rounds and included:
- Reached over 28 million readers in 6 months alone from Jan to June 2021
- Secured over 150 pieces of coverage in target publications in just 6 months
- PR helped to achieve OnBuy’s largest investment to date; £35m in its Series A+ funding round
- Awards : Five entered, two finalists, two won
- Over 20 thought leadership/interview opportunities for Cas Paton
- Over the course of six months, saw a 300% increase in retailers joining the platform as a result of regular trade media coverage
- Positive coverage and industry reputation attracted C-suite level talent
- Stakeholder introduction led to a £125,000 investment in OnBuy
- Highly skilled internal PR team recruited, with LLPR providing high-level recruitment counsel
- Stakeholder introductions aided securing new HQ premises
content creation
media relations
