Amazon is the default starting point for many UK eCommerce sellers, but it's not the only option — and for many businesses, it's not even the best one. Rising fees, intense competition, and Amazon's growing own-brand presence have pushed many sellers to diversify across alternative platforms. Here's where to sell instead of (or alongside) Amazon in 2025.
eBay UK has over 30 million active buyers and a well-established marketplace infrastructure. Unlike Amazon, eBay doesn't compete with sellers directly using its own branded products. The platform suits a wide range of categories — particularly electronics, collectibles, pre-owned goods, automotive parts, and fashion. eBay's fee structure is transparent and generally lower than Amazon for most categories. If you're scaling eBay volume, eBay fulfilment via a 3PL keeps your seller metrics healthy without tying up your time in daily despatch.
Etsy's 96 million active buyers actively seek products they can't find on Amazon — handmade items, personalised gifts, vintage goods, and niche craft supplies. Sellers in these categories often find Etsy's buyer quality (higher average order values, lower return rates) superior to Amazon's. Competition from dropshippers and mass manufacturers is less prevalent on Etsy than on Amazon Marketplace.
TikTok Shop is the fastest-growing eCommerce channel in the UK for consumer-facing brands. Short-form video content and live selling create discovery-driven purchases that don't happen on traditional search-led marketplaces. The trade-off is strict delivery SLAs and operational requirements — but for the right product categories (beauty, supplements, fashion, homeware), the growth potential is significant.
Selling direct-to-consumer through your own Shopify store means no marketplace fees, direct customer relationships, and full control over pricing, presentation, and promotions. The challenge is generating traffic, which requires marketing investment. The long-term value — customer email lists, brand equity, higher margins — makes a DTC presence worth building alongside marketplaces.
Not-on-the-High-Street focuses specifically on unique and personalised UK gifts, with a curated seller base. OnBuy is a growing UK general marketplace with lower fees than Amazon. Both platforms suit sellers who want an alternative marketplace with less competition than Amazon's scale creates.
Selling across multiple channels requires a single inventory pool that syncs across all platforms. PackPro's WMS integrates with Amazon, eBay, Etsy, TikTok Shop, Shopify, WooCommerce, and more — managing stock levels centrally and dispatching from a single warehouse. View all integrations or get in touch.