EasyGroup has launched multi-category marketplace EasyShop.com, which founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou says is “set to rival Amazon”.
The online marketplace has launched across 21 European countries, including the UK, today. The UK site plans to sell a range of ambient and frozen food and drink, alongside health & beauty, cleaning and petcare products.
The marketplace does not hold stock, it says, and has vowed to not sell own-label products or compete with the businesses using its platform.
“Competition is good for consumers and it’s good for businesses. No market benefits when everyone feels they have only one place to go,” Haji-Ioannou said.
“EasyShop brings together the values the easy brand has always stood for, simplicity, value and choice, with a marketplace model that’s designed to help retailers grow rather than compete against them. I believe there is plenty of room for a fresh approach to online shopping,” he added.
Sellers using the marketplace can reach shoppers in their choice of 21 markets through one account, with VAT calculated automatically.
“They do not need to establish a company in every country, which opens international expansion to businesses that may previously have found the cost and complexity of local operations a barrier,” the company said.
The marketplace is now inviting more UK, European and international sellers to join the hundreds that are already trading on the site as part of its phased rollout.
The EasyShop marketplace is being built on the proprietary marketplace technology of OnBuy.com, the largest UK-owned online marketplace. OnBuy will provide the “infrastructure and operational framework required to support cross-border trade”, EasyGroup said.
The OnBuy platform has already been proven internationally through OnBuy’s own marketplace, which has grown more than 86% over the past three years and supports over 100 million products across Europe, with several markets delivering quarterly growth in excess of 150%.
“Too many retailers are building their business on a platform that’s also their biggest competitor. We think that’s wrong. EasyShop will never sell against the businesses that sell with it,” said Cas Paton, founder and CEO of OnCommerce.
“The Easy brand has spent 30 years taking on the establishment and winning. Now we’re taking on the giants of online shopping, and we’re doing it on the side of sellers, to give them the fair deal they’ve been missing for too long,” Paton added.
The launch comes amid huge growth in UK marketplaces. Tesco’s Marketplace has grown its seller base nearly threefold within a year, The Grocer revealed earlier this year. Last week, Argos officially launched its marketplace and unveiled plans to expand its offering to more than 130,000 products by the end of the year.
The general merchandise retailer first set out plans to launch a marketplace in February, saying it would offer customers “an even wider range of products”.
Earlier this month, Ikea announced the launch of its second-hand marketplace in the UK, for consumers to buy and sell pre-owned Ikea products.
In June, The Grocer revealed Joybuy – the full-category e-commerce site and app owned by China’s biggest retailer by revenue, JD.com – was readying to introduce third-party sellers to its online stores across Europe.
Easy Group is best known for its EasyJet airline – which this week caught the eye of US investment firm Castlelake for a possible takeover, according to reports. Other easy brands include EasyHotel, EasyCar, EasyBus, EasyGym, EasyCruise, EasyStorage, EasyMoney, EasyBet, EasyEnergy, EasyBitcoin, Easy Sim and EasyFerry among a total of 386.
It is not Haji-Ioannou’s first foray into food and drink selling. In 2016 the group launched EasyFoodstore, with ambitions for a chain of stores “dotted around the country”. Only one was ever opened: in Park Royal, north west London, in an EasyBus depot off the Hanger Lane gyratory.
In 2017, it launched EasyFood, a restaurant delivery app to compete directly with Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber Eats. It can still be downloaded on the iPhone app store, but not Android’s, while its social media accounts have been inactive for more than a year.
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