Founded in 2006 by Holly Tucker and Sophie Cornish, Notonthehighstreet is a unique marketplace that works with over 5,000 ‘Partners’ – which represent some of the UK’s best small creative businesses. Serving over 3 million customers, Notonthehighstreet partners with sellers in workshops and home studios all over the country, offering thoughtful gifts and unique homeware that has typically been handmade. 

Notonthehighstreet’s aim is to discover and develop talented, skilled and dedicated people who have exceptionally high standards. Through their innovative marketing campaigns and evolving tech platform, they seek to shine a spotlight on small businesses and make a real difference to their Partners’ lives. According to Notonthehighstreet, over 220 of their Partners have each made sales of over £1million working with them, with total sales of over £1billion being generated since their launch.

Key highlights:

• Vast customer base
• Events and partnerships
• Online storefront

To begin with, one of the advantages of working with Notonthehighstreet is their vast customer base and their extensive marketing reach. Those who partner with the marketplace benefit from their large-scale advertising campaigns and constantly growing social media following. In addition, they have dedicated programmes across Google and Facebook as well as a mature affiliate programme. 

To continue, another benefit of working with Notonthehighstreet which really sets it apart from other marketplaces, is that it is not solely online. Although we have experienced a big shift from physical retail into the ecommerce space, you can get the best of both worlds with Notonthehighstreet as they host experiential events. This gives customers the opportunity to see your products in the flesh – allowing them to view the goods up close before buying them there and then. Alongside these events, their partnerships (such as with Stylist Live and Luna Cinema) allow tens of thousands of customers to interact with them and their Partners (sellers) in person.

Finally, aside from the real life in-person opportunities to promote your brand, Notonthehighstreet also helps you grow and manage your business online. When you become a Notonthehighstreet Partner, you will be given access to your very own online storefront, which is essentially an online shop window. Here, customers will be able to visit your page and learn about your products, read about your journey and shop your product range. You have access to your storefront 24/7, which also helps ensure you can manage your stock levels, add new product lines and update existing product information.

It is clear that there are a number of advantages to partnering with Notonthehighstreet; but with so many marketplaces operating in ecommerce, what sets this one apart from the others? Well as the name suggests, possibly the most unique thing about Notonthehighstreet is that they focus on offering unusual, distinctive and quirky products that you cannot typically find in high street shops or other large retail websites.

As mentioned previously, Notonthehighstreet is a marketplace which focuses on unique, hand-crafted and homemade products, many of which are personalised. Therefore, their top product categories range from home and garden through to the likes of gifts for special occasions, jewellery and even gift cards. 

Working with Notonthehighstreet will give you access to their vast consumer base, which comprises 3 million customers across the country. As commented on earlier, you can also benefit from Notonthehighstreet’s advertising campaigns and social media following. In addition, you can reach a wider customer base physically too, as they host events in which you can sell products directly to tens of thousands of customers in person. 

Therefore, not only will you be able to reach the more digitally-inclined shoppers, but also tap into that more old-fashioned consumer base that leans towards a more hands-on approach – something that is all the more important as shops reopen as businesses and consumers alike recover from the effects of the pandemic.

Regarding fees, according to Notonthehighstreet, there are no annual membership renewal fees or listing fees. Instead, there is a one-off joining fee of around £199 to sell with the marketplace, in addition to a 25% commission charge on sales.

Notonthehighstreet has a team that helps Partners with customer services and business planning. Additionally, working with the marketplace gives you access to ‘The Hub’, which is a 24/7 online resource platform which has a lot of advice and useful information which may help with queries.

As a seller on Notonthehighstreet, it would be your responsibility to deliver items in their described condition and in a timely fashion. Not doing so could have harmful impacts on your customers’ shopping experience and therefore on your brand, particularly in terms of reputation.

Thinking about expanding your brand’s reach with online marketplaces? Why not work with Arcade as your merchant of record? At Arcade, we can:

• Facilitate your brand’s cross-border trade strategy in the UK and beyond
• Leverage our relationship with marketplaces to secure you the best commercial terms
• Use our customer service network to respond to queries in the local language and time zone where applicable, taking the stress out of translation
• Design appropriate, localised product listings for your business
• Run local marketing campaigns during peak seasons and shopping events throughout the year so that you can be sure your products are reaching customers at the right time
• Handle local fulfillment and local returns of your products, so we can do the majority of the heavy lifting for you in terms of logistics
• Take care of compliance for you, using our existing partnerships and knowledge to ensure that you avoid any unnecessary problems with taxes, tariffs or documentation

Altogether, Arcade can offer your brand unparalleled speed to market, smooth integration and comprehensive support to help you succeed on marketplaces. If you’d like to find out more, feel free to get in touch at: https://www.arcade.global/contact-us/