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"As the market matures, differentiation through curation as well as capitalising on positive sentiment towards UK-sourced products will present key opportunities."
Natalie Macmillan, European Analyst - Retail
Online marketplaces and peer-to-peer platforms now account for just under a third of UK online retail spending, reaching £34.1 billion in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) excluding VAT for 2025. However, sector growth has slowed to 3.7% between 2024-25, lagging the wider e-commerce market and signalling the end of a period of higher growth rates. This shift reflects a sector settling into maturity, shaped by tougher regulation, new technology and shifting consumer confidence.
Stricter product safety rules and the phasing out of low-value import duty exemptions will increasingly favour domestic retailers – whom are more trusted platforms over discount-focused overseas rivals. AI is rapidly advancing personalisation, fraud detection and seller productivity, raising the stakes for seamless discovery and shopping experiences. However, as financial confidence recovers, the appeal of value-driven cross-border marketplace spending will lose some of its appeal.
The key growth opportunity is now in premium recommerce and frictionless, hyper-local second-hand shopping – contrasting with the risk of market share loss to social commerce (eg TikTok Shop) and AI-powered search if established marketplaces fail to differentiate on curation and trust.
This Report explores online marketplaces and peer-to-peer sites. For the purpose of this Report, Mintel has defined these two types of operations as:
Marketplaces: marketplaces refers to either an entire B2C website, or an aspect of a website, which typically allows any – usually subject to checks – businesses and individual sellers, often referred to as ‘third-party sellers’, to use that website to sell goods to consumers. Products sold on marketplace are predominantly done at a fixed price. The marketplace operator will then typically receive a fee or portion of the sale for products sold through the site. Some marketplaces also involve end-to-end handling of goods, from warehousing to delivery, either as a requirement of using the platform or as an additional service with added cost for sellers (eg Fulfilled by Amazon).
Peer-to-peer: refers to any website, or aspect of a website, that facilitates individual sellers to sell to other individuals. Goods sold through such sites are often, but not exclusively, second-hand and many allow negotiation on price between seller and buyer. In most instances, the seller retains all responsibility for communication and distribution to buyers.
The definitions above are broad, and a number of businesses profiled in this Report operate across both definitions (such as eBay). There may be overlap in certain business models within this categorisation. ‘Closed marketplaces’ or ‘platforms’, such as Next Total Platform, are not included in the core definition, as access to these platforms is not universal and in most instances subject to B2B contracts to list on these sites.
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