OnBuy has introduced a new AI solution designed to enhance product categorisation accuracy and boost sales.
The AI-powered auto-categorisation tool, utilising a bespoke model combined with advanced vector database technology, has successfully classified over 20 million products across more than 6,600 categories in just six weeks. The company estimates that manually performing this task would have taken a team of five over twenty years and cost more than £4 million, highlighting the significant efficiency gains achieved through automation.
The improved categorisation accuracy — now exceeding 93% on average — has a direct impact on the customer shopping experience by making products more discoverable. Prior to implementation, many items were misclassified, making it difficult for shoppers to find relevant products. Since the deployment, approximately 50,000 products listed before 2025 have been reclassified, opening up new sales opportunities and contributing millions of pounds in previously untapped revenue.
Cas Paton, CEO and Founder of OnBuy, emphasised that this technological advancement signifies a major step in the platform’s evolution. He explained that the AI solution allows the company to achieve better results with a fraction of the time and investment previously needed. Paton noted that developing a system capable of handling the marketplace’s complex taxonomy and compliance requirements — such as age restrictions and VAT regulations — was a significant technical challenge, but one that his team of experts successfully overcame.
The company highlighted that its AI system is uniquely tailored to its marketplace’s specific needs, ensuring compliance and accuracy at scale. Future plans include expanding the system’s capabilities to support product categorisation in multiple languages, facilitating international growth. Additionally, subsequent iterations aim to streamline onboarding processes for new retailers, further enhancing platform efficiency.
This AI deployment comes amid broader strategic initiatives, including recent investments such as a £10 million fund to relaunch the Comet brand as part of OnBuy’s expanding retail network. Since its founding in 2016, OnBuy has grown into a prominent online marketplace supporting verified third-party retailers across diverse categories like electronics, toys, beauty, and home goods. The platform operates on a model of facilitating retailer sales without holding inventory, sharing cashback rewards with consumers.
