OnBuy AI deployment saves e-commerce firm time and unlocks £4m in gross merchandise value

UK-based online marketplace, OnBuy, claims that an AI technology deployment has unlocked an estimated £4 million of GMV for sellers on its platform since it was launched at the end of April, saving the business decades of manual effort and millions in operational investment.  

The auto categorisation solution leverages an AI model and vector database technology to correctly categorise sellers’ products across over 6,600 categories. The aim here is to reduce the chances of products being incorrectly categorised.

To date, OnBuy has auto categorised over 20 million products – a task that would have taken a team of five people over 20 years to carry out manually at an estimated cost of over £4 million, the company claims. It adds that categorisation accuracy is now over 93% on average.

50,000 products that were first listed before the start of 2025 have been made discoverable.

Cas Paton, CEO and Founder at OnBuy, says: “Our latest AI fuelled deployment highlights OnBuy’s continued evolution as a platform. We’re using this technology to transform our business, with only a fraction of the time and investment previously required. We’ve leveraged AI to increase categorisation accuracy, which means a better, more efficient shopping experience for customers and more sales for our retailers.”

“There was no out of the box solution capable of handling our unique taxonomy and product data structure, but our team of leading tech experts were able to build an agent that could handle the task.”   

OnBuy now intends to develop an agentic AI solution capable of handling non-English language categorisation, ahead of its international roll-out. Future versions of the software will also aim to take more of the hassle out of onboarding for retailers joining the platform. 

RTIH AI in Retail Awards

RTIH, organiser of the industry leading RTIH Innovation Awards, proudly brings you the first edition of the RTIH AI in Retail Awards, which is now open for entries. 

As we witness a digital transformation revolution across all channels, AI tools are reshaping the omnichannel game, from personalising customer experiences to optimising inventory, uncovering insights into consumer behaviour, and enhancing the human element of retailers' businesses.

With 2025 set to be the year when AI and especially gen AI shake off the ‘heavily hyped’ tag and become embedded in retail business processes, our newly launched awards celebrate global technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world and the resulting benefits for retailers, shoppers and employees.

Our 2025 winners will be those companies who not only recognise the potential of AI, but also make it usable in everyday work - resulting in more efficiency and innovation in all areas.

Winners will be announced at an evening event at The Barbican in Central London on Wednesday, 3rd September.

This will kick off with a drinks reception in the stunning Conservatory, followed by a three course meal, and awards ceremony in the Garden Room.

Please email our Editor, Scott Thompson, if you have any questions or need further information: scott.thompson@retailtechinnovationhub.com

Key 2025 dates

Friday, 18th July: Award entry deadline 

Tuesday, 22nd July: 2025 finalists revealed

Wednesday, 23rd July - Friday, 8th August: Judging days

Wednesday, 3rd September: Winners announced at the 2025 RTIH AI in Retail Awards Ceremony, to be held at The Barbican in Central London.