Frequently Asked Questions

Richbury is a British B2B wholesale and dropshipping marketplace connecting Suppliers and Retailers. Retailers can discover products in the Richbury Catalogue, review Supplier offers, establish supply relationships and make selected products available through their own connected stores.

Start small. Create your Richbury Retailer account, become familiar with the Catalogue, choose a modest initial product range, establish your online store, publish a few products and test the complete customer-order process before expanding. You do not need to connect every marketplace on your first day.

You may explore Richbury before building a large retail operation, but you will need a suitable customer-facing store when you are ready to sell online. Your store is where you control your retail presentation, selling prices and customer-facing commerce. If, however, you are buying wholesale stock simply to fill the shelves of a bricks-and-mortar shop, you do not need an online store for that purpose: you may use Richbury as a wholesale source and purchase suitable stock for your physical retail operation.

Richbury is not limited to one eCommerce engine. Retailers may use compatible platforms where the necessary technical facilities are available to exchange product, stock and order information with Richbury. Examples of technically integration-friendly platforms include WooCommerce, PrestaShop and Magento Open Source, although actual compatibility must still be confirmed for the particular store and configuration. For complete beginners, WooCommerce may be the more advisable starting point because it offers a widely used, flexible route to establishing an independent online shop. If you already operate a suitable compatible store, there is no reason to rebuild it on another platform merely to use Richbury.

A sensible first route is: join Richbury → select a small number of suitable products → connect or establish your store → publish and check those products → configure payments, delivery and required customer information → place a test order → begin selling through your own store → add external sales channels individually when you are ready. On the Standard package, having an allowance of up to 500 active sourced products does not mean that a new Retailer should source all 500 immediately. A sensible beginner range may be only ten to twenty carefully selected products. That is enough to learn the workflow, test presentation, pricing, stock and orders without placing an unnecessary operational load on a new business.

The Catalogue is the common product layer of the Richbury marketplace. It describes what a product is — its core identity, information, media, attributes and variations — independently from the commercial terms offered by an individual Supplier.

An identical product may be available from one or more Suppliers. Each Supplier can have its own stock, trade cost, supply method and fulfilment terms. Richbury therefore keeps the product itself as one Catalogue Product while allowing distinct Supplier offers against it. If you already source that Catalogue Product and later establish an additional supply relationship for the same identical product with another Supplier, it remains the same sourced Catalogue Product for product-allowance purposes rather than being counted again merely because another Supplier can supply it.

For a Retailer, sourcing means selecting an appropriate Supplier offer and establishing a supply relationship for that product. It gives the Retailer a defined supply route that can then be associated with the Retailer’s store. For an online retail operation, the next practical step is normally to add and publish the product on the connected storefront so that it becomes part of the Retailer’s customer-facing range.

No. Establishing a supply relationship does not, by itself, purchase or reserve the Supplier’s stock. Supplier availability remains authoritative and may change as stock is sold, replenished or adjusted. The exception is where you actually purchase a wholesale batch: those units have been bought as stock rather than merely made available through an ongoing supply relationship.

Yes. Richbury is a B2B marketplace. Subject to the Supplier’s availability and terms, more than one Retailer may establish a supply relationship for the same Catalogue Product.

Yes. A Catalogue Product may have multiple Supplier offers. A Retailer can assess the available stock, trade cost, supply method and relevant terms before deciding which Supplier relationship is appropriate.

With wholesale, the Retailer buys stock for its own operation and assumes responsibility for that stock. With Supplier-supported dropshipping, the Retailer sells an eligible product without first taking physical possession of the stock, and the Supplier fulfils the eligible order according to the agreed terms.

No. Availability depends on the Supplier offer. A Supplier may offer wholesale, dropshipping, or both, and the associated commercial and fulfilment conditions can differ.

There is no universally correct method. Dropshipping can reduce the amount of stock a new Retailer must purchase in advance, while wholesale can provide greater control over held inventory and fulfilment. The appropriate choice depends on the product, Supplier terms, margin and your operating model.

No. A Supplier may apply postage or fulfilment charges to a dropship order. Retailers should review the applicable Supplier terms and account for delivery and fulfilment costs when setting their selling prices.

You select the relevant Supplier offer, establish the supply relationship and associate the product with your connected store. When you are ready, you publish it to the connected store through the publishing control in your Richbury account. You then navigate to your own shop and adjust the customer-facing listing to suit your requirements — for example its presentation, layout and other store-specific content or settings — while keeping the product information accurate and consistent with applicable Supplier terms. Your store remains your retail environment.

The Retailer controls the customer-facing selling price. When setting it, consider the Supplier trade cost, delivery or dropship charges, applicable Richbury charges, VAT and tax obligations, payment costs, marketplace charges, advertising, returns and the margin you require.

Richbury is the supply and connected-commerce environment rather than a requirement to use one particular shop builder. You operate your own compatible customer-facing store and connect it to Richbury where supported. If you would rather have somebody establish the technical starting point for you, our technology arm, Zagran.Host, can set up a starter WooCommerce store and connect it to Richbury. The intended one-off setup charge is £79.99 to £99.99 depending on the required setup; this does not require you to purchase a hosting subscription from Zagran.Host, and the work can be carried out for a store hosted with another provider. Tailor-made and bespoke store design is a different service and costs more; substantial bespoke eCommerce projects can run into thousands of pounds depending on the design and functionality required.

Yes. The important question is whether the store provides the technical facilities required for a reliable Richbury connection. Richbury is not restricted to one store engine. Platforms with established integration facilities include WooCommerce, PrestaShop and Magento Open Source, and other API-capable commerce engines may also be suitable. Their core software or APIs may be available without a Richbury integration licence, but that does not mean every complete connection is cost-free: hosting, extensions, configuration or engineering may still carry charges. WooCommerce may be more advisable for complete beginners, but it is not a compulsory Richbury platform. Compatibility with the particular store, version, extensions and configuration should be confirmed before relying on a setup.

Your store is your retail presentation, so you may prepare customer-facing content appropriate to your business, subject to accuracy, intellectual-property rights, Supplier restrictions, product requirements and applicable law. Core product identity and regulated information should not be misrepresented.

Richbury supplies the product and Supplier relationship; your connected store is your principal retail environment; individual marketplace integrations connect that store to external channels. The standard model is Richbury → your store → individual channel integrations → the marketplaces you choose.

Under the standard Richbury approach, where a marketplace requires an integration, you use a suitable integration for that individual channel. For example, your store may have one eBay integration, one Amazon integration and one TikTok Shop integration.

No. Richbury does not require Retailers to place another central commercial platform between their store and their marketplace accounts. If Richbury later arranges or provides a centralised integration service, it can be offered as part of the Richbury ecosystem; otherwise the standard approach remains individual store-to-channel integrations.

No. Your own store can be a sales channel in its own right. External marketplaces are optional additional routes to customers. Beginners are generally better served by making the core store and order process reliable first, then adding channels individually.

Richbury does not impose a numerical limit on outward connected sales channels. Once your store is connected to Richbury, the number of additional sales channels to which you choose to connect that store is your commercial decision and is not controlled or metered by Richbury. Practical availability remains subject to your own accounts, suitable connectors, product eligibility, provider fees, marketplace rules and the technical capacity of your store. You are responsible for ensuring that those onward integrations remain correctly configured and synchronised: Richbury can synchronise with your connected store, but it cannot control the behaviour, queues, outages or configuration of third-party marketplace plugins beyond that store.

No. Each marketplace has its own seller, category, brand, intellectual-property, safety, regulatory and geographic rules. Marketplace approval and product eligibility remain subject to the relevant third party. In addition, a Supplier may prohibit or restrict the sale of particular products through specified marketplaces or channels. Always read the Supplier’s terms before sourcing and publishing a product: breaching Supplier or marketplace restrictions can put your listing or Retailer marketplace account at risk.

For Supplier-backed Richbury supply, the Supplier stock position is authoritative. Richbury propagates the relevant availability through the Retailer supply relationship to the Retailer’s connected store. Richbury’s synchronisation responsibility ends at that connected-store boundary. Any onward synchronisation from your store to Amazon, eBay, TikTok Shop or another external sales channel depends upon the integrations you choose and operate, and must therefore be managed by the Retailer.

The Richbury supply state should reflect that the product is no longer available from that Supplier, and the corresponding availability must propagate to the Retailer’s connected store and, through its individual integrations, to relevant external sales channels.

A Retailer may choose to expose a lower quantity where the store or integration permits this, for example as an operational buffer. A Retailer should not expose more Supplier-backed stock than is actually available from the relevant Supplier.

A simplified flow is: marketplace order → that marketplace’s integration reports the sale/order to your store → store stock changes → the updated state is communicated through the relevant connected systems. Synchronisation is not instantaneous: updates may pass through processing queues and third-party services before they are reflected everywhere. Exact behaviour and timing depend on the individual integration. Within Richbury, Premier Retailer accounts are given higher synchronisation priority, while approved Standard Retailer accounts may experience longer queue times, particularly during periods of heavier processing. Retailers should never assume that an external marketplace has received a stock change until the relevant integration has processed it successfully.

It should not be described as guaranteed instantaneous. APIs, queues, scheduled processes, internet connections and third-party services can introduce delays. Retailers should monitor integration health, particularly for scarce or fast-moving products.

Good stock synchronisation substantially reduces the risk, but no responsible system should promise that overselling is technically impossible. Separate marketplaces can receive orders almost simultaneously, and third-party services can occasionally be delayed or unavailable. Suppliers are expected to provide connected Retailers with advance low-stock warnings where practicable, but Supplier stock can also change quickly and a Supplier may need to withdraw a product from Richbury. The platform is designed to propagate such changes, but processing and third-party synchronisation take time; a residual overselling risk therefore remains and Retailers should operate accordingly.

The exact route depends on the sales channel and supply method, but conceptually the customer orders through your store or connected marketplace; the order enters the Retailer commerce environment; the relevant Richbury/Supplier relationship is identified; and the order proceeds through the applicable fulfilment process.

For an eligible Supplier-supported dropship product, the Supplier normally performs the agreed fulfilment function according to the applicable supply terms. The Retailer remains responsible for operating its customer-facing retail business and for understanding the obligations that apply to its sale.

Cancellation, refund, return and stock-restoration actions must be reflected through the relevant order, payment and stock processes. The precise treatment depends on the stage of fulfilment, the Supplier terms, the sales channel and applicable consumer or commercial obligations. Richbury and its Retailers operate within the UK legal and consumer-protection environment, while some Suppliers may be established outside the United Kingdom and may operate under different domestic rules. Supplier terms are therefore particularly important: read them carefully before establishing a supply relationship, including provisions concerning returns, rejected deliveries, warranties, fulfilment, costs and disputes. A foreign Supplier’s own domestic position does not remove legal obligations that may apply to you when selling to your customers in the UK.

That depends on the marketplace integration you use. Retailers should choose and configure integrations that provide the order functionality required for their operating model rather than assuming every connector behaves identically.

No. Retailers control their own customer-facing selling prices. Richbury provides the supply environment and relevant commercial information; the Retailer decides the retail offer.

Consider Supplier trade cost, delivery or dropship charges, Richbury charges, VAT and other tax obligations, payment-processing costs, marketplace commissions or listing fees, integration costs, advertising, packaging where relevant, returns, customer service and the margin required by your business.

No. Profitability depends on the Retailer’s selling price, costs, demand, returns, advertising, channel fees, tax position and operating efficiency. Retailers must assess their own commercial viability.

No. Browsing and assessing Catalogue Products does not itself consume an active sourced-product allowance. The applicable limit relates to active sourced products under the relevant Retailer subscription.

Richbury does not impose a numerical channel limit under the current Retailer proposition. External marketplaces, plugins, connectors and service providers may impose their own charges, and those costs are separate from the Richbury subscription.

No. A normal Retailer should not need to become a software developer simply to operate Richbury. Some store engines, plugins and integrations require configuration, but the commercial workflow should not depend on the Retailer writing custom code.

No. Some plugins are free to install while the service behind them is paid; others may provide free allowances, trials or limited plans. Pricing and limits change, so Retailers should check the current provider terms rather than assuming that installation price represents the total operating cost.

If you use WooCommerce — which may be the simpler starting point for a complete beginner — there are marketplace-specific extensions and services for channels such as eBay, Amazon and TikTok Shop. For example, WooCommerce currently lists an eBay integration supplied by CedCommerce, while TikTok provides a WooCommerce integration for catalogue and TikTok Shop connectivity in supported markets. Other connectors are also available. Richbury does not require a particular third-party connector and does not control its service, pricing or reliability. Before installing one, check that it supports the marketplace functions you actually need, including stock updates, order handling, variations and your country, and check whether the plugin or its underlying service is free or paid. Richbury connects to your store; onward marketplace connections remain your responsibility unless Richbury expressly provides or arranges a particular integration.

Technically, yes, if you have the required development capability and marketplace API access. However, maintaining reliable integrations involves authentication, webhooks, product mapping, inventory rules, rate limits, retries, order handling, security and continuing API changes. For most Retailers, an established compatible integration is more practical.

Compatibility must be tested. Different engines and extensions expose different APIs, stock behaviour and order models, and they change over time. Richbury should only describe an integration as supported when the required data exchange can be operated reliably. From an engineering perspective, our technology arm, Zagran.Host, can investigate bespoke integrations and unusual commerce environments where a viable technical route exists. That does not mean every possible integration is commercially sensible or included in the Richbury subscription: bespoke engineering may carry an additional charge, and eCommerce decisions should remain proportionate to the value the integration is expected to create.

Treat synchronisation failures as operational issues requiring attention. Check the connector status, authentication, error logs and marketplace account, avoid assuming stock is still aligned, and correct affected listings or quantities before continuing to rely on automated updates.

Normally, yes. Connecting a store does not create or replace the Retailer’s seller relationship with an external marketplace. The Retailer remains responsible for obtaining and maintaining the accounts required by each channel.

The Retailer is responsible for ensuring that its listings, seller account and activities comply with the rules of each external marketplace and with applicable law. Richbury cannot guarantee approval by a third-party marketplace.

Usually not. A controlled rollout is easier to monitor. Make your core store reliable, add one channel, confirm products, stock and orders behave correctly, and then expand. More channels are useful only when your operation can support them.

Source through Richbury, publish to your own compatible store, then connect that store individually to the sales channels that suit your business.