As Christmas approaches, Not On The High Street is betting on thoughtful, personalised presents and deeper support for its independent sellers to power its next phase of growth.
Christmas is not simply another peak trading moment for Not On The High Street, according to chief executive Pascal Schuster, it is the defining period of the year.
“We do more than a third of our yearly turnover just during November and December, and therefore it’s very important for us,” he says.
The marketplace is preparing for the golden quarter with a renewed marketing push, including what Schuster describes as a return to going “all in” on television. The aim is to get Not On The High Street “back in the minds and hearts of the people of Great Britain”.
But the bigger strategic bet is on the power of independent brands at a time when shoppers are buying less, but thinking harder about what they do buy.
Thoughtful gifting in a tougher market
Schuster is candid about the current trading backdrop. Consumers remain under pressure, but he believes that is changing the nature of gifting rather than removing demand altogether.
“Let’s not sugarcoat it. There is a cost-of-living crisis in this country, so people don’t shop as much. But what we see is they shop more thoughtfully and more intentionally,” he notes.
That shift plays directly into Not On The High Street’s positioning. Rather than competing with mass-market retailers or ultra-low-cost marketplaces, the business wants to be the place shoppers go when they want a gift that feels personal, considered and difficult to replicate.
“Everybody can go and shop on Amazon or John Lewis or Marks & Spencer or Shein or Temu,” he says. “But it doesn’t show anything if I buy the same thing as everybody else is buying.”
This creates a clear purpose for the marketplace: “You come to Not On The High Street to win the game of gifting,” he says.
“You want to be the one who brings the best and the most thoughtful and the most personalised gift.”
Snippets of life
That sense of craft and individuality is also informing the company’s marketing. Not On The High Street has launched its Made with Love campaign on Instagram, spotlighting the independent makers behind its products and showing how they create them.
“We showcase some of our partners and how they produce their products and how much love they pour into it,” Schuster says.
“Just watching these little snippets of their life and of what they do, it’s incredible.”
View this post on Instagram
The campaign reflects a wider attempt to reconnect customers with the human stories behind the marketplace. Not On The High Street aims to get the message across that the value of a product is not only in what it is, but in who made it and why.
The renewed focus comes as Crafter’s Companion founder and Dragons’ Den entrepreneur Sara Davies joins the business as an investor, non-executive director and chief brand ambassador. Schuster says the relationship began over breakfast several months ago, where the pair quickly connected over the company and its sellers.
“Seeing how much passion Sara brings to it, and having the feeling that she really is behind what she says, and she’s really behind what we are doing, it’s absolutely incredible to have her on board,” he shares.
Davies is already being connected with sellers and will play a key role in the new Founders Circle initiative, a coaching programme designed to help high-potential partners prepare for peak and build stronger businesses beyond the marketplace.
“The first two sessions are to prepare them for Christmas season,” Schuster explains. “Then in the new year we have six further sessions where we go through different topics and educate them on different entrepreneurial skills.”
Flourishing together
Schuster describes 2026 as a turnaround year for Not On The High Street, following its acquisition by Executive Equity Partners. By 2027, he expects the business to move back onto a growth path.
“We want to thrive for our partners,” he says. “We want to be again their partner and their marketplace. The most important realisation is we can only flourish if they flourish, and vice versa.”
In a bid to help them flourish, Not On The High Street is working to give sellers more insight into what is working, what is not, and where there may be gaps in the market.
“Most of our partners don’t have the resources, and they shouldn’t have the resources, to do their own research,” he says. “Therefore, we are providing them with critical data we have on the platform.”
The business has recently launched a partner dashboard, which allows sellers to track product performance across metrics such as sessions, views and conversion rate. The tool also helps partners understand where changes to product content, from imagery to video, could have an impact.
Beyond platform data, Not On The High Street is also sharing market research with sellers to highlight emerging trends and identify areas where the marketplace itself has gaps. “We give them an impression of what we think is trending in the market and where our gaps as a platform are,” Schuster explains.
Building for the future
Additionally, Schuster reveals that Not On The High Street is planning to launch a young entrepreneurs programme in the new year, aimed at people who want to create their own products and learn how to build a business.
He explains: “We want to show them how to build a company, how to navigate on our site and also on other channels. We want to educate them on what it takes to be a young entrepreneur.”
On the customer side, the ambition is equally straightforward: to make Not On The High Street the destination shoppers think of first whenever they need a gift, a personalised present, or even something special for themselves.
Schuster adds that work is continuing on the platform to improve the user experience and modernise the proposition, with more changes due even before Christmas.
This is a marketplace built on the creativity of small businesses, its ambitions underline the same principle running through Schuster’s Christmas strategy – Not On The High Street can only win if its makers do too.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
