Sara Davies targets Not On The High Street ‘cheap tat’

Not On The High Street is culling its website of “cheap tat” and mass-produced items in favour of British-made artisan gifts, Dragons’ Den star Sara Davies has said after buying a stake in the business.

The celebrity backer has joined the online marketplace as a non-executive director and equity investor.

The company did not disclose the value of the personal investment made by County Durham native Sara, but she described it as a “meaningful stake”.

Sara – who previously founded North East-based Crafter’s Companion while at university – said Not On The High Street was no longer trying to compete with Chinese online marketplaces such as Shein and Temu.

She said: “We’re in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis and there are customers who are shopping on Temu and Shein, and that’s what’s appropriate for them and their spending at the moment.

“But there’s a whole different wave of customers who want to buy quality, artisan, handmade, personalised products, and it’s those customers we want to reach.

“People in the UK are really rebelling against this fast-fashion culture.

“They are being more thoughtful and considered in what they’re buying, so they’re not wanting to buy the cheap tat.”

She said Not On The High Street was “really vetting” its sellers, adding: “This is not where you will find all that mass-produced, cheap rubbish.”

The 20-year-old Bristol-based business has around 4000 sellers on the platform with a range of about 350,000 products from jewellery, clothes and food to home and garden furnishings.

Not On The High Street was bought by German private equity firm Executive Equity Partners at the start of the year, and hired new chief executive Pascal Schuster to steer its turnaround.

It came after years of declining sales since the pandemic online shopping boom, with total transaction value across the platform at £84.2 million in the year to March 2025, compared with £230.2 million in the year to March 2021.

The company has been going through a restructuring to reduce business costs and help return to sales growth and profitability.

Pascal said: “One of the major missteps in the past was the thought that more products on the site might be better for the customer and ultimately the revenues.

“What we’re now doing is whenever we see a product that is on our site but also on Temu, Shein or wherever – we use artificial intelligence to filter that out – then our partner gets a warning.

“If they can’t explain where their product is coming from, then we de-list them.”

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