What just happened? British tech retailer Ebuyer reportedly sent staff members home earlier than usual on August 6, sparking speculation that it may be on the verge of shutting down. The report also claims that the company received a Winding Up Petition on August 1 to vacate the property it currently uses as its office and warehouse.
At the time of writing, the Ebuyer website remains active and it is still apparently possible to place orders. It is unclear, however, whether these orders will be fulfilled and, if not, how buyers will receive refunds. The company has not yet released a statement on the matter.
According to UK-based tech news outlet Overclock3d, both the consumer and business telephone support lines are experiencing "technical difficulties," with a pre-recorded voice message advising callers to contact the company via email instead.
The report adds that Ebuyer has been facing "financial challenges" after a potential deal to acquire the company fell through at the last moment. Ebuyer is currently owned by Mark Reed and Rich Marsden, who bought it from The West Retail Group in 2023. The company sells a wide range of PCs and related products, including laptops, CPUs, graphics cards, peripherals, and more.
Unless the current owners have thrown in the towel, Ebuyer may still be saved from liquidation if it can find a new buyer with deep pockets. However, if it fails to do so, this could be the end of the road for the company. In that case, Overclockers and Scan will be the only two major online PC hardware retailers in the country, potentially hurting competition and raising prices for consumers.
If Ebuyer closes permanently, it will be the second major PC parts retailer in the UK to do so this decade, following BOX, which ceased operations in January 2024. Rumors later suggested that BOX could return, but those reports proved inaccurate.
Ebuyer is the UK's second largest PC retailer and employs around 200 staff, according to the company's official LinkedIn page. If reports of its closure prove correct, all of these jobs will likely be lost, adding to the growing number of redundancies in the country's retail sector.
According to the British Retail Consortium, around 117,000 full-time and nearly 250,000 part-time retail jobs have disappeared in the UK over the past decade, with a further 160,000 roles believed to be at risk in the future.