Amazon and eBay get all the attention, but the UK has quietly become one of the most marketplace-dense retail markets in the world. Tesco, B&Q, Debenhams, Superdrug, Next and Very all now run third-party marketplaces, most of them on the Mirakl platform, alongside independents such as OnBuy, Fruugo and ManoMano. Industry estimates put more than 60 per cent of UK e-commerce sales through marketplaces of one kind or another.
The catch for sellers is that each of these channels publishes its own image rules, and several publish them only inside the seller portal after you have been approved. One retailer wants a 2,400-pixel square JPG. Another wants a portrait image at 1,000 x 1,500. A third insists on a swatch image even for products that come in one colour. This guide pulls together what is publicly known about each UK marketplace so you can prepare one set of master images and export the right version for every channel.
Amazon, eBay and Fruugo publish their requirements openly. For the Mirakl-based retail marketplaces, the figures below come from official integration partners such as ChannelEngine and Channable. Treat those as a strong starting point and confirm against the spec sheet in your own seller account, because retailers do revise them.
UK marketplace image specs at a glance
| Marketplace | Main image size | Background | Images per listing | Notable rules |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon UK | 1,000 px minimum on the longest side, 1,600 px or more recommended, 10,000 px maximum | Pure white (RGB 255,255,255) | Up to 9 (7 shown by default) | Product fills 85% or more of the frame, no text, logos or watermarks on the main image |
| eBay UK | 500 px minimum on the longest side, about 1,600 x 1,600 recommended | Any, white preferred | Up to 24 | No borders, added text or watermarks of any kind, no stock photos for used items, 12 MB per file |
| OnBuy | 500 x 500 px minimum, square | White | Main plus up to 8 additional | JPEG, PNG or GIF, 10 MB cap, no promotional text or placeholders |
| Fruugo | 400 x 400 px minimum, highest resolution available | White, product centred | Image URL 1 mandatory, 2 to 5 recommended | No watermarks, text or overlays, image only updates if the file name changes |
| ManoMano | 500 x 500 px minimum | Pure white (RGB 255,255,255) on the main image | Main plus additional | Complete product in frame, no drawings or illustrations, context allowed on secondary images |
| Tesco Marketplace | 2,400 x 2,400 px | White | Main plus images 2 to 10 | JPG only, product centred, no text, logos or watermarks, must match the product title |
| Debenhams | 1,000 x 1,500 px portrait | White, off-white or grey | Main plus up to 5 additional | 250 px clear at top and bottom, 100 px at the sides, mandatory 120 x 120 px swatch image |
| B&Q Marketplace | 500 x 500 px minimum, square | White | Multiple | Valid EAN required, title of 30 to 130 characters |
| Superdrug | Not published | Not published | Not published | Spec supplied at onboarding, cosmetics notification (SCPN) required for beauty products |
Amazon UK and eBay UK: the two you already know
Amazon UK
Amazon's UK image rules match its global technical requirements. The main image must sit on a pure white background with the product occupying at least 85 per cent of the frame, and no text, logos, watermarks or props that are not included in the sale. The hard minimum is 1,000 pixels on the longest side, which is also the threshold for zoom, and the maximum is 10,000 pixels. Most professional sellers export at 2,000 x 2,000 pixels. JPEG is preferred, with PNG, TIFF and non-animated GIF also accepted.
eBay UK
eBay UK's picture policy is looser on background but stricter on decoration. Photos must be at least 500 pixels on the longest side, and eBay's own help pages recommend roughly 1,600 x 1,600 pixels. You can add up to 24 pictures per listing, each up to 12 MB. The policy bans added borders, added text, artwork or marketing material, and watermarks of any type, including ownership attributions. Stock photos are not permitted for used, damaged or defective items. eBay notes that 1:1 and 16:9 aspect ratios display best, so a square master image serves you well here too.
OnBuy: square, white and under 10 MB
OnBuy is the largest UK-owned general marketplace and has been expanding into European markets through 2026, including a partnership that powers easyGroup's new easyShop.com. The main image should be square on a white background, at least 500 x 500 pixels, in JPEG, PNG or GIF format and no larger than 10 MB. Promotional text, watermarks and placeholder images are not allowed. You can add up to eight gallery images beneath the main image. OnBuy's best-performing listings use a clean white background and show the product from every angle, so treat the 500-pixel figure as a floor and upload at 1,500 pixels or more.
Fruugo: the cross-border channel with the lowest bar
Fruugo lists your products in more than 40 countries from a single feed, translating and converting currency automatically. Its image requirement is the most lenient on this list: a minimum of 400 x 400 pixels, with the explicit instruction to provide the highest resolution you have. All images must be centred on a white background, and watermarks, text, overlays and placeholder images are prohibited.
Two technical quirks matter. Images are supplied as URLs, with Image URL 1 mandatory and URLs 2 to 5 recommended, each limited to 150 characters. And Fruugo only refreshes an image when the file name changes, so a retouched photo re-uploaded to the same URL will never appear until you rename it.
ManoMano: pure white for DIY and garden
ManoMano is the specialist DIY, home and garden marketplace with around 7 million active customers across France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Germany and the UK. Main images need a minimum of 500 x 500 pixels on a pure white background, specified as RGB 255,255,255, with the complete product in frame and no added text, graphics or inserts. Drawings and illustrations are not accepted as the main image, which catches out sellers who use supplier renders.
Additional images are more flexible: other objects may appear to demonstrate use or scale, cropped close-ups are permitted, and backgrounds, environments and demonstrative text are allowed. ManoMano warns that listings failing image criteria can be penalised with reduced visibility or suspended from sale.
Tesco Marketplace: the biggest file on the list
Tesco Marketplace launched in 2024 and has grown quickly into home, garden, toys, baby and electricals. Its image specification is the most demanding on pixel count: the main image should be a JPG at 2,400 x 2,400 pixels with the product centred on a white background and no text, logos or watermarks. Integration guides also state that the image must match the product title, reflecting Tesco's grocery principle that the image online should be the item the shopper would see on the shelf. Additional images occupy slots 2 to 10. If your existing masters are 2,000 pixels, re-export from the original camera file rather than upscaling, because interpolation artefacts are obvious at this size.
Debenhams: portrait, padded and with a swatch
Debenhams is now a fashion and home marketplace operated by Debenhams Group, formerly boohoo group, and its image rules follow fashion conventions. The main image is portrait, with a published minimum of 1,000 x 1,500 pixels. Integration specs quote this at 300 dpi, but dpi has no effect on a web image; only the pixel dimensions count. Backgrounds should be white, off-white or grey, with busy textures such as draped fabric or hardwood floors to be avoided. Using campaign imagery as the main image requires prior approval.
Composition is unusually specific. Product-only shots should be centred with a clear margin of 250 pixels at the top and bottom and 100 pixels on each side. Every product also needs a 120 x 120 pixel swatch image, a close-up of the material, and this is mandatory even when the product comes in a single colour. Up to five additional images are supported. Products are reviewed within about two days and those breaking the guidelines are rejected.
B&Q and Superdrug: retailer marketplaces with sparse public specs
B&Q Marketplace has grown rapidly through 2026, adding a Buy Box for third-party merchants and new categories such as tech and home office. Public integration data lists a square main image of at least 500 x 500 pixels, a valid EAN on every product, a merchant SKU and a title of 30 to 130 characters. Sellers must be VAT-registered. Matching the ManoMano standard of a pure white main image with the whole product in frame will satisfy both DIY channels.
Superdrug Marketplace, which launched in late 2022 with more than 200 brands, does not publish image specifications at all; the listing guide is issued during onboarding. What is public is that beauty products need a UK cosmetics notification and that images and ingredient data are mandatory attributes. A 2,000-pixel square on pure white will almost certainly meet whatever spec you receive.
The Mirakl pattern behind most UK retail marketplaces
Tesco, B&Q, Debenhams, Superdrug and several others run on Mirakl, and that shapes how images behave in ways the spec sheets do not spell out.
- Images are URLs, not uploads. You host the file and the marketplace fetches it. A broken or slow image host means a rejected product, so use a reliable CDN or your own Shopify image URLs.
- Changing an image means changing the URL. Mirakl registers a new image only when the link changes, so add a version suffix to the file name whenever you retouch.
- Products are reviewed before they go live. Expect around two working days, and an image failure blocks the whole product, not just the photo.
- Swatch and variant images are often mandatory. Fashion marketplaces will reject products missing a swatch even if the main image is perfect.
One master image, nine exports
The sensible way to handle this many specifications is to shoot and retouch once, then export per channel. Shoot on a pure white sweep at full resolution, retouch to a clean RGB 255,255,255 background, and save a master at 3,000 x 3,000 pixels or larger with the product filling roughly 85 per cent of the frame. From that single file you can produce a 2,400-pixel JPG for Tesco, 2,000-pixel squares for Amazon, OnBuy, B&Q, ManoMano and Superdrug, a 1,600-pixel square for eBay and a 1,000 x 1,500 portrait crop with the required margins for Debenhams.
Doing that by hand for a 300-SKU catalogue is a week of work. A batch tool such as PixelPrep lets you define each marketplace's dimensions, padding and background once, then run the whole catalogue through every preset in minutes, leaving only the swatch crop for fashion channels as a manual step.
Pre-upload checklist for UK marketplaces
- Master image is at least 2,400 x 2,400 pixels, so it can serve Tesco without upscaling.
- Main image background is pure white (RGB 255,255,255), not off-white or light grey.
- No text, logos, borders, watermarks or promotional badges on any main image.
- Product fills about 85 per cent of the frame for Amazon, with a padded version prepared for Debenhams' 250-pixel and 100-pixel margins.
- A 1,000 x 1,500 portrait export exists for Debenhams, plus a 120 x 120 swatch for every product.
- Files are JPG for Tesco and JPEG or PNG elsewhere, each under 10 MB.
- Image URLs are hosted on a reliable server, under 150 characters for Fruugo, and renamed whenever the image changes.
- Secondary images show scale, use and detail, and the main image shows the real product rather than a render or illustration.
- Each listing carries a valid EAN and a title within the channel's character limits, because image approval is blocked if product data fails first.
Get those nine points right on the master file and the UK's growing list of marketplaces stops being nine separate problems and becomes one export job.