Marketplace or your own shop: how to decide where to sell

A marketplace is an online shopping centre: it already has the visitors, it has the rules, and it keeps a share of each sale or charges for the space. Your own shop is a shop on your own street: the rules and the customers are yours, but you have to bring people there. There is no right answer for everyone; there are questions that give you the answer for your case.

The differences that matter

Topic Marketplace Own shop
Visitors Already there You must bring them (search, social media, ads, word of mouth)
Getting started Quick: open an account and publish Slower: domain, hosting, shop, payments, legal pages
Cost Commissions or fees set by the marketplace, which can change. Read the current terms The hosting, the domain and your time; payment methods have fees of their own
Control The rules are theirs and can change without asking you The rules are yours
The customers Largely belong to the platform; you often do not get the contact You hold the data (and the duties that come with it)
The brand Appears next to your competitors' Appears alone
Risk The account can be suspended; you live at the platform's mercy The risk is yours: server, security, backups

Five questions to decide

1 Do customers already look for you by name? If so, your own shop serves them. If nobody knows you, the marketplace gives you your first buyers.
2 What is your margin? If the margin is thin, a commission weighs more than a hosting plan at the end of the month. Do the sums with the current terms, not last year's.
3 Do you sell things everyone compares on price? On marketplaces it is price against price. If your product is worth it for the brand or the story, your own shop counts for more.
4 Do you have time to bring in visitors? An own shop with no visitors is a closed shop. See getting a shop found on Google and the basics of being found.
5 Can you handle the technical side? An own shop asks for updates, backups and attention. See what to do before you open.
Do not put everything in one place. A suspended marketplace account takes all the sales with it, and the customers you never had. And an own shop with no visits does not sell. A mix of the two is usually the safe road.
The mix many people use: sell on the marketplace to win the first customers and put a card or a leaflet in the parcel inviting them back to your own shop. Follow the platform's rules on contacting customers: some forbid it. And keep stock in step between the two, by hand or with an automation (n8n and WordPress).

If you have not started building your own shop, begin with what WooCommerce is and what you need before you start.

Want to get your own shop going? Tell us what you sell and how many products you have, and we will tell you which hosting plan is enough.

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SEE ALSO

WooCommerce: what it is and what you need first

Opening an online shop without starting from nothing

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