Should you sell on Amazon or on your own webshop?

The real difference: renting a stall versus owning a shop

Selling on Amazon is like renting a stall in the busiest shopping centre in the country. Customers are already there, they trust the checkout, and delivery expectations are set for you. In return you follow the centre's rules, pay its charges and accept that the shopper is, in a real sense, Amazon's customer rather than yours.

Your own webshop is a shop on your own street. Nobody walks past by accident, so you have to bring visitors in through search, social media, email and word of mouth. But the rules, the look, the prices and the customer relationship are yours.

Neither is better in general. The right answer depends on your products, your margins and how much of your business you want to depend on one platform.

How the costs are structured

Comparing costs is tricky because the two models charge in different ways. Amazon's charges change and vary by category, so check Amazon's current seller pricing pages rather than relying on figures quoted in articles. The structure, though, looks like this:

Cost type	Amazon marketplace	Own WooCommerce shop
Account or plan	Per-item fee on the basic plan, or a monthly subscription on the professional plan	Hosting, domain and any paid plugins, usually monthly
Per sale	A referral fee on each sale, as a percentage that varies by category, sometimes with a minimum	Payment processing fees from your payment provider
Fulfilment	Optional Fulfilment by Amazon fees for storage, picking and delivery	Your own packing time and courier costs
Visibility	Sponsored product ads, often needed to compete	Your own marketing: SEO, ads, email, social
Other	Possible charges for long-term storage, returns processing and some categories	Design, maintenance and your own time

The practical difference is that Amazon's costs rise with every sale, while most of your own shop's costs are fixed and spread across all sales. A shop that sells a few items a month may find Amazon cheaper overall. A shop with steady repeat customers usually finds its own site keeps more of each order. Work it out with your real numbers: take a typical order, list every charge on each route, and compare the money left over. Our guide to how much a webshop costs in the UK helps with the own-shop side.

Control, brand and customer data

On Amazon

• Your product appears in a standard layout alongside competitors, sometimes on the same page.
• If others sell the same product, you compete to be the default seller on the listing, which is often decided largely on price and delivery.
• Amazon controls communication with buyers. Its policies restrict contacting customers for marketing or directing them to buy elsewhere, so check the current seller policies before adding any inserts to parcels.
• Your account can be suspended or listings removed under Amazon's rules, and appeals happen on their terms.
• Brand registration tools give registered brand owners more control over their listings, but the shop still belongs to Amazon.

On your own shop

• You decide the layout, story, photography and how products are grouped.
• You have the customer's details, with their consent, so you can send order updates, follow-ups and marketing emails.
• You set your own returns policy, within the law, and your own delivery options.
• With WooCommerce, which is open source, the shop and its data are yours and can move to another host if you wish.

For products that rely on a story, such as handmade goods, gifts, specialist food or anything where the maker matters, your own shop usually shows them far better than a marketplace listing.

When Amazon makes more sense

• You sell commodity products people search for directly on Amazon, such as replacement parts or branded consumables.
• You want to test demand for a new product before investing in a site and marketing.
• You have no time or budget yet to bring visitors to your own site.
• Fast delivery is decisive in your category and Fulfilment by Amazon gives you that without your own warehouse.

When your own webshop makes more sense

• Your products are distinctive, and you can describe and photograph them better than a standard listing allows.
• You rely on repeat customers or subscriptions.
• Margins are tight and marketplace charges would take too much of each sale.
• You sell to trade customers who need their own prices and order lists.
• You want a business that keeps its value if a platform changes its rules.

Similar questions come up with handmade marketplaces; our guide to Etsy versus your own webshop covers that comparison.

Using both without losing control

Many small sellers use Amazon for discovery and their own shop for relationships and margin. A few rules make that work:

1. Keep one stock count. Selling the same item twice is the most common problem with two channels. Use a sync tool or a single system of record, and keep a small buffer. Our guide to stock management for small shops explains how.
2. Decide your pricing rule. Some sellers price higher on Amazon to cover its charges; others keep prices the same. Check Amazon's pricing policies, which can affect how listings appear if your price is lower elsewhere.
3. Give your own shop a reason to exist. Exclusive ranges, bundles, gift wrapping, trade accounts, a loyalty scheme or simply better content.
4. Build your brand outside Amazon. Search, social media and email bring people to your own site, where you can earn the repeat order.
5. Watch dependence. If most of your revenue comes from one marketplace, a policy change or suspension can hit hard. Growing your own channel is insurance.

If you decide to build or grow your own shop alongside a marketplace, Retail Web Hosting provides managed WooCommerce hosting with Elementor included, and the shop and its data remain yours.

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