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Own site or marketplace: where it pays to sell
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Own site or marketplace isn't an either-or choice: what changes is who brings you the customer, and who keeps that customer once the sale closes. In 2025 third-party marketplaces generated 83.4% of global e-commerce value and 60.8% of the European figure, according to ECDB's analysis on marketplace dominance, dated 13 April 2026: that's why almost no business picks only one of the two channels.
A marketplace brings an audience a new site doesn't have yet
Open a shop on a marketplace like Amazon, eBay or Etsy, and you plug into a search flow that already exists. Per the same ECDB analysis, in 2025 marketplaces generated 83.4% of global e-commerce value, up from 81% in 2023; in Europe the share is 60.8%, also up, from 56.2% two years earlier. A new site, by contrast, starts from zero: nobody brings you that demand until you build a search ranking or pay to get seen, months of work I detail in how much an online shop costs, where the first months' ad budget is almost always the heaviest line item.
On your own site the margin stays, but you have to build the traffic yourself
The reason a marketplace takes a cut of the sale is the same reason it brings you that audience: the fee pays for the search the buyer already did before finding you. On Amazon it runs from 5% to 45% depending on category, on top of the plan's fee, as I detailed in how much it costs to sell on Amazon. On your own site that fee doesn't exist: the only one left is the payment provider's, far lower, for example 1.5% plus €0.25 per transaction with Stripe on a European card, as I report in online payment fees compared. The higher margin, though, has to cover on its own the cost of being found, which on a marketplace is already bundled into the fee.
Who keeps the customer, after the sale
The difference that matters most over time isn't the single sale, it's who stays in touch with whoever bought. The agreement you sign to sell on Amazon in Europe, the Amazon Services Europe Business Solutions Agreement (last updated 18 September 2025), states in section 11.2 that a seller may process customer personal data, including contact details, only to fulfil the order, provide an associated service, or comply with a legal obligation, not to send your own promotion or newsletter outside the platform. It's a term of the agreement you sign to use that traffic, not an exception: selling on a marketplace means accepting that the relationship with whoever bought stays, for the most part, the marketplace's. On your own site, the buyer's email address enters your own database from the first order, and stays there for every later campaign or promotion.
When it makes sense to use both
In practice, the two paths almost never cancel each other out. A marketplace is for validating a new product or catching people already searching that category, without waiting for a new site to rank; your own site is for keeping the margin and building a relationship with whoever comes back for a second purchase. That's why a brand with a catalogue ready often opens a store on a marketplace and, in parallel, invests in its own site: the first brings volume right away, the second builds over time an audience that doesn't depend on anyone else's rules. If the doubt sits further upstream, whether your product even works as a standalone catalogue or as a request to assess case by case, the criterion is different, and it's the one I cover in showcase site or online shop.
What changes, side by side
| Aspect | Marketplace | Own site |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic | Already there, paid for through the fee | To be built, with time or advertising |
| Sales commission | 5% to 45% on Amazon, by category | None: only the payment fee remains |
| Customer data | Stays the marketplace's by contract | Yours from the first order |
| Brand control | Limited by the platform's rules | Full |
Where to start
If you already sell on a marketplace and are wondering whether to open your own site too, or the other way round, get in touch: we'll look at margins, category, and how much keeping customer data is worth to you, before deciding anything. For the starting numbers, how much an online shop costs is still the useful read, or start from the sell your products and services online page.