If you sell physical products, you'll face this choice early: list on Amazon, where millions of shoppers already are, or build your own store where you control everything? The short answer is that they do different jobs. Here's how to decide where to start.
Amazon: Rent the Crowd
Amazon's advantage is simple — traffic. Shoppers arrive ready to buy, trust the checkout, and expect fast delivery. You don't have to build an audience from zero.
The trade-offs:
- Fees: referral fees (typically 8–15%), fulfilment fees if you use FBA, storage fees and advertising — often 25–40% of the sale price all-in.
- No customer relationship: you don't get customer emails, so repeat marketing is hard.
- Competition on the same page: rivals' products and ads sit right next to yours.
- Rules can change overnight: listing suspensions and policy changes are real risks.
Success on Amazon depends heavily on the listing itself — titles, bullet points, images, A+ content, keywords and reviews. That's what our Amazon listing service focuses on, from a £299 audit to full ongoing management.
Your Own Store: Own the Brand
A store on Shopify (or WooCommerce) gives you control over design, pricing, bundles, subscriptions and — most importantly — the customer list.
- Fees: platform subscription plus payment processing, usually 2–3% per sale.
- Margin: far higher per order than Amazon.
- Relationship: you can email customers, run loyalty schemes and build repeat purchases.
- The catch: you have to bring the traffic yourself, through SEO, social and ads.
We build Shopify stores starting at £799, and manage catalogues for brands with hundreds of SKUs through Shopify listing management.
Side-by-Side
| Amazon | Own Shopify store | |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic | Built in | You generate it |
| Fees per sale | ~25–40% all-in | ~2–3% + subscription |
| Customer data | Amazon keeps it | You own it |
| Brand control | Limited templates | Complete |
| Speed to first sale | Fast | Slower |
Our Recommendation: Use Both, Deliberately
For most product brands the winning pattern is:
- Use Amazon for discovery. Win new customers with a strong listing and a focused product range.
- Use your own store for loyalty. Offer bundles, subscriptions and exclusives there, and include a card in Amazon orders pointing to your site (within Amazon's rules).
- Keep catalogues in sync. Stock and pricing managed from one place so you never oversell.
If you're just starting with one product and no audience, begin on Amazon. If you have an existing audience — social following, email list, repeat customers — start with your own store.
Want help deciding, or running both? Tell us what you sell and we'll suggest a plan. Or explore the full Grow pillar.