Do you sell on a marketplace or build your own online store?
A marketplace brings you ready-made traffic, but takes a commission on every sale and keeps the customer relationship. Your own store costs little per month and leaves your margin intact, but you have to bring the traffic yourself.
Short answer
- A marketplace takes a commission per sale, which varies widely by category.
- Your own store has a small fixed monthly cost and no commission on sales volume.
- On a marketplace you do not own the customer data, so no remarketing or newsletter.
- On your own store you build a brand, a customer list and organic traffic that stays yours.
- The usual strategy is mixed: marketplace for volume, own store for margin and brand.
Head-to-head comparison
Marketplace vs your own store
| Criterion | Marketplace | Your own store |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | A percentage commission on every sale | Fixed monthly subscription + payment processing fee |
| Traffic | Already there, but you compete on the same product | You build it from SEO, GEO, ads and social |
| Customer data | Stay with the platform | Stay with you |
| Brand control | Limited: imposed design and rules | Total: design, content, experience |
Practical example
Example: at 20,000 lei of monthly sales and a 15% commission, the marketplace keeps 3,000 lei a month. Your own store on a subscription of about €10 a month plus the processor fee costs a few hundred lei. The difference is that marketplace traffic arrives on its own, while your own store's traffic must be paid for in time or in ads.
Common mistakes
- Comparing only the subscription with the commission, ignoring the cost of bringing traffic.
- Selling exclusively on a marketplace and ending up with no customer list of your own.
- Listing products on a marketplace whose margin cannot absorb the commission.
- Keeping separate stock on the two channels and ending up selling out-of-stock products.
How 4shopy helps
- Your own store at a predictable monthly cost, with no commission on sales.
- Catalog and stock in one place, for your own store.
- Contact details and order history kept in your own account, useful for remarketing.
- Product pages optimized for SEO and GEO, so the organic traffic is yours.