Your own store or a marketplace
Count a marketplace fee not against the price but against your profit on the item: where the tag shows a few per cent, your earnings lose half. And the second order from the same person costs you again, because the platform kept the contact. Your own store keeps the customer yours — and the working answer is usually both.
I answer within one working day, in writing. I never call.
You are choosing an owner for the customer, not a shop window
A marketplace is a sales channel: the people looking for your product are already there, and you pay a percentage of every sale. Your own store is a place that belongs to you: the customer, their contact and the repeat purchase stay with you, but bringing people in is your job. So comparing ‘what it costs to set up’ means very little: one is deducted from every sale forever, the other is paid once and then spent on traffic. What you should count is not the start, it is the second and third order from the same person.
What to compare
Who owns the customer
On a marketplace the customer belongs to the platform: you have no contact and cannot write to them again. In your own store you keep the email, the order history and a reason to bring the person back without paying for them twice.
A percentage forever against a one-off investment
The platform fee is taken from every sale and grows with your turnover. Your own store costs money upfront and then costs traffic, which you can reduce as your name becomes known.
Who sets the rules
Fees, listing requirements, ranking and suspensions change without asking you. On your own site the rules are yours, and so is responsibility for everything.
Where the people come from
A marketplace supplies ready demand: the person already came to buy. Your own store with no traffic plan is a shop window in a back alley. That is the reason behind most of ‘we built a site and nothing sells’.
What happens to the price
Next to your product sit ten identical ones, one click away, and the only visible difference is the price. In your own store comparison costs the buyer effort, which is why description, bundle and warranty work there.
What the numbers show
The platform shows its own reports, and exactly what it chooses to show. On your own site you see the whole path: where they came from, what they looked at, where they left, what an enquiry cost.
What happens as you grow
Turnover doubles and the fee doubles with it: a permanent tax on selling. The costs of your own store grow more slowly, and repeat sales cost almost nothing.
Four ways to lose money on this choice
- Your own store with no traffic plan. The catalogue is built, payments work, nobody comes. First answer ‘where will the people come from’, then build the store.
- The platform only, when the product is bought again. Consumables, cosmetics, pet food, spare parts: the second order should cost you nothing, and instead you pay the fee again.
- Running two places by hand. Stock and prices typed twice diverge within a week. Link them with an export, not with a person.
- Cutting the price to win the listing. It works exactly until someone appears who can afford to break even for longer than you.
No public store yet, but the payments are built
Straight up: I have no public online store to show. What I do have is my own product — a browser on a custom Chromium build with licensing and payments built in: cards and cryptocurrency, renewals and refunds, across twelve languages. That is the part of a store where mistakes cost the most.
I build stores on that experience, but I cannot point you at a public shop window. When there is one, I will say so.
Open cuttlebrowser.com →What to count before you decide
First: is your product bought more than once. If it is, your own store pays off faster, because the second order comes to you for free. Second: calculate the platform fee not against the price but against your profit on that item. It often turns out to be half of it rather than a few per cent. Third: do people search for you by name. If they do, you already need your own store, because those people land on whoever is in the results. The usual working answer is both: the platform as a sales channel, your own site as the place where the customer stays yours.
Get a quote for your storeQuestions people ask
Can I sell in both places?
Yes, and most sellers do. The platform brings first sales and new people, your own store keeps those who already bought. The one rule isn't to maintain stock and prices by hand in two places.
Where do I start on a small budget?
If people already search for your category, the platform is the easier start. If sales come through recommendations, social media or personal contacts, your own store helps sooner: there those people become yours.
What does a store of my own cost?
It depends on the catalogue, payments, delivery and what moves over from the old place. I count it for your scope within two working days, as one figure, with the list of what it doesn't include.
Will marketplace buyers move to my site?
Some will, if you give them a reason: cheaper consumables, a warranty, a bundle the platform doesn't carry. Without a reason nobody moves, and that's normal.
What if the platform suspends my account?
Then every sale stops at once. That's the main argument against a single basket: your own store insures the channel even while it sells less.
Get a quote for your store
One figure for the whole scope within two working days, with the list of what it excludes. First working link within two weeks.
Get a quote for your store