Should I sell on marketplaces or my own website?
What each channel really gives you
A marketplace hands you demand that already exists. Someone searching for a face serum on Amazon arrives with intent and a saved card. You do not pay to create that intent. You pay commission, fulfilment charges, and often advertising inside the platform itself, just to be seen among the competitors sitting on the very same page.
What you do not get is the customer. No email, no phone number, no way to bring them back next month without paying for them all over again, and you also sit right next to cheaper alternatives at the very moment of decision, which drags the whole category toward price competition.
Your own store inverts every bit of that. You keep the margin, own the data, control the experience, and can build repeat purchase properly. But you have to buy every visitor. That cost is the whole game.
How to decide the split
Category is the strongest signal. If customers search for the product type rather than a brand, think staples, accessories, replacements, marketplaces dominate and fighting that is expensive. If your product needs explanation or carries a story, say a considered skincare range or a niche apparel label, your own site converts better, and the flat marketplace listing tends to sell it poorly.
Margin matters next. Thin margins struggle to absorb marketplace commission on top of platform advertising. Rich margins can carry both channels comfortably.
Repeat purchase decides the long game. A consumable people rebuy every six weeks justifies heavy investment in your own site, because that second and third purchase carry no acquisition cost at all. A one-off purchase does not. For that, marketplace economics may simply be the better deal.
Running both without cannibalising
Keep pricing consistent. Otherwise customers quickly learn to buy wherever it happens to be cheapest. Differentiate by assortment instead: bundles, refills, limited editions and subscriptions on your own site, single units and bestsellers on the marketplaces.
Slip an insert into marketplace parcels inviting the customer to register the product or claim a warranty on your site, which is the one legitimate route to a relationship with someone the platform otherwise owns outright.
Track contribution margin per channel after every fee, and watch your direct share move over time. A brand where the marketplace share keeps climbing is quietly building someone else’s asset.
Related questions: How do I lower my blended CAC? · Why is my Shopify store slow? · How do I increase repeat purchase rate?.
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Marketplaces for volume and discovery, your own site for margin and customer ownership, and almost every serious Indian D2C brand ends up running both. Amazon and Flipkart bring you buyers you would otherwise spend heavily to reach. They also take a commission, control the customer relationship, and quietly push shoppers to compare your price against sellers you have no way to control.
Separate, and it behaves differently. Blinkit, Zepto and Instamart serve immediate need rather than considered purchase, and they come with listing fees and margin structures all of their own. Treat it as a third channel with its own economics, rather than quietly folding it into the marketplace numbers.
Some cannibalisation is real, particularly on your bestsellers. It is usually outweighed by the new customers the marketplaces bring you. Manage it with assortment and consistent pricing, rather than by staying off the platform entirely.
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