Do you list your products on Amazon?

Having your own store is an investment early on. Having your own store also gives you freedom of expression, makes you look more professional and with the right platform you'll have inventory management and important data to rely on. Your own website can also be marketed on any of the major search engines.

Amazon always seems great at first but you'll always be paying out 15% to Amazon for each sale (including shipping/handling).

There are several options for saving you money on your own eCommerce store. Many of the eCommerce platforms offer free trials others are completely free.

Weighing the costs/benefits I always recommend owning and operating your own website. If only for the professionalism involved but mainly because it allows for the freedoms that Amazon does not.

Recommended Platforms:

Ecommerce Software, Online Store Builder, POS - Free 14-day Trial by Shopify
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www.bigcommerce.com
Ecommerce Software & Ecommerce Platform Solutions | Magento

Then there is WooCommerce which can turn your WordPress website into an eCommerce store and both are technically free.

Your own site will always be out of pocket at first but will always beat Amazon in the long run and there is plenty of data to prove that.

I actually don't think there's a real situation in which one of those options is better than the others.

That'll have a LOT to do with what kind of capital you've got access to as you're starting out, what your supplier situation is like, what you're selling, and a host of other details.

Of course, this doesn't mean we can't break down some of the most convincing reasons that bring sellers to third-party marketplaces and/or their own shopping carts.

To start us off succinctly:

Sellers who have their own store have a TON of control over things. From start to finish. This also comes with a ton of responsibility, however.

A BIG part of that responsibility involves marketing your store. If you're starting out on your own, with your own store, you're going to have market yourself all alone.

This is actually one of the biggest and most compelling reasons that a lot of sellers try third-party marketplaces when they're just starting: the marketing has been done for you, and you've basically got a guaranteed audience, more or less.

Of course, you have less control over things like your listings, you have to deal with fees and whatnot, and there are other caveats to be considered, as well (I'm sure they'll be brought up below).

All this being said, one option isn't always better than the other. In fact, a lot of sellers choose to do both (and use a tool like Solid Commerce when they're doing it - we built our tool to help multi-marketplace sellers make the most out of selling online).

Hope this helps!

_ Sean B.

There are some good things about having your own store such as the amount of control over certain things. However I would much rather have the HUGE amount of buyer traffic that Amazon has.

The answer to the question is not which way to go as you should do both, your own site plus FBA. IMO it makes a lot of sense to use Amazon;s FBA program to list part of your inventory. I also think it does not make any sense to skip using Amazon all together.

The small commission that Amazon takes ( about 15%) plus storage and handling fees is very minor when you think about the advantages you get. You ship to Amazon using theri very low rate (saving a ton of money right away). When an order is placed you get Amazon to take care of everything - shipping, refunds/returns, customer sat issues. But most of all you get the advantage of the most buyer traffic of any site on the internet. Also - probably the most buyer trust of any site. You can not come close to this you you own store site no matter how good it is.

It seems like an obvious no-brainer to me.

Like others have said, do both. Or start off on Amazon FBA and once you're big enough, start your own e-commerce site.

I would suggest being patient and starting with ebay. It takes a good year to learn how to get good at selling. If you buy a domain website without knowing much about selling or websites, you will likely just be wasting your time and money. With that said if their is a will their is a way, just be advised you would have less problems, drama, and stress if you took the time to learn the ins and outs. Good luck.

If you're starting out Prashant, it's going to be less risky and much more cost effective to test the waters on Amazon. Whilst setting up an e-commerce store via one of the many solutions like Shopify, Bigcommerce or Volusion is relatively cheap, driving actual traffic and paying customers to your site is an altogether different matter, and it's one area that is often overlooked by new sellers.

By all means, expand into different channels and your own store once you're established but selling Amazon is a quick and cost effective route to establish if you've got a business that's going to work.

Best of luck, whatever route you take!

I do both, though rarely list the products on my stores on Amazon. I use Amazon more for clearance items and other things that I don't list on my own stores. While you can use Ebay to drive some traffic to your own store, Amazon strictly prohibits you from marketing to "their" customers or doing any sort of advertising your non-Amazon store. Unless you pay for product ads of course.

If you are just starting out or selling occasionally, Amazon can be great. Though fashion and other categories are restricted and you have to be approved to sell in them. You probably won't be if you are that new. Be sure to check Amazon's list of restricted categories before you decide.