Every product business faces this question eventually: do I sell on Amazon and Flipkart, or build my own store? The answer is nuanced — and it depends on where your business is and where you want it to go.
The Real Cost of Marketplace Selling
Amazon and Flipkart take 8–40% commission depending on category. Add GST on commission, shipping fees, return costs, and fulfillment charges — you're often left with 40–55% of your listed price. Sell a ₹1,000 product and you might see ₹550 in your account.
On your own store? Payment gateway fees are 1.5–2%. That's it.
What Marketplaces Give You
Don't dismiss them though. Marketplaces provide:
- Instant traffic — Crores of shoppers, no marketing needed
- Trust signals — Customers trust Amazon more than an unknown store
- Logistics — FBA/FBF handles storage, packing, shipping
- Discovery — New brands get found without marketing spend
What Your Own Store Gives You
- Brand ownership — Customers remember YOUR brand, not Amazon
- Customer data — You know who bought, what they bought, when they're due to reorder
- Repeat business — WhatsApp marketing, email campaigns, loyalty programs
- Higher margins — Keep 95%+ instead of 55%
- Custom experience — Bundles, subscriptions, referral programs — all possible
The Smart Strategy: Both
The most successful product businesses use marketplaces for discovery and their own store for retention. Get a customer through Amazon. Make them love your product. Then bring them to your own store for the next purchase with a discount code inside the package.
Your marketplace store builds Amazon's brand. Your own store builds yours. The goal is to eventually need the marketplace less and less.
When to Build Your Own Store
You're ready for your own e-commerce store when: (1) you have a brand story worth telling, (2) you have repeat customers you want to retarget, or (3) your margins on marketplaces are below 25%.
We build custom e-commerce stores integrated with WhatsApp ordering, Razorpay/Paytm payment, inventory management, and mobile apps — starting from ₹40,000. Most of our clients recover this cost within 3 months from margin savings alone.