--- title: "Marketplace or your own online store? Where the same product pays off best" description: "Commissions, borrowed traffic and customers who are not yours: an honest comparison between selling on a marketplace and opening your own online store." date: "2026-11-01" category: "Websites for business" keywords: "marketplace or own online store, marketplace commission fees, selling on amazon or on my own website, where to sell my products online, online store for small businesses" portada: "/portadas/portada-marketplace-o-tienda-online-propia.webp" --- A guy who makes wooden lamps in Vecindario showed me his phone last month: 34 sales on a marketplace in three months. He was happy. Then he opened the spreadsheet and the smile went: between commission, monthly fee and subsidised shipping he had 4.10 € left per lamp. He had worked three months to pay the rent on somebody else's shop window. The question he asked me is the one I get every week: "should I open an online store or sell on a marketplace?". And it is almost always answered badly, because people compare the price of building the website with the marketplace commission, when what you have to compare is what each customer costs you and who owns them. ## The two things you are comparing (and they are not alike) A **marketplace** is a shopping centre: it has an audience, it has a shop window and you pay to be inside. Amazon, Etsy, classifieds sites or the portals of your sector work like that. They give you something you don't have on day one: people who are already looking to buy. Your **own online store** is a premises in your name: nobody brings you the audience, but nobody charges you for every person who walks in either. The rent is paid once (the website) and then a small maintenance cost. The important difference is not money: it is who keeps the customer. On a marketplace the buyer belongs to the marketplace; on your website they are yours, with their email and their history. ## What the marketplace keeps from every sale It depends on the portal and the category, but the ranges repeat: - **Commission per sale.** On the big ones it usually moves between 7 % and 20 % depending on category, and it goes up in electronics, fashion and products with easy returns. Many charge payment handling separately. - **Monthly fee.** Between 0 and 40 € a month depending on the plan you take. - **Advertising inside the portal.** Here is the trap: with 40 sellers offering the same thing, the one who doesn't pay shows up on page four. What was optional in theory ends up being an extra 5-10 % of the price. - **Shipping and returns.** Many require free shipping above a certain amount or handle returns their own way. You pay for that. Do the maths with your product before deciding: sale price minus product cost, minus commission, minus monthly fee, minus advertising and minus shipping. If less than 20 % of the price is left, the channel is eating your business. ## What having your own store really costs A store with a catalogue, product pages, cart and card payment is not a three-section landing page. In the Spanish market it moves between 400 and 1,500 € for a small business with fewer than 100 items, plus the domain (10-15 € a year) and maintenance. The payment gateway takes around 1-2 % of each sale, not 15 %. And there is a cost that isn't money: the time for photos, texts, stock and orders. That exists on a marketplace too, but on your website you do it at your own pace and with your own tools. In [how much an online store costs](/blog/en/cuanto-cuesta-una-tienda-online) I broke these figures down one by one, including the ones nobody puts in the spreadsheet. ## The calculation almost nobody makes: the customer is yours or the portal's Think of your best buyer: the one who comes back three times a year. On a marketplace you don't have their email. You can't tell them about a new colour, or that next week shipping is free, or win them back if one day they stop buying. You can only pay again for them to see you. On your website you can. A returning customer costs nothing to acquire, so the second order already has real margin. With the portal's commission, the second sale costs the same as the first. There is a second effect, quieter: when someone asks Google or an AI assistant "where can I buy handmade wooden lamps", your website can show up with your brand. On a marketplace you are one more row and the winner is always whoever has more reviews and a better price. ## When the marketplace really wins It is not the enemy. There are situations where joining is the sensible thing: - **You are testing whether the product sells.** Validate demand where there is already an audience before spending on a website. - **Your product is searched by generic name and price.** Chargers, cases, spare parts: the buyer compares price and reviews, not brand. - **You need fast visibility for a campaign.** Christmas, back to school, Valentine's Day. ## When your own store wins - **Your margin is tight.** With a 15 % commission, raising the price takes you out of the comparison and lowering it leaves you with no profit. - **You live off repeat customers.** A dog groomer with products, a bakery with orders, a garage with spare parts: the relationship already exists, you just have to charge for it properly. - **Your product needs explaining.** A made-to-measure mattress, made-to-measure furniture, a quote. It doesn't fit in a marketplace listing. - **You sell services as well as products.** A marketplace is no use for booking an appointment. ## The mixed plan that works Most businesses I know end up in both places, and it isn't a failure: it's a strategy. 1. **Start where there is already an audience** if you need to validate: one product, one portal, three months of data. 2. **Open your store with what you know sells**, not with the whole catalogue. 3. **Use the marketplace for acquisition, not as your home.** A card in every parcel with a code for the first purchase on your website. 4. **Collect the email from the first order.** 5. **Same prices in both channels.** If the same product is 19.90 € in one place and 24.90 € in another, the customer finds it and stops trusting you. ## The four mistakes that cost you dearly - **Keeping the catalogue only on the marketplace.** If tomorrow they change the terms or close your account, you don't have a business: you have a stall in somebody else's market. - **Not putting the commission into the price.** The portal's price has to cover its commission; it can't come out of your margin. - **Neglecting the photos.** The same bad photos sell less in both places. - **Not measuring.** Without knowing which orders come from each channel you can only have an opinion. ## How to decide this week Do the maths with your three best-selling products: price, cost, commission and shipping. See what is left per unit in each channel and how many of those buyers have come back in the last six months. If the marketplace margin is decent and customers don't repeat, stay there. If the margin is thin or people do repeat, your own store pays for itself with the second order. At pedroaren.com we build small online stores, with their own admin panel so you can change prices and photos without calling anyone and without depending on a portal's rules. You can [request a free design proposal](/solicita-web/en) and see how your catalogue would look before deciding anything. If you are at the earlier stage, you may be interested in [what an online store needs in order to sell](/blog/en/web-para-tiendas-online) and [how to take card payments without building a huge store](/blog/en/cobrar-con-tarjeta-en-tu-web-sin-tienda-online).