Selling on Marketplaces or Your Own E-commerce?
Should everyone sell on marketplaces?
This is a question everyone is asking today, and the answer is often quite black and white: sell on both!
Considering the availability of resources to sell online, it makes sense to maximize sales—in other words, sell on as many platforms as possible.
But that’s not always the case. Some products don’t fit well with the most common marketplaces, just as some products aren’t even allowed to be sold on them.
In these cases, having your own e-commerce is absolutely necessary. These are niche cases.
But there are also situations where selling through your own e-commerce is very complicated, and the right approach is to sell exclusively on marketplaces and focus sales efforts there.
This question doesn’t have a simple answer, despite what articles and influencers in the industry often suggest. That’s exactly why we wrote this article—to explore the nuances.
Let’s dive into what marketplaces are, when it makes sense to sell on them, when it doesn’t, and other key aspects of this topic.
Phew! Let’s get started.
The Basics First – What Are Marketplaces?
Before we get into the article itself, we need to clarify what marketplaces actually are.
If this is too basic for you, feel free to skip to the next section.
Marketplaces are websites where you can sell your products by paying a fee on each sale.
Many of these marketplaces also offer integrated logistics systems, making product delivery easier for customers. However, sellers can also use their own shipping methods.
The main marketplaces used in Brazil today are:
- Amazon
- Magazine Luiza
- Mercado Livre
- Shopee
- Americanas
The biggest appeal of selling on marketplaces is that you don’t need to create a website to start selling. You just need to organize your products in an SKU spreadsheet, add photos and descriptions, and that’s it—you’re ready to sell.
At the same time, you must pay a fee per sale, which varies by marketplace but typically ranges between 10% and 20%.
This percentage is quite high, but considering that building a good e-commerce store costs around R$20,000 plus a dedicated team with a monthly salary, it’s easy to see why marketplaces dominate the market today.
But to better understand the differences between marketplaces and independent e-commerce, we need to explore some fundamental contrasts.
Check it out:
Independent E-commerce Brings Challenges That Marketplaces Easily Solve
Running your own e-commerce is not a simple task. That’s why, when marketplaces arrived in Brazil, they were immediately filled with thousands of sellers.
The first challenge of independent e-commerce is the barrier to entry.
If you sell physical products and want to set up your own e-commerce, the first step is building a website—something that’s not so easy.
You need a development team, or at least a programmer. You need to create the website, which takes time and is expensive. You need to set up a marketing team, invest in campaigns, create social media accounts, etc.
All of this requires a significant investment, comparable (with some caveats) to opening a new physical store.
Marketplaces already have this structure ready. You just need to start selling.
This is the main reason for their popularity. Also, the costs only come after you sell, not before, like with independent e-commerce.
But at the same time, marketplaces also come with some limitations:
Marketplaces Also Present Challenges
Marketplaces aren’t perfect either. They present challenges, especially for experienced sellers and those who need more control over their sales.
The biggest issue is lack of customization. You have to adapt to the marketplace, not the other way around.
This can be frustrating. A simple feature like an e-commerce chatbot can’t be installed. There’s no support for it.
Another limitation is the commission fees, which never go away.
With your own e-commerce, you have high initial costs, but over time, sales help cover them.
In other words, you eventually reach a break-even point.
On marketplaces, there is no break-even for commission fees—they will always be charged.
Similarly, payment and shipping conditions are usually dictated by the marketplace itself. While this isn’t necessarily a huge issue, it does limit flexibility for specific cases.
The truth is, both marketplaces and independent e-commerce come with challenges and opportunities.
Knowing where to sell is crucial for maximizing opportunities and minimizing problems. Let’s discuss this in more detail in the next section:
Where to Sell? Marketplaces or Independent E-commerce?
As we’ve discussed, each selling method has its own challenges and benefits, depending on your operation.
Your specific situation will generally determine whether it’s better to sell on independent e-commerce, marketplaces, both at the same time, or even somewhere else entirely—such as WhatsApp or social media sales only.
We’ll cover those alternative sales channels at the end of this section. But for now, let’s focus on selling through independent e-commerce and marketplaces.
This is a big topic, so let’s get right to it.
Selling on Marketplaces
There are scenarios where selling on marketplaces doesn’t pose significant problems and offers great opportunities.
For example: if you already have a well-established independent e-commerce store.
If your online store is already making sales, there’s no reason not to expand to marketplaces.
Another scenario: if you own a physical store and want to expand your operation online.
Even without your own e-commerce site, selling on marketplaces gets you online and increases your brand’s sales.
However, there are classic cases where selling on marketplaces isn’t the best idea.
For example: if you have a production bottleneck—let’s say you create handmade products—selling on marketplaces becomes much harder due to inventory management challenges.
Likewise, if your products are highly niche, sales on marketplaces will naturally be lower, yet you’ll still be paying commission fees on every sale.
In such cases, many brands prefer to run a simpler, independent e-commerce store.
Selling on Independent E-commerce
The fashion and apparel industry often prefers independent e-commerce, especially for alternative or niche fashion brands.
There are marketplaces catering to fashion, like Netshoes, Dafiti, and SHEIN, but they come with limitations that some more unique and niche brands struggle with.
For example: You can’t launch a major new collection on marketplaces with the same visibility as on independent e-commerce.
A new collection release won’t be highlighted on a marketplace. Meanwhile, with independent e-commerce:
Bolovo is one of the best examples of how brands with a more original approach and a strong focus on digital marketing achieve better results with a website they fully control.
Each collection launch comes with a video, specific photos, social media content, and a well-organized digital storefront.
The product descriptions align with the campaign concept, the entire website layout changes, new products are highlighted, new banners are added, and so on.
In the past, this was how almost all e-commerce stores operated—the website “owner” made changes according to seasonality. In marketplaces, it’s similar, but now it’s no longer the owner who controls it, but rather the marketplace itself.
So, brands with a well-developed concept, selling unique products and highly focused on presentation, will always prefer their own e-commerce platforms.
And of course, some products don’t fit into marketplaces. Products bought in large quantities, for example, are better sold through independent e-commerce stores, where negotiation is possible.
The same applies to handmade products. A marketplace only offers one option: add to cart. Some brands can’t even sell products without first verifying whether delivery can actually be fulfilled.
But there are also different cases where selling on both platforms simultaneously is possible. Let’s explore this further now:
Selling on Both E-commerce and Marketplaces
People say that selling on both e-commerce stores and marketplaces is “the best way to sell.”
But it’s not always that simple, because, as we’ve seen, there are cases where selling through a single channel is actually better.
If you have highly unique products, tied to collections, and more sensitive in nature, it’s better to stick to your own e-commerce store.
However, maybe 10 out of your 40 SKUs are fairly simple and not part of current collections. In this case, listing them on a specialized marketplace is worth considering.
And e-commerce stores don’t have to be overly complicated. You can create a simple online store with VTEX or Magento, for example. They use a drag-and-drop system, and within a few days, you’ll have everything set up and running.
What doesn’t make sense is creating an e-commerce store to sell the exact same products you’re listing on marketplaces. In these cases, it’s better to leverage social media instead.
More on that now:
Selling on Social Media
Some brands go even further—they don’t sell anywhere else, only on social media.
This approach is risky because an e-commerce store offers much more than just a website to showcase products.
For example, e-commerce platforms also provide payment gateways, making it easier and safer for both the customer and the business owner to send and receive payments.
When selling exclusively through social media, every payment has to be processed individually, usually via Pix or payment links. This can be quite tricky in today’s world, where scams are unfortunately common.
Selling only on social media isn’t the most reliable or secure business model, especially now that so many e-commerce platforms charge very low fees.
Social media is best used primarily as a content channel.
Independent E-commerce Wins in Features and Customization
The biggest advantage of independent e-commerce stores is, without a doubt, their features and customization options.
A classic example: AI-powered smart showcases. You can’t add these to marketplaces because they already have built-in recommendation systems, right?
But think about this: marketplaces’ smart showcases have one major flaw—they display products from other sellers on your own product pages.
This can be frustrating, but it’s part of the operational costs.
Speaking of operational costs, they show up in these types of situations, not just in commission fees per sale.
Not being able to launch your campaign the way you need to means fewer sales during a crucial period.
Not being able to offer personalized product recommendations has the same effect.
And most importantly, you miss out on one final tool I’d like to introduce to you. Let’s take a look:
How to Use AI in Your Own E-commerce Store to Save Time and Sell More
ShopBot is a tool that helps your independent e-commerce store by providing automated customer service and answering questions using generative AI.
This service works in a very simple way: the chatbot is installed on every page and can understand the information displayed on it.
Any question a user asks will be answered instantly, making the shopping journey more personalized and increasing your store’s conversion rates.
Try it out today! It takes less than 10 minutes to install, is free for 14 days, and doesn’t require a credit card. Click on the banner below to get started!
