Selling on Marketplaces or Your Own Store?

Almost every business that wants to sell online faces this question. Should it open a store on a marketplace like Trendyol, Hepsiburada, Amazon or Çiçeksepeti, or build its own online store? Advice found online usually sits at two extremes: either marketplace commissions eat everything, or nobody will ever find your own site.

Both are overstated. For most businesses the right answer isn't one or the other, but putting the two in the right order.

A quick comparison

• Traffic: Marketplaces have an audience from day one. On your own site, you bring the traffic.
• Startup cost: Usually low on a marketplace. Your own site has a setup cost.
• Cost per sale: On a marketplace you pay commission and service fees. On your own site you pay the payment provider's fee and for ads.
• Price control: On a marketplace you sit next to competitors under price pressure. On your own site you set the price.
• Customer relationship: On a marketplace the relationship runs largely through the platform. On your own site, the order history stays with you.
• Brand: On a marketplace your product is listed alongside others. On your own site you tell your brand's story.

What marketplaces do well

The biggest advantage is ready-made traffic. Many people search these platforms every day and the shopping habit is established. You are a new brand nobody knows; the marketplace closes that trust gap with its own recognition.

The infrastructure is ready. Payments, shipping integration, returns and invoicing modules are largely set up. You can list a product quickly.

It is also well suited to testing the market. Within a few weeks you can learn whether a new product sells, which price range works and what customers ask. Collecting that data with your own site can take months.

Commissions, price competition and the customer relationship

Here is the price you pay.

Commission rates vary by category, and platforms update them from time to time; check the current figures in the seller panel. On top of commission there can be service fees, shipping and campaign participation costs.

Let's take a purely hypothetical example. A product you sell for 500 TL:

• Product cost: 250 TL
• Marketplace commission (hypothetical amount; check your category's rate in the seller panel): 100 TL
• Shipping: 60 TL
• Other deductions and service fee (hypothetical): 15 TL
• Left over: 75 TL

Sell the same product on your own site and the payment provider also takes a cut; the rate depends on the provider and your agreement. Let's assume 20 TL here. But you spent money on ads to get that sale. If a sale costs you 80 TL in ads, you keep 90 TL, close to the marketplace figure. With a repeat customer, though, the ad cost drops and the gap can open up.

That last sentence is the key point. On a marketplace, the second and third sales also come with commission; the customer searches the platform each time and may buy from another seller this time.

Price competition is the second pressure. Many sellers offering the same or similar products sit side by side on the same page. Buyers may tend to pick the cheapest, and price can play a role in platforms' ranking criteria. Your margin can come under pressure during campaign periods.

Third, customer data. Platform rules generally restrict contacting customers outside the platform; you may not be able to send your own campaign emails to someone who bought from you there. You may have sold to many customers and still have no customer list of your own.

Then there is account risk. A change in platform rules, negative reviews or a dispute can affect your store's visibility. If all your revenue comes from one platform, that is a vulnerability.

Your own store: strengths and challenges

On your own site, the rules are yours. You decide prices, campaigns and how product pages look. There is no list of competing products next to yours. You can tell your brand's story, your production process, your care guides.

Every order leaves you a customer record. Provided you obtain customers' consent and process personal data in line with the law, email lists, repeat-purchase campaigns and new product announcements become possible. That relationship, hard to build on a marketplace, can turn into a profitable sales channel over time.

The challenges are real too. First, traffic: nobody arrives on launch day. You have to bring visitors with ads, social media, content and SEO. Second, trust: buying from a new site is a risk for the customer. A return policy, contact details, genuine reviews and secure payment signals reduce it. Third, operations and obligations: customer service, returns, invoicing, shipment tracking and compliance with distance selling rules are your responsibility.

Setup cost is a threshold as well. We covered the cost of an online store with payment and shipping integration in a separate article. You will also find the difference between hosted platforms (such as Shopify, ikas and Ticimax) and custom software in our platform comparison.

The hybrid model, stage by stage

One healthy path we often see is using the two channels for different purposes and shifting the weight over time.

Stage one: start on a marketplace. List your products on one or two marketplaces. The goal is learning, not profit: which products sell, which prices work, what customers ask, what reviews come in. Use this stage to settle your product photos, descriptions and shipping process.

Stage two: open your own site, but keep it small. Start with your best sellers. Use the price and product insight gained on the marketplace. Point your social accounts and Google Business Profile to the site. Putting a small card introducing the site in your parcels is one option to consider; however, marketplaces may have rules on this, so read the relevant clauses of the seller agreement before doing so.

Stage three: create value specific to the site. Offer something the marketplace doesn't: exclusive bundles, personalisation, faster shipping, loyalty benefits. A price difference alone may not be sustainable, and some platforms have expectations on pricing; a difference in value is firmer ground.

Stage four: measure the balance. Calculate the real profit on sales from each channel: commission, ads, shipping and returns included. As your own site's share grows, you can reach a balance where the marketplace stays a customer acquisition channel and repeat customers come to your own store.

Not every business moves at the same pace. Some don't leave the marketplace in the first year; others selling handmade, brand-driven products start directly with their own site. If your product is unique and has a story, your own site can make sense earlier; if it is standard and competes on price, the marketplace may remain the main channel for longer.

Before deciding, run the calculation above once with your own numbers: for your three best sellers, what is left per sale on the marketplace, and what would it cost to win a sale on your own site? The gap between those two numbers tells you how fast to move.