Amazon vs Own Website: Which Is Better for Sellers? (2026)

Amazon gives you customers on day one, but charges you for every single one, forever, and never lets you talk to them again.

Table of Contents

1. •The Core Trade-Off
2. •Amazon's Full Fee Structure
3. •Own Website Costs by Revenue Level
4. •Side-by-Side Fee Comparison
5. •Traffic: Amazon's Biggest Advantage
6. •Brand Ownership and Customer Data
7. •The Customer You Never Owned
8. •Amazon Seller Types Explained
9. •Who Should Stay on Amazon
10. •Who Should Build Their Own Store
11. •The Math at $10K/Month
12. •The Hybrid Approach
13. •What Happens When Amazon Suspends You
14. •Frequently Asked Questions
15. •About This Research
16. •Related Articles

The Core Trade-Off

Amazon and your own website are not competing tools. They represent two entirely different business models.

Amazon is a marketplace. You rent space in the largest retail store on the internet, pay fees on every transaction, and gain access to hundreds of millions of active buyers. The trade-off: Amazon owns the customer relationship, not you.

Your own website is your property. You control pricing, branding, customer data, and margins. The trade-off: you have to build your own traffic from scratch.

The decision comes down to where you are in your business and how much platform dependency risk you're willing to carry. Neither option is universally better, but for many sellers, the fee math alone makes a compelling case for diversification.

Amazon's Full Fee Structure

Amazon's fees are layered. Most sellers don't calculate all of them together until they look at an actual payout report and feel the gut punch.

Referral Fees

Amazon charges a referral fee on every sale. This is the baseline cost of selling on the platform. Rates vary by category, sourced from Amazon's Selling Fee Schedule:

• •Apparel: 17%
• •Beauty & Personal Care: 8–15% (tiered by price)
• •Books: 15%
• •Consumer Electronics: 8% (note: Electronics Accessories is 15%)
• •Home & Kitchen: 15%
• •Jewelry: 20% up to $250, 5% above
• •Shoes & Handbags: 15%
• •Toys & Games: 15%
• •Everything else (general): 15%

The referral fee floor is $0.30 per item. On low-priced items, this floor can represent a much higher effective percentage than the listed rate.

Fee rates verified as of December 2025. Always check Amazon's official pricing page for current rates. This is not financial advice.

FBA Fees (Fulfillment by Amazon)

If you use FBA, Amazon picks, packs, and ships for you, and charges accordingly. FBA fees are based on product size and weight, not sale price. A standard small item might cost $3.22 in fulfillment fees. A large oversize item can run $150+.

On top of per-unit fulfillment fees, FBA charges monthly storage fees: roughly $0.87/cubic foot from January–September and $2.40/cubic foot from October–December (peak season). Aged inventory surcharges begin at 271 days in storage, with higher rates after 365 days.

For a complete FBA fee breakdown by size tier, see our Amazon FBA Fees vs Own Store deep-dive.

Professional Seller Subscription

The Professional selling plan costs $39.99/month. This unlocks bulk listing tools, advertising, and third-party app integrations. The Individual plan has no monthly fee but charges $0.99 per item sold, which means anyone selling more than 40 items/month is better off on Professional.

Advertising (ACoS)

Amazon advertising is technically optional but practically mandatory in competitive categories. Average ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale) runs 25–35% for established listings and higher for new ones. This is on top of all other fees.

A seller doing $10,000/month in Amazon revenue who runs ads at 30% ACoS is spending $3,000/month just on ads, before any other fees are counted.

Closing Fees

Media products (books, DVDs, music, video games) carry a $2.79 per-item closing fee ($1.80 + $0.99) in addition to referral fees.

Own Website Costs by Revenue Level

Running your own store has a fundamentally different cost structure - mostly fixed or semi-fixed costs rather than percentage-of-revenue fees.

Core Platform Costs

Shopify Basic: $39/month + 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction with Shopify Payments (2.6% + $0.30 billed annually) Shopify (mid-tier): $105/month + 2.6% + $0.30 (2.4% + $0.30 billed annually) WooCommerce: Hosting ~$20–50/month + payment processor 2.9% + $0.30

For most sellers building their first independent store, Shopify Basic at $39/month plus Shopify Payments handles everything cleanly. Payment processing at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction is the main variable cost.

Additional Costs

• •Domain: ~$14/year
• •Email marketing (up to 10K subscribers): $0–$50/month depending on provider
• •Apps/plugins: $20–100/month for serious operators
• •Theme: One-time $0–$350 or included in a build

A lean but functional own-store setup runs roughly $80–150/month in fixed costs, with transaction fees as the main variable.

Side-by-Side Fee Comparison

This is where the numbers get real. The following table compares selling on Amazon FBA (using a 15% referral fee + ~$4.50 average FBA fee per order + 30% ACoS) against a Shopify store with Shopify Payments (2.9% processing) and $130/month in fixed platform costs.

For simplicity, all Amazon examples assume a $25 average order value and an average FBA fee of $4.50 per unit. Own-store examples assume $130/month fixed costs and 2.9% Shopify Payments processing.

At $1,000/Month Revenue (40 orders at $25 avg)

At $1,000/month, own website keeps roughly 2.3x more revenue. The caveat: the own-store seller has to generate their own traffic, which may require marketing spend not reflected here.

At $5,000/Month Revenue (200 orders)

At $10,000/Month Revenue (400 orders)

At $20,000/Month Revenue (800 orders)

The fee gap compounds dramatically as revenue grows. At $20K/month, the own-store seller keeps more than double what the Amazon FBA seller keeps, even accounting for ads and platform costs.

Fee rates verified as of December 2025. Always check Amazon's official pricing page and Shopify's pricing page for current rates. This is not financial advice.

Traffic: Amazon's Biggest Advantage

The numbers above don't tell the whole story, because own-store sellers have to generate their own traffic. This is real work and real cost.

Amazon has hundreds of millions of customers globally, with Prime membership exceeding 200 million worldwide. When you list a product on Amazon, you're immediately visible to shoppers who are already in buying mode. That distribution advantage is genuinely hard to replicate from scratch.

For a new seller with no existing audience, no email list, and no social following, Amazon solves a real problem: getting found. This is worth something, potentially a lot, depending on the category.

An own-store seller who earns $10K/month from organic search, email marketing, and social media is doing so with traffic they built over months or years. That same seller on Amazon might have hit $10K/month in their first quarter, but they'd be keeping $3,660 instead of $8,241.

The traffic advantage of Amazon is front-loaded. It matters most in the early months and in low-margin categories where you can't afford to build audience slowly. It diminishes over time as you grow your own channels.

For strategies on building your own traffic after leaving or diversifying from a marketplace, see our First 1,000 Visitors Marketing Playbook.

Brand Ownership and Customer Data

Amazon's terms of service prohibit sellers from using order data to contact customers for marketing purposes outside the platform. You cannot email the person who bought from you. You cannot retarget them. You cannot invite them into a loyalty program. You cannot build a relationship.

This is not a minor inconvenience. It's a structural ceiling on business growth.

Every customer who buys from Amazon is Amazon's customer, not yours. If Amazon changes its algorithm, adjusts its fees, or decides your category needs "Amazon Basics" competition, your business has no floor. You can't fall back on customer relationships because you were never allowed to build them.

On your own website, every buyer's email address and purchase history belongs to you. A store doing $10K/month with 2,000 customers in its email list has a recoverable asset, something with real value if the business is sold, and a direct revenue channel for future launches and promotions.

Customer data ownership is the invisible compounding advantage of running an independent store. At year one it feels small. At year five it's the foundation of the entire business.

For more on building that list, see How to Build a Customer List as a Marketplace Seller and the broader Amazon Seller DTC Guide.

The Customer You Never Owned

You've made 500 sales on Amazon this year. You know your best-selling SKU, your conversion rate, and your ACoS. What you don't know: who those 500 people are, what else they buy, whether they'd buy from you again directly, or how to reach them if your listing gets suppressed tomorrow.

Amazon processes the transaction. Amazon handles the return. Amazon sends the confirmation email. Amazon retargets them with your competitor's listing next week. You got the margin after fees, and nothing else.

The customer never belonged to you.

Amazon Seller Types Explained

Not all Amazon sellers have the same options or the same pressures.

FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon): You ship inventory to Amazon's warehouses. Amazon handles storage, picking, packing, and shipping. Prime-eligible. High fees. Best for sellers who want to scale volume without managing logistics.

FBM (Fulfillment by Merchant): You list on Amazon but fulfill orders yourself. Lower fees with no FBA fulfillment fee, but you're responsible for fast shipping to maintain seller metrics. Works for large, heavy, or custom items where FBA fees would be prohibitive.

Amazon Handmade: A sub-marketplace for artisan products. Uses a 15% referral fee with a $1.00 minimum (no listing fees). Better for one-of-a-kind products that don't fit the standard Amazon catalog model.

Merch by Amazon: Print-on-demand. Amazon handles everything; you earn a royalty per sale. Margins are thin but there's zero upfront cost or inventory risk.

Each model has a different fee structure and a different path toward (or away from) independent store ownership. FBA sellers typically have the most compelling math case for adding an own store, given the cumulative weight of storage, fulfillment, and referral fees.

Who Should Stay on Amazon

Amazon is genuinely the right platform for some sellers. Be honest about whether that includes you.

Stay on Amazon if you're selling commodities. If your product has no meaningful brand differentiation, your own website traffic costs will likely exceed your margin. Amazon's built-in audience carries the business.

Stay if you're in a research-heavy category. Shoppers comparing electronics, supplements, or tools often start (and end) on Amazon. Being off-platform in these categories means missing buyers who won't search elsewhere.

Stay if you have no marketing infrastructure. Building organic search traffic, social audiences, and email lists takes 12–24 months of consistent work. If you don't have the time or skill set for that, Amazon solves your distribution problem.

Stay if your margins can absorb the fees. Some products - especially private label with strong reviews and high ASPs - generate enough margin that Amazon fees are a cost of doing business, not an existential threat.

What "staying on Amazon" should not mean: ignoring the fee structure, assuming the platform will stay stable, or treating your Amazon customers as your customers when they legally and practically are not.

Who Should Build Their Own Store

The case for an independent store gets stronger the longer you've been selling and the higher your revenue.

Build your own store if you have any repeat purchase product. Consumables, supplies, subscriptions, seasonal items - any product that generates repeat buyers is bleeding money on Amazon. Every reorder pays Amazon another 15% when you could email that customer directly for free.

Build if you have an engaged social audience or any email list. Existing followers are an owned traffic channel. A store costs you $39/month. Your audience drives sales without paying Amazon a cut.

Build if you're in a creative or handmade category. Shoppers who buy from independent makers often prefer the brand story that a dedicated store provides, and they're more willing to shop outside of Amazon for it.

Build if your products have been flagged, suppressed, or suspended on Amazon. Platform dependency is a real business risk. One account suspension can eliminate your revenue overnight. Amazon's marketplace policy enforcement has no appeal timeline guarantees.

Build if you're approaching $5K/month in Amazon revenue. At that revenue level, the fee comparison table above shows you keeping more than double the margin on your own store, even accounting for your own platform costs.

For a step-by-step migration plan, see the Complete Guide to Launching Your Own Store as a Marketplace Seller.

Get Started: build your store and own it forever

The Math at $10K/Month

At $10,000/month on Amazon FBA:

• •You pay ~$1,500 in referral fees
• •~$1,800 in FBA fulfillment
• •~$3,000 in advertising
• •~$40 in subscription
• •Total: ~$6,340 in costs
• •You keep: ~$3,660

At $10,000/month on your own store:

• •You pay ~$290 in payment processing
• •~$750 in marketing/ads
• •~$139 in platform costs
• •Total: ~$1,179 in costs
• •You keep: ~$8,821

The own-store seller keeps $5,161 more every single month. That's $61,932 per year. You could build five stores for that.

The Hybrid Approach

Most successful sellers don't choose one or the other. They use both, strategically.

Amazon serves as the discovery layer. New customers find your product via Amazon search, buy it, and receive a package insert with a QR code or offer directing them to your website for future orders. Your own store handles repeat buyers, subscription products, limited editions, and anything you want to sell with better margins.

This approach requires discipline. Amazon's terms prohibit including marketing inserts that redirect customers away from Amazon for the same products currently listed there. The insert strategy works cleanest for exclusive products, bundles, or complementary items only sold on your own store.

The hybrid model is a transition strategy, not a permanent middle ground. Sellers who execute it well gradually shift their repeat buyers to their own store while maintaining Amazon volume for discovery. Within 12–18 months, the own-store revenue often overtakes Amazon revenue in profitability, even if not in raw volume.

For a full framework on this transition, see our Marketplace vs Own Store Pros and Cons analysis and the Marketing Guide for Marketplace Sellers.

What Happens When Amazon Suspends You

Amazon account suspensions happen without warning. One policy violation, real or algorithmic, and your listings disappear. Your inventory sits in FBA warehouses you can't pull from quickly. Your revenue goes to zero. The appeal process takes weeks, sometimes months, with no guaranteed outcome.

If Amazon is your only sales channel, this scenario ends your business.

If you have an own store generating 40% of your revenue, a suspension is painful but survivable. You redirect your marketing budget, lean on your email list, and keep operating while the appeal works through the system.

At any meaningful scale, platform diversification is a basic risk management requirement, not an optional upgrade.

The Bottom Line

Amazon is a customer acquisition tool. It puts your products in front of buyers who are actively looking. That is genuinely valuable, and the fees reflect that value. Do not dismiss it.

Your own store is a long-term business asset. Lower per-sale costs, customer data you own, and a brand that compounds over time. The catch is that you have to earn your own traffic.

The right answer for most established sellers is not one or the other. Start on Amazon. Build your own store. Shift your revenue mix over time as your direct audience grows. At $3,000+/month, the fee savings alone justify the investment.

Ready to build your store? Get Started: build your store and own it forever. One-time fee. You own everything. No monthly platform payments.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it cheaper to sell on Amazon or your own website?

At almost every revenue level, your own website costs less in fees. Amazon's combined referral fees, FBA fulfillment fees, and advertising typically consume 50–65% of gross revenue. A Shopify store with Shopify Payments typically costs 5–15% of gross revenue including marketing.

Can you sell on both Amazon and your own website at the same time?

Yes, and most established sellers do. Running both channels simultaneously is called a hybrid approach. Amazon handles discovery and new customer acquisition while your own store captures repeat buyers at higher margins.

What are Amazon's referral fees in 2026?

Referral fees vary by category, ranging from 6% (personal computers) to 20% (jewelry on lower-priced items). Most categories charge 15%. Always verify current rates at Amazon's fee schedule as rates are subject to change.

How much does it cost to run a Shopify store per month?

Shopify Basic is $39/month plus payment processing at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction with Shopify Payments (2.6% + $0.30 billed annually). A fully operational store including apps and email marketing typically runs $80–150/month in fixed costs.

Do you need advertising on your own website?

You need some form of traffic generation, which may or may not involve paid ads. Organic search (SEO), email marketing, social media, and influencer partnerships are all viable alternatives. Unlike Amazon, where advertising is practically mandatory in competitive categories, own-store sellers can build traffic through owned channels.

What happens to my Amazon reviews if I move to my own website?

Amazon reviews stay on Amazon. They're Amazon's property. Your own store starts with zero reviews. Most sellers use review apps (Judge.me, Stamped.io) to collect new reviews from customers and offer an early purchase incentive to rebuild social proof.

Is Shopify better than Amazon for handmade or artisan products?

For most artisan sellers, yes. Shopify gives you complete brand control, better margins, and direct customer relationships. Amazon Handmade uses a 15% referral fee and puts your products next to mass-manufactured alternatives. An independent store lets your brand story drive the purchase decision.

How long does it take to build traffic to an own store?

Organic SEO traffic typically takes 6–12 months to build meaningfully. Email-driven traffic can start working within weeks if you have an existing list or social following. Paid advertising can generate traffic immediately but requires budget. Most sellers start seeing their own-store traffic become self-sustaining around month 9–12.

What platform is best for marketplace sellers going independent?

Shopify is the most common choice for sellers transitioning from Amazon or Etsy. It has the largest app ecosystem, strong payment processing, and minimal technical setup. WooCommerce is a strong alternative for sellers who want more control and lower platform fees at scale. See our Best Platform Guide for Marketplace Sellers Going D2C for a detailed comparison.

Should I close my Amazon store when I launch my own website?

No, not immediately. Run both simultaneously during the transition period. Use Amazon for discovery and new customer acquisition. Use your own store to convert repeat buyers. Over time, shift your best customers and highest-margin products to your own store. A sudden platform exit risks revenue gaps you may not be able to bridge quickly.

How do I drive traffic to a new independent store without a budget?

Start with your existing Amazon review history as social proof (screenshot and republish with buyer permission), use any social media following you've built, and invest in SEO content from day one. Refer to our First 1,000 Visitors Marketing Playbook for a zero-budget traffic roadmap.

About This Research

StableCommerce is an e-commerce agency that builds independent stores for marketplace sellers. This article is based on current platform fee schedules, seller community discussions, and hands-on platform research conducted in 2025-2026.

Content reviewed and updated: 2025-12-05

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