Amazon or Shopify: where should you sell?
These get compared as competitors. They are not really doing the same job. Amazon rents you demand. Shopify sells you a shop and leaves the demand to you. The right question is not which is better, it is which problem you currently have.
The fundamental difference
On Amazon, the traffic already exists. Millions of people arrive every day intending to buy something, and your job is to be the result they pick. You do not have to create demand — you have to win a comparison.
On Shopify, you own a shop and nobody knows it is there. Every visitor must be paid for, earned or referred. In exchange you own the brand, the customer data and the relationship.
That difference drives everything else.
What each one costs you
| Amazon | Shopify | |
|---|---|---|
| Referral / transaction fee | 8–15% of sale price | Payment processing only, roughly 2.9% + 30¢ |
| Monthly platform cost | $39.99 Professional plan | Plan fee plus apps |
| Fulfilment | FBA fees, or your own | Yours |
| Traffic | Included — you compete for it | You buy or earn all of it |
| Customer data | Amazon’s | Yours |
| Ad cost to acquire | Roughly $1.10–$1.20 per click | Varies by channel; generally higher per acquisition |
Amazon’s referral fee looks expensive beside Shopify’s payment processing. It is not really comparable: the referral fee includes the customer. On Shopify, customer acquisition is a separate cost line that is often considerably larger than 15%.
When Amazon is the right place to start
- Your product solves a problem people already search for. If there is existing demand with a name, Amazon connects you to it on day one.
- You want revenue sooner. A well-executed Amazon launch produces sales in weeks. A Shopify store from zero usually takes months.
- You are competing on product, not brand. Amazon rewards the best option in a grid, which favours new entrants with a genuinely better product.
- You do not yet have the budget to buy traffic. This is the practical one. Shopify without an advertising budget is a shop with no street.
When Shopify is the right place
- Your brand is the product. If the story, the design or the community is what people are buying, Amazon’s grid strips all of it away.
- You need the customer relationship. Subscriptions, repeat purchase, email, loyalty. Amazon does not give you the customer, and that cap is permanent.
- Your margins will not survive a 15% referral fee on top of fulfilment.
- You already have an audience. Social following, email list, press. You have the demand problem solved and Amazon’s main advantage is one you do not need.
- You need control. Bundles, custom pricing, how the product is presented. Amazon decides much of that for you.
Why most brands that get past a certain size run both
Once a brand is established, the two platforms stop competing and start covering each other’s weaknesses:
- Amazon is where people who do not know you find you. Discovery, reviews at scale, and the Prime shoppers who will not buy anywhere else.
- Shopify is where people who already know you come back. Higher margins, full customer data, and bundles and offers you control.
- Your paid social does double duty. Meta and TikTok ads build the brand awareness that lifts your branded search on Amazon, which is the cheapest traffic on the platform.
The single-channel risk
Amazon-only means a suspension, a policy change or a listing hijack can take your entire revenue to zero overnight, with no customer list to fall back on. Shopify-only means a rising cost of acquisition slowly compresses your margin with no organic discovery to offset it.
Both failure modes are common and both are avoidable the same way.
The short version
If you need demand, start on Amazon. If you need a brand and a customer relationship, you need Shopify. Most businesses eventually need both, and the mistake is not choosing wrong — it is choosing one and never revisiting it.
We do this every day, in real accounts.
Our shopify account management team will audit yours free and show you exactly where the opportunity is. No obligation, and you keep the findings either way.