Shopify vs Amazon: Which Is Better for Your Brand?

Shopify or Amazon is one of the first big choices a private-label brand makes, and one of the most expensive to get wrong. Amazon brings shoppers who are ready to buy but keeps the customer. Shopify gives you the customer and the margin but no traffic. This guide compares the two on fees, traffic, control and workload, and shows how most growing brands end up using both.

Is it better to sell on Shopify or Amazon?

Neither is better in general. Amazon is better for getting sales from existing search demand, and Shopify is better for building a brand you own. The right starting point depends on how your customers find products like yours.

Amazon is a marketplace. Millions of shoppers start their product searches there, and Amazon decides which listing they see. If people already type your product category into Amazon, a well-built listing with reviews and some advertising can start selling within weeks.

Shopify is software for running your own online store. It hosts your site, checkout and orders, but it sends you no shoppers. Every visit comes from your own work: paid social, Google ads, email, creators, SEO or word of mouth. In return you set the rules, keep the customer data and keep more of each sale.

How do Shopify and Amazon compare side by side?

The table below compares the two channels on the points that matter most to a private-label seller. Fees change often, so check the current rates on Amazon's and Shopify's own pricing pages before you plan.

What does it cost to sell on Amazon vs Shopify?

Amazon costs more per sale, and Shopify costs more per customer you have to go and find. That is the trade in one sentence.

On Amazon, a Professional seller account has a monthly subscription, and each sale pays a referral fee that depends on the category. Many categories sit at 15%. If Amazon stores and ships the product through FBA, you also pay a fulfillment fee per unit and monthly storage. Our guide to Amazon FBA fees walks through each one, and the free FBA calculator shows what is left per unit.

On Shopify, you pay a monthly plan and card processing on each order. There is no referral fee, so the gross margin per order is higher. But the store gets no free traffic, so the real cost is the ad spend or content it takes to bring each buyer in. For a new brand with no audience, that cost per order is often higher than Amazon's fees.

Here is a worked example. The numbers are illustrative, not quotes, so swap in your own.

In this example Amazon wins on the first order, because buying cold traffic on Meta costs more than Amazon's fees. Shopify catches up when customers come back: a repeat order on Shopify comes from your email list at almost no ad cost, while on Amazon you pay for visibility again. That is why lifetime value decides the Shopify case.

Where will you get more traffic, Amazon or Shopify?

Amazon, almost always, at least at the start. Amazon has the shoppers and the search box. A new Shopify store has zero visitors until you pay for them or earn them.

Traffic on Amazon is not free, though. Organic rank comes from relevance and sales history, so most new listings need Sponsored Products to get their first sales and reviews. Our Amazon SEO guide explains how ranking works and why early sales matter so much.

Shopify traffic comes from channels you control: Meta and TikTok ads, Google Shopping and search, email and SMS, creators and SEO. Those channels take longer to build, but they keep working for you and they are not tied to one marketplace's algorithm.

Who owns the customer on Amazon and on Shopify?

On Amazon, Amazon owns the customer. On Shopify, you do. This is the biggest strategic difference between the two.

Amazon shows you order details for fulfillment and tax, but its policies don't let you add buyers to a marketing list or contact them with promotions. You can't retarget them with your own pixel on Amazon pages either. If a customer buys from you three times on Amazon, you still have no direct way to tell them about your next product.

On Shopify, every order gives you an email address and, with consent, permission to market to that person. You can run post-purchase flows, subscriptions, bundles, loyalty programs and lookalike audiences. For consumable products such as supplements, coffee or skincare, that repeat-purchase engine is where most of the profit lives.

When should a brand start on Amazon first?

Start on Amazon first when people already search for your product, when you need cash flow soon, or when you don't have an audience or an ad budget for cold traffic yet.

• The category has search demand. If shoppers type your product type into Amazon every day, you can capture that demand with a good listing and ads.
• You need sales to fund growth. Amazon usually turns a launch into revenue faster than a new website.
• Trust is a hurdle. A new brand on its own site has to earn trust. On Amazon, Prime shipping and familiar returns do much of that work.
• You don't want to run a warehouse. FBA handles storage, shipping, returns and customer service for Prime orders.

If this is you, our private-label starter guide covers the first steps.

When should a brand build on Shopify first?

Build on Shopify first when your product needs a story to sell, when you already have an audience, or when the product is new enough that nobody searches for it yet.

• Nobody searches for it yet. A new kind of product has little Amazon search volume. Social ads and creators create demand that a Shopify store can capture.
• You have an audience. A creator, community or email list can launch a Shopify store profitably from day one.
• Subscriptions and bundles matter. Shopify makes custom bundles, subscriptions and quizzes easy. Amazon's options are narrower.
• Your margin can carry paid traffic. If gross margin is high and customers reorder, paying for Meta traffic to your own store can work well.

Can you sell on both Shopify and Amazon?

Yes, and most growing private-label brands do. The usual pattern is Amazon for search demand and Shopify for brand building, repeat customers and testing new products.

Selling on both works best when you keep three things consistent:

1. Price. Keep prices aligned. If your own site is much cheaper, Amazon may stop showing your offer in the Buy Box, because it checks for lower prices elsewhere.
2. Brand content. Use the same product names, images and claims. Enroll in Amazon Brand Registry so you control the listing and get A+ Content and a Brand Store.
3. Inventory. Plan stock across both channels so a Shopify promotion doesn't leave Amazon out of stock, which hurts rank.

Outside traffic can also help the Amazon side. If you run Meta ads, you can send some of that traffic to Amazon with Attribution tags and earn the Brand Referral Bonus (the Brand Referral Bonus calculator shows what it is worth). Our guide to Facebook ads for Amazon explains how.

How do you fulfill Shopify orders with Amazon inventory?

You can ship Shopify orders from the stock you already keep in Amazon's warehouses. Amazon offers two ways to do it.

• Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF). Your Shopify store sends the order to Amazon, and Amazon picks, packs and ships it from your FBA inventory. You pay a per-unit MCF fee. You can ask for unbranded packaging, so the box doesn't say Amazon.
• Buy with Prime. Shoppers on your Shopify site check out with their Amazon account and get Prime delivery. Amazon fulfills the order from your FBA stock. This adds Prime trust to your own site, but Amazon handles part of the checkout.

If you want help running both channels together, see our Shopify store services and Amazon account management.

Both options let one pool of inventory serve both channels, which cuts the cost of running a second warehouse. Check how your Shopify order volume affects your FBA storage limits before you rely on it.

What mistakes do sellers make when choosing between them?

• Building a Shopify store and waiting for visitors. A store with no traffic plan gets no sales. Budget for ads or content before launch.
• Treating Amazon as free traffic. Most listings need ads and reviews before organic sales arrive.
• Undercutting Amazon on your own site. A much lower Shopify price can cost you the Buy Box.
• Judging Shopify on the first order only. The case for your own store is repeat purchases. Measure it on 90-day or 12-month customer value.
• Putting the whole business on one channel. One suspension or one ad account ban can stop all revenue. Two channels spread the risk.

Frequently asked questions