It’s 2023 now. Should I start with Amazon or stand on my own website?

The number of online shoppers is rising every year, which means there will be more opportunities for cross-border sellers in the future. Before launching an online business, some new sellers may need to choose an e-commerce platform.

There are many feature-rich platforms on the market today , but today we will focus on two of the most discussed platforms among sellers – Shopify and Amazon .

For beginners, Shopify is a user - friendly platform, and new sellers can start selling goods quickly . On the other hand , Amazon is an online platform with hundreds of millions of consumers . Although both platforms are good, they also have their own advantages and disadvantages .

Shopify is an e-commerce platform based on a subscription model that allows sellers to build their own brands and online stores. Users can use the templates provided by the platform to build their own websites . In addition, sellers can also use marketing, store management, data analysis and third-party plug-ins on the platform .

Unlike Shopify , Amazon is an online shopping platform with more than 197 million consumers , and sellers must compete with other merchants on the same platform . However, sellers can use Amazon FBA to store and ship their own products .

The two platforms also differ in terms of cost. Shopify's basic version costs only $29.9 per month , and you can customize your own online store. In addition, there is a higher-end version that costs more and of course has more features.

Amazon has two options for opening a store - Personal Edition and Professional Edition. The Personal Edition requires sellers to pay a $0.99 service fee for each item sold , while the Professional Edition costs $39.99 per month.

In addition, Amazon sellers cannot change the design of their stores, and in order to attract customers, they need to rely on Amazon's paid advertising, but competition within the platform is very fierce.

While Shopify users can design and customize an online store, they must build their brand from scratch.

On the other hand, although Shopify sellers do not need to compete directly with similar products, they still need to attract customers to their websites from various channels. On the positive side, Shopify has a lot of marketing and SEO features, and sellers can also integrate their stores into social media platforms.

In terms of logistics, sellers who don’t want to manage inventory and delivery can use Amazon’s FBA. Although Shopify also has its own logistics network, it is not as easy to use as Amazon’s FBA.

In general, Shopify is more suitable for sellers who sell exclusive products or build brands. Amazon has a lower entry threshold, and you only need to create an account to start selling products. How to choose requires sellers to make decisions based on their long-term goals.

Amazon

Shopify