What's the difference between a marketplace and an e-commerce site? How do you select between the two as a retailer? Is it even necessary to make a decision?
Here are some things you might want to consider when setting up your online sales channel, as well as how each choice is strategically positioned to help you expand.
Although they are both used for online businesses, they have some major differences.
Before we go about the main difference between the two, let's review the definition of each.
Ecommerce
Ecommerce is the act of purchasing or selling goods or services through the internet using electronic data or money. This definition has evolved to include more specific instances of buying and selling via online platforms like Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce. These pre-built platforms make it simple for businesses to get their online stores up and operating.
Marketplace
An e-commerce site that connects merchants and customers is known as an online marketplace. It's also known as an electronic marketplace, and the website owner is in charge of all transactions. Companies utilize internet marketplaces to connect with clients interested in buying their goods and services. Amazon, eBay, and Craigslist are examples of online marketplaces.
Benefits of Ecommerce platforms.
Ecommerce websites provide considerable control of the website's functionality, navigation, and design.
This means you are managing your website from updating your logo to elements tweaking.
Ecommerce websites often allow for customer data collection.
This allows you to save more information on customers for future marketing.
Individuals can sign up for a mailing list and can follow you on social media.
Ecommerce websites allow you to build brand recognition.
When customers put in your URL, they will be directed to your website, where they will be able to associate your products and services with that URL. Based on your company values, you can develop the shopper experience you want.
You can pretty much sell almost anything. If a consumer doesn't like something you sell, you can deal with it on your terms without the risk of being suspended or banned by the platform.
Benefits of a marketplace.
It's easy to startup.
Online marketplaces are made to be simple to navigate.
You can create a storefront in minutes and then make use of payment processing, advertising, and even distribution and shipping channels in a fraction of the time it would take to find and register for these services on your own.
There is little need for technical expertise or marketing resources.
You won't need much technical knowledge to start selling on marketplaces, unlike maintaining your website. You'll have what it takes to sell products or services and put up your accounts receivable information if you're conversant with social media networks.
No web server maintenance.
Marketplaces are the best-protected against hacks or outages in terms of reliability, so you can rest confident that your store will be open when your customers need to shop.
You won't have to worry about maintaining your server or updating your plug-ins on a website. All of this takes place behind the scenes, which is one of marketplace's advantages.
What each option costs in 2026, and how to choose
The benefits above have a price. On a marketplace you pay per sale, while on your own store you pay a fixed monthly fee and then have to find your own customers. Here is what the main options charge, taken from their own pricing pages in October 2026:
| Channel | Fixed cost | Cost per sale |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon (marketplace) | Professional plan $39.99/month, or $0.99 per item sold on the Individual plan | Referral fee of 5% to 45% depending on category, with most categories at 8% to 15% (Amazon) |
| eBay (marketplace) | 250 free listings a month, then $0.35 per listing | 13.6% of the sale up to $7,500 in most categories, plus $0.30 per order (orders of $10 or less) or $0.40 (eBay) |
| Shopify (your own store) | Basic plan CA$49/month billed monthly, as shown on the Canadian version of the pricing page; prices vary by country | Card processing of 2.8% + 30¢ CAD on Basic, plus an extra 2% if you use a third-party payment provider (Shopify) |
On a $50 sale, a 15% referral fee costs $7.50 every time. Your own store has no commission, but you must bring in every visitor yourself, through ads, SEO and email.
Marketplaces keep growing
Marketplace data from Marketplace Pulse shows how much of online retail now runs through other people's stores. Third-party sellers accounted for about 60% of Amazon's units in Q1 2026, and Amazon earned $172.17 billion from third-party seller services in 2025, 10% more than in 2024. That figure includes commissions, fulfilment and shipping fees. For sellers, this means marketplaces bring buyers, but they also take a growing share of each sale.
How to choose
- Sell on a marketplace if you are testing a product, have no audience yet, or sell commodity items people already search for on Amazon or eBay.
- Build your own store if your margins can't absorb a 10-15% commission, you have repeat customers, or your brand and customer data matter more than reach.
- Do both, as many sellers do: use marketplaces to find customers and your own store to keep them.
- Start your own marketplace if you know a niche well (local services, equipment, vehicles, rentals). There you are the platform, and you earn listing fees, featured placements or commissions instead of paying them. Platforms such as Yclas let you launch one without building the software yourself.
Want to have a discussion about starting a marketplace? Contact us for more information.
