"Should I sell on Amazon or focus on my own store?" is one of the most common questions in ecommerce. The honest answer is that it is not a war between marketplaces and direct channels — it is knowing when each one weighs more for your business.
And there is one thing almost nobody says out loud: the foundation that makes any of them work better is the same — an optimized product catalog. Let's break it down.
When do marketplaces (Amazon) make sense?
You want fast volume and reach
Amazon and other marketplaces already have millions of buyers. If you need sales and visibility from day one, you tap into traffic that would take you months to build.
Established-demand products
If you sell products people already search by name (known brands, spare parts, consumables), the marketplace puts you in front of that existing demand.
You have no brand or traffic yet
When your site does not rank or have an audience yet, the marketplace is the fastest way to start billing while you build everything else.
You want to validate products and prices
It is a fast lab: test which products work and at what price, with real sales data, before investing in your own channel.
The trade-off: high commissions, price competition, and — most importantly — the customer is not yours.
When should you boost direct channels (Google Shopping / your store)?
You want to protect your margin
On your own store you do not pay the marketplace fee (which can take 8-20% per sale). Google Shopping and your website leave you far more margin per order.
You want to build brand and customer
On the direct channel the customer is yours: you have their data, you can do email, remarketing and loyalty. On the marketplace, the customer belongs to the marketplace.
Differentiated or branded product
If your value is based on brand, story or differentiation, the direct channel tells that story far better than a standard marketplace listing.
You want recurrence and LTV
Repeat purchase, subscription and customer lifetime value are much easier to build when you control the relationship on your own channel.
The trade-off: you have to bring the traffic yourself (SEO/Ads), which takes more work — but it compounds.
The real answer: almost always, both
For most stores the winning strategy is multichannel: use marketplaces for reach and validation, and direct channels for margin, brand and customer relationship. The mistake is treating them as separate silos — because they share the same engine.
The catalog: the lever that improves EVERY channel
Whatever mix you choose, your product data feeds all of them. Improve it once, and every channel improves at the same time:
Amazon rewards complete listings
Clear titles, complete attributes and correct images improve your position in Amazon search and your conversion rate.
Google Shopping needs a clean feed
An error-free feed means fewer Merchant Center rejections, better CTR and lower CPC on Shopping.
Meta and comparators use the same data
Facebook/Instagram Shopping and price comparators feed on the same catalog: data quality = better performance everywhere.
Your own store wins at SEO and GEO
A well-structured catalog ranks better on Google and gets cited by AI (ChatGPT, Perplexity). Same work, every channel.
Girofeeds keeps your catalog optimized for every channel
- Optimizes titles, attributes and images with AI — usable on Amazon, Shopping and Meta.
- Generates clean feeds for Google Shopping and reduces Merchant Center errors.
- Completes missing GTINs, categories and attributes across the whole catalog.
- Keeps one optimized product base that every channel and marketplace draws from.
Learn more about catalog optimization and how a good catalog also boosts your SEO and GEO.
Conclusion
Marketplaces or direct channels is not an either/or decision — it is a matter of stage and goals. But both feed on the same source, and that is where the real leverage is.
Invest in an optimized catalog and you will not improve one channel — you will improve your whole store.