My friends starting in eCommerce often wonder whether they should start on a marketplace like Amazon or they should open their own independent store on Shopify or other such platform. This is not an easy question to answer though but I'll try.
Main reason I often hear why Amazon is better than an independent store is that you don't have to worry about your own traffic because millions of buyers are already visiting Amazon website every day. That traffic to anyone's store is guaranteed is not true - buyers on Amazon search for products in very similar way they search for things on Google, which means that if you don't have good Amazon SEO your products will not show to visitors. Amazon SEO is something that every store owner is responsible for themselves. In same way there is an Amazon PPC (Pay-Per-Click), equivalent to Google AdWords, which helps with showing up higher in search results but is not free.
Now for the bad parts of Amazon. Selling fees are high - between 8 and 15% of revenue. Product reviews are hard to get since Amazon is cracking down on any sponsored reviews. They have their own program for professional sellers called Vine but it is not free. Competition is brutal - when your product shows up many other sellers with same or similar products show up as well. You are not the store, Amazon is. You just supply products. Branding is practically impossible. All products pages look more or less the same for everyone. You don't have a blog. You pay for everything and if you don't play by the rules you will be suspended. On the other hand Shopify is built for branding. Pretty much everything can be changed to your colors and style. Sales fees are low. There is no reviews policy forced on you by Shopify. You are the store and no one even has to know that you are on Shopify. You still has to drive your own traffic but methods are same as on Amazon. You get your blog.
Now lets flip the table and talk about Amazon good parts. It is easy to start on Amazon. Open an account, upload some products and voila you are in business. Amazon has an FBA program that can do all fulfillment of orders for you including storing your inventory, packaging, shipping, and returns. It cost something but if you don't have time to deal with packaging and shipping it is a godsend. Prime program, owned by 100 million Americans, which includes 2-day free shipping for your FBA products is among the benefits of FBA program. If you sell on Amazon, people almost automatically trust your store just because it is on Amazon - until you get some bad reviews, so don't get those. On Shopify, you have to establish your own trust. Being on Shopify does not help to the same extent regarding trust. Shopify does not have any similar program to FBA so your are responsible for your own fulfillment or find another third party provider. Shipping is also on you. So to start without some help it may be a bit more difficult starting on Shopify because no one tells you all the elements of eCommerce that you need.
Many large or branded sellers today however have both - the Amazon account and their own store. Why make a decision when both have their pluses and minuses. Shopify store even comes with store management features where you can easily open account, export products, and manage fulfillment on both Shopify and Amazon in the same place. In summary, I think that Amazon and Shopify are both excellent platforms but they serve slightly different use cases. Shopify, which allows for high level of visual customization is an excellent choice when branding is very important. Amazon, on the other hand, is a self contained environment, and may be in some easier to setup for the new shop owner.
