Growing your business through online platforms is not just about opening a store on a marketplace. The growth of e-commerce increasingly relies on the frequency of orders rather than their unit value, shifting the focus of profitability towards controlling acquisition, delivery, and return costs.
Costs and Dependence: What Online Platforms Really Take
Marketplaces concentrate a growing share of e-commerce traffic. For a seller, they offer immediate visibility and a customer volume that is hard to achieve alone. However, this ease of access comes at a structural cost that goes beyond the simple commission on each sale.
| Cost Item | Own Store (Shopify, WooCommerce) | Marketplace (Amazon, Etsy, etc.) |
|---|---|---|
| Commission per Sale | Payment fees only (a few percent) | Platform commission + payment fees (a significant part of the selling price) |
| Customer Acquisition Cost | Advertising, SEO, social media (direct investment) | Integrated into the platform, but dependent on the algorithm |
| Ownership of Customer Data | Total (email, history, behavior) | Very limited, if not nonexistent |
| Risk of Suspension | Low (you control hosting) | Unilateral, sometimes without quick recourse |
| Regulatory Compliance Cost | Fully your responsibility | Shared, but the platform imposes its own rules in addition |
This table highlights a rarely quantified trade-off by launch guides: customer data is the main asset that a marketplace does not share. Without access to the email or purchasing behavior of your buyers, you cannot build an autonomous loyalty strategy.
Some entrepreneurs choose to treat business on Bla Bla Bla as a complementary channel to their own store, specifically to diversify their traffic sources without relying on a single intermediary.
Digital Services Act and Regulatory Obligations for Online Sellers
The European regulatory framework has changed with the Digital Services Act (DSA). This regulation imposes requirements on marketplaces that directly affect sellers: enhanced identification, transparency of listing conditions, and regulated suspension procedures.
For an entrepreneur, this means that how their products appear in the results of a platform now depends on criteria partially dictated by law, and no longer solely by the commercial algorithm. A seller can be suspended or delisted if their identification information is incomplete or if their business practices do not comply with the new transparency obligations.
Electronic invoicing is another area of preparation. French companies must anticipate its gradual deployment, which involves adapting their management and invoicing tools, including those connected to marketplaces.
- Check that your seller profile includes all legal mentions required by the DSA (identity, contact details, registration number)
- Audit the compliance of your product listings regarding pricing transparency and sales conditions
- Prepare for the transition to electronic invoicing by testing the compatibility of your management tool with the required formats
- Document your exchanges with the platform to have proof in case of a dispute over a suspension
A seller compliant with the DSA reduces their risk of sudden delisting. Those who neglect these obligations expose themselves to business interruptions without notice.
Multichannel Strategy: Social Media, Own Store, and Marketplace
The central question for developing an online business is not choosing between a marketplace and an own store. It is determining what role each channel plays in overall profitability.
Social media (Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest) primarily serve as audience leverage and content creation. They generate awareness, but the direct conversion rate from an organic post remains low compared to a product listing on a marketplace. Their value lies in building a community that then feeds into other channels.
In contrast, an own store offers total control over the customer experience, margins, and data. The acquisition cost is higher initially, but the long-term value of a customer retained via email exceeds that of an anonymous buyer on a marketplace.
Distributing Efforts According to Business Maturity
An entrepreneur launching their activity should use marketplaces as an initial sales accelerator: the traffic is already there, and buyer trust is supported by the platform. Once a regular volume is reached, the priority shifts to the own store to reclaim margin and customer data.
Online platforms are a springboard, not a destination. Sellers who remain exclusively on them suffer every change in commission or algorithm without negotiation leverage.
Margins and Profitability: Where the Difference Lies Between Online Sellers
The growth of e-commerce masks a reality: progress relies on purchase frequency, not on average basket size. For a seller, this means that each order must be individually profitable, including delivery and return costs.
Product returns represent a frequently underestimated cost item. In certain categories (fashion, accessories), they can absorb a substantial part of the gross margin. Sellers who anticipate this cost in their selling price or return policy preserve their profitability.
Three levers distinguish profitable sellers from others:
- The selection of products with a low return rate, which protects net margin without increasing the displayed price
- The automation of repetitive tasks (inventory management, follow-ups, shipping) via tools connected to the platforms
- The construction of an active email list, the only channel whose sending cost remains stable regardless of volume
Developing an online business is less about choosing a platform than about the ability to structure costs item by item. Sellers who measure their acquisition cost by channel, their net margin after returns, and their repurchase rate have an operational advantage that mere presence on a marketplace does not provide.
