Amazon and Flipkart Are Not the Enemy, But They Are Not the Whole Plan Either
Selling on Amazon and Flipkart gets an Indian business in front of buyers fast, but it comes at the cost of commission on every order, no direct access to customer data, and zero control over how the brand looks next to a hundred competitors on the same page. A website you own removes those three costs but requires you to bring your own traffic. Most sellers who grow past their first lakh in monthly revenue eventually run both, not one or the other.
This is the question that comes up constantly from small manufacturers, D2C brands and resellers across India: should they stay fully on marketplaces, build their own website, or do both. The honest answer depends on what stage the business is at, but the tradeoffs are worth understanding clearly before deciding.
What Amazon and Flipkart Actually Cost a Seller
The headline commission number is only part of the real cost. As of November 2026, both Amazon India and Flipkart have been actively restructuring their fee cards, with lower or zero referral fees on items priced under roughly Rs 1,000 in many categories, but higher percentage commissions on items above that band depending on category. Exact rates vary significantly by product category and have changed more than once in 2026, so the only reliable number for your specific product is the one on your own seller dashboard, not a blog post. Check Amazon's rate card at sell.amazon.in and Flipkart's at seller.flipkart.com before pricing anything.
Beyond the listed commission, sellers typically also pay:
- A fixed closing fee per order, on top of the percentage commission
- Shipping and fulfilment fees if using the marketplace's logistics network
- A collection fee on the payment processed
- GST at 18 percent charged on most of these fees themselves
- Penalties for late dispatch, returns above a threshold, or poor seller ratings
Add these together and many sellers find 15 to 30 percent of the order value is gone before they count the cost of the product itself. That is a real, recurring cost of acquiring every single customer through the marketplace, every time, with no way to reduce it as the relationship with that customer grows.
What You Lose Beyond the Commission
The fee is the visible cost. The bigger long-term cost is what a seller does not get on a marketplace.
- No customer contact details. Amazon and Flipkart do not hand sellers the buyer's phone number or email in a form usable for remarketing. Every repeat sale still pays the same commission as the first sale, because there is no owned list to message directly.
- No control over the page. Competitors are listed right next to your product, often undercutting on price for a near-identical item, and the marketplace's algorithm, not the seller, decides who gets the "buy box" or top placement.
- No brand story. A product listing has limited space for photos, no room for a real About page, founder story, certifications or the kind of trust-building content that turns a one-time buyer into a repeat customer.
- Account risk. Suspension for a policy violation, a spike in returns, or even an automated error can shut off 100 percent of marketplace revenue overnight, with limited recourse while the appeal is reviewed.
None of this means marketplaces are a bad channel. It means they are a rented shelf, not owned property.
What a Website Gives an Indian Seller Instead
A website the business owns reverses each of those points. There is no per-order commission beyond standard payment gateway charges, which are typically a flat 1.8 to 2.5 percent depending on the provider, far below marketplace commission on most categories. Every customer who buys becomes a contact the business can message again by email or WhatsApp at no extra cost per message. The page is entirely the seller's design, with product photography, reviews, a founder story and policies laid out the way the brand wants, not constrained by a marketplace template.
A website also gives the seller a channel that works for both India-based and NRI or export customers, a direct way to accept UPI payments alongside cards and wallets, and a permanent address to point to from Instagram, WhatsApp Business catalogs and Google search results.
The tradeoff is traffic. A new website gets zero built-in footfall. Every visitor has to be earned through search, social media, paid ads or word of mouth, which takes longer to build than simply listing a product where buyers already search.
Marketplace vs Your Own Website: A Side-by-Side View
| Factor | Amazon or Flipkart | Your Own Website |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in traffic | High from day one | Zero at launch, grows over time |
| Per-order cost | Roughly 15 to 30 percent all-in | Payment gateway fee only, around 2 percent |
| Customer data | Not shared with seller | Fully owned (email, phone, order history) |
| Brand control | Limited to listing template | Full control over design and story |
| Repeat customer cost | Same commission every order | Near zero after the first sale |
| Price visibility | Competitors shown alongside you | No direct competitor comparison on page |
| Account risk | Can be suspended by the platform | Fully controlled by the business |
The Hybrid Approach Most Growing Sellers Actually Use
In practice, few profitable Indian sellers pick one side permanently. The common pattern looks like this:
- Use marketplaces for discovery. New and lesser-known brands lean on Amazon and Flipkart's existing traffic to get the first few hundred sales and reviews, which would be expensive to generate from scratch on a brand-new website.
- Build the website in parallel, not after. Waiting until marketplace sales slow down to start a website means starting a year behind. Set it up early, even with a smaller catalog, so it has time to build search rankings and an email or WhatsApp list.
- Move repeat customers to the owned channel. Include a card, QR code or a line in the packaging pointing repeat buyers to the website for faster reorders, loyalty offers or products not listed on the marketplace.
- Price slightly better or bundle differently on the website. Since there is no marketplace commission to cover, a seller can offer a small discount, free shipping threshold or an exclusive bundle only available directly, which also helps SEO and word of mouth.
- Keep GST, Udyam and invoicing consistent across both. The same Udyam registration and GST details should appear on both the marketplace account and the website footer, since the same compliance checks apply to both channels of the same business.
Getting Started Without Overbuilding
A common mistake is treating the own-website project as a six-month build. It does not need to be. A basic catalog, UPI and card checkout, and clear policy pages can go live in days using an AI website builder suited to small Indian shops, with the catalog expanded over time as photography and descriptions are ready. For sellers specifically weighing a marketplace-style storefront that still gives more control than Amazon or Flipkart, it is worth comparing Dukaan, an India-focused option built around quick catalog setup and UPI checkout, against a fuller website build.
Selling without GST registration is possible up to the applicable turnover threshold, and sellers in that position can read the dedicated guide to selling online without GST before assuming marketplace-only rules apply the same way to a direct website.
The Bottom Line
Amazon and Flipkart are efficient at putting a product in front of buyers who are already searching, and they remain the fastest way for a new Indian seller to get initial traction. They are not designed to hand the seller long-term ownership of the customer relationship, the margin, or the brand. A website closes exactly that gap. The sellers who do best over a few years are rarely the ones who abandon marketplaces entirely; they are the ones who used marketplace traffic to fund and feed a website that, order by order, got more valuable to own.