Own webshop or marketplace like bol.com? How to choose

What is a marketplace?

A marketplace is a large online platform where many sellers offer their products. In the Netherlands, bol.com is the best known. You become a partner, list your products and the platform handles the shop, the payment and often the customer service environment. Some marketplaces can also handle storage and shipping for you.

Your own webshop is a shop on your own domain name. You decide the design, the prices, the terms and what you do with customer data, within the rules of the GDPR (AVG in Dutch). You're also responsible for the technology, the payments and being found, or you outsource that to a company that handles it for you.

Pros of selling on bol.com and other marketplaces

• Instant reach: people are already searching there for products. You don't need to pull visitors to a new site.
• Trust: customers know the platform and how paying and returns work.
• Quick start: you don't need your own webshop to begin.
• Outsourced logistics: on some platforms you can have storage and shipping handled for you.
• Good for testing: you quickly see whether there's demand for a product.

Cons of a marketplace

• Cost per sale: you pay a commission and often fixed fees. This is an indication that varies by category, so check the current rates with the platform.
• Price pressure: your product sits next to your competitors'. The lowest price often wins.
• Little customer relationship of your own: the customer buys 'from bol', not from you. You usually can't just contact them yourself.
• Dependence: if the platform changes its rules, fees or your visibility, you have little say.
• Little room for your brand: your page looks like all the others.

Own webshop: pros and cons

Your own webshop almost flips the pros and cons around.

Pros:

• Higher margin: no commission per sale, just your own costs.
• Your own customer relationship: with permission you can email customers, make offers and bring them back.
• Your own brand and story, without competitors on the same page.
• Freedom in what you offer: bundles, custom work, subscriptions or in-store pickup.
• Data: you see for yourself what visitors do and where they drop off.

Cons:

• You have to attract visitors yourself, through SEO, ads, social media or email. That takes time and budget.
• Start-up costs for building the shop.
• You're responsible for payments, terms, privacy, accessibility and maintenance.
• Building trust takes time, especially if your brand is still unknown.

Own webshop or marketplace: how do you choose?

Ask yourself these questions:

• Do you sell a product people already search for on a marketplace, or something unique they need to discover through you?
• How big is your margin? With a small margin, a platform's commission can eat your profit.
• How important are repeat purchases? For products customers buy often, owning the customer relationship is worth a lot.
• Do you have budget and time for marketing?
• Do you want to build a brand, or mainly sell stock?

A rule of thumb: if you sell standard products that many others also stock, a marketplace is often a good place to build volume. If you sell something of your own, with a story, service or custom work, your own webshop is more likely to pay for itself.

Do a simple sum too. Take an average order and subtract your purchase cost, shipping, packaging, returns and the platform's commission. Do the same for your own shop, but with payment costs and an estimate of what it costs to win a customer through ads. The difference often quickly shows which channel really makes a profit, not just revenue. For help estimating your marketing costs, see our article on setting your online marketing budget.

The best of both: a combination

Many businesses use a marketplace as an extra sales channel and their own webshop as home base. Customers who discover you through a platform can later order directly from you, for example for accessories, parts or service you only offer in your own shop. Do check the platform's rules on contacting customers.

A practical order that works for many small businesses: start on a marketplace to test which products sell, build your own webshop with your best products and a strong story in the meantime, and gradually shift more attention to your own channel. For example, send a newsletter to customers who signed up for it themselves, and offer something in your own shop that isn't available on the platform.

If you sell through several channels, it's important that stock, prices and orders are properly linked. Otherwise you sell the same product twice. You solve that with an integration between your webshop, the marketplace and your stock management. Read more in getting an API integration built.

Common mistakes when choosing

• Looking only at revenue and not at what's left after commission, shipping and returns.
• Building your own webshop and then having no budget to attract visitors.
• Putting everything on one platform, so a change in the rules hits your entire revenue.
• Not linking stock when selling through several channels.

Help with your own webshop

At Violexa we build our clients' own webshops and ordering platforms, plus integrations with the systems you already use. Read more about getting a webshop built or see our websites and apps service. A custom website or web application starts from €1,799 excl. VAT (€2,177 incl. VAT); larger projects get a fixed price up front, in writing.

Not sure which channel will earn you the most? Book a free quickscan. It's a 30-minute conversation, online or on site. Afterwards you get short written advice with a price indication, with no obligation.

Frequently asked questions