If you want to start selling things online, you’re undoubtedly wondering which e-commerce platform would be best for your company. With so many options available, making this decision is difficult.
Shopify and Amazon are both fantastic e-commerce platforms; however, they differ fundamentally and serve distinct sorts of e-commerce tools and businesses.
Shopify supports direct-to-consumer marketing and establishing one-of-a-kind stores that can sell across numerous platforms. On the other hand, Amazon is a massive online marketplace with a large number of competitors and visitors, of which you are one.
By simplifying your brand’s marketing and promotion on its platform, Amazon lets you take a more hands-off approach in exchange for a charge.
In contrast, Shopify enables you to maximize conversions by optimizing each stage of the buyer’s experience. But you are in charge of driving traffic by yourself.
In this guide, we’ll compare Shopify vs Amazon based on their ease of use, pricing, customizability, and other factors. So let’s get started.
Shopify vs Amazon: The Fundamental Differences
When comparing Shopify vs Amazon, it’s crucial to consider the key differences and features of each platform. Shopify is a specialized e-commerce platform, whereas Amazon is an online marketplace. Shopify gives you the tools to start your own online business, while Amazon lets you sell through its marketplace alongside other online retailers worldwide.
Thus, start selling on Amazon is similar to having a stall in a well-known street market. Thousands of people flood the area to explore and shop; the bulk of them aren’t really looking for your firm, yet you still make a lot of sales because everyone passing by notices your stand.
Selling via Shopify is similar to leasing space for your company to run. Having your own location means that customers actively look for your business once they are aware of your brand. There is a greater opportunity to create a unique brand image, even though building a devoted consumer base requires more work.
These variants enable Shopify and Amazon to service a diverse range of online sellers. Amazon allows small and medium-sized businesses as well as individual sellers to sell your product on Amazon. Meanwhile, Shopify can help small businesses as well as much larger enterprises with millions in revenue.
So, which is better for selling on: Amazon or Shopify? Continue reading to discover.
Shopify Vs Amazon: At a Glance
| Feature | Shopify | Amazon |
| Platform Type | Website builder and host | Third-party marketplace |
| Pricing | $39 to $399 per month | Individual plans cost 99 cents per item, while professional plans cost $39.99 a month. |
| Templates and Design | Complete with a free and professional variety of industry templates and an online web builder. | No control over the design of the Amazon store. |
| Marketing Options | Social media integration, gift cards, discount codes, Google Ads credits. | Amazon paid ads and competitive pricing. |
| Transaction Fee | All programs get 0% off if you use Shopify Payments. Transaction fees are 2% for Shopify Lite and Basic Shopify, 1% for Shopify, and 0.5% for Advanced Shopify when utilizing an external payment gateway. | Depending on the product type, all sellers must pay a referral fee. |
| Mobile-Friendly | Yes | Yes |
| Customer Support | 24/7 live chat, email, and phone support are available with Shopify Lite and all additional options. | Contact the Amazon Seller Support team via the Seller Central account. |
Amazon vs. Shopify: Pros and Cons
When you ask yourself, “Which is better, Shopify or Amazon?” It is crucial to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each site in order to identify the best fit for your organization.
Shopify Pros
Easy-to-use eCommerce Platform
Building a Shopify ecommerce website doesn’t require any coding knowledge. It includes an admin interface that is straightforward to use. Furthermore, a wealth of material is accessible to help you with the setup procedure.
Extremely Customizable
To create a polished store, you can select from Shopify’s 80+ themes or third-party templates. After that, you can alter the layout of your website using their drag-and-drop design editor.
Provides Advanced E-commerce Features
You may access over 7000 apps through Shopify that aren’t accessible to Amazon retailers. For instance, Shopify has an app called “Point of Sale” that manages sales, payments, and refunds, among other things, to integrate your online and physical stores. Additionally, Shopify offers e-commerce features like discounts, coupons, and abandoned cart recovery.
Easy to Develop a Unique Brand Identity
Because Shopify lets you build complete control over your product presentation and branding, you can develop a distinctive brand identity.
Various Methods of Payment
When it comes to payment gateways, Shopify is your best bet to Amazon. More than 100 payment methods, including PayPal, Apple Pay, Stripe, and Amazon Pay, are available on Shopify. Additionally, Shopify offers an internal payment channel with no transaction costs.
Fewer Restrictions
There are no restrictions on what you can sell on Shopify, with the exception of firearms and other illicit or dangerous goods.
Extremely Scalable
Shopify is made to work with all kinds of online stores. It hosts world-famous brands such as Heinz and Kylie Cosmetics.
Shopify Cons
Marketing Costs
With Shopify, you’re totally responsible for developing brand awareness and driving traffic to your website. You’ll need to learn how to utilize Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and social media to advertise your products and build a customer base.
Expensive to Start
Since the cheapest Shopify price plan starts at $29 per month, it is more expensive to start selling on Shopify than on Amazon. Your initial setup fees are further increased when you install third-party apps to enhance your e-commerce capability.
Amazon Pros
High Traffic
Investing in marketing is necessary to launch an online store from the ground up and increase visitors. Amazon provides your products with immediate exposure because it draws millions of customers each month. It is significantly simpler to begin selling on Amazon because of its large traffic and excellent conversion rates.
Easy Setup
Amazon’s user interface is straightforward and simple to use. To begin selling on Amazon, all you have to do is enter your account information and submit product photos and descriptions.
Amazon FBA
Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), a special program offered by Amazon, manages the low-cost storage, packing, and shipping of your products. Running your business is made easier with Amazon FBA.
Buyers with Confidence
Customers are reluctant to buy from unfamiliar retailers since online shopping can be unpredictable. Due to its widespread recognition, Amazon’s reputation and brand authority are advantageous to you.
Minimal Financial Risk
Compared to Shopify, starting a business on Amazon is far less expensive. It costs nothing to begin selling on Amazon.
Amazon Cons
Extremely Competitive
Over 2 million of the more than 10 million Amazon sellers are based in the United States. The platform is rife with piracy, and competition is intense. Amazon makes it very hard to stand apart.
Limited Payment Options
PayPal and Stripe are examples of third-party payment gateways that Amazon does not support. Only credit and debit cards are accepted through their own channel, Amazon Pay.
Restricted Access to Your Clients
Since Amazon controls all of your client data, you are unable to use direct mail, SMS, or email marketing. Consequently, it is quite challenging to create repeat business.
Product Restrictions
There are numerous limitations on what you may and cannot sell on Amazon. Additionally, they limit particular categories like jewelry, watches, and sports collectibles. For approval, you will have to get in touch with Amazon directly.
Shopify vs. Amazon: An In-depth Comparison
As you can see, each platform has advantages and disadvantages. Let’s investigate more to determine which would be most appropriate for your online business.
Audience
While both e-commerce giants enable you to sell things online, they are very different animals. Amazon is an online marketplace, and Shopify is an e-commerce platform. The main distinction is the audience you are able to reach.
Shopify does not provide users access to an existing customer base. Although it’s a great platform for starting an online store, you will need to work to get visitors. This entails spending money on marketing techniques that will help you draw in and keep clients. Fortunately, Shopify provides a wealth of sales tools to support you.
The biggest benefit of selling on Amazon is having fast access to millions of active customers, which can give your products immediate visibility. However, keep in mind that you will have to fight for visibility in the marketplace against innumerable other dealers. Additionally, Amazon itself will be your rival. To get your listings to show up at the top of the search engine results page, you will need to spend money on paid advertisements.
However, it’s a big positive that you don’t have to start from scratch while growing your following.
Ease Of Use
Both Shopify and Amazon are designed to be rather easy for newbies to e-commerce to get started with. When you create an account, both platforms provide an onboarding setup process that walks you through the essential steps needed to start selling. To help you even more, a range of online resources and video tutorials are available. While not very steep, the learning curves for the two platforms are considerably different. Amazon has a database called “Amazon Seller Central,” which you need to get proficient in using as quickly as feasible. Making sure that the specifications for product names, descriptions, and catalogue numbers are fulfilled is the biggest challenge faced by new Amazon merchants. A lot of paperwork and information may need to be filled out when creating product listings on Amazon. Furthermore, obtaining an Amazon seller account comes with a number of requirements.
In contrast, Shopify allows you to create a completely new website. Since you can choose how much or how little information to include about products when you create them, adding them to your store is simpler. Additionally, you only need an email address and some basic contact details to begin using Shopify, at least initially. When the platform launches a free trial, these are easily entered. Even though Shopify was designed to make this as easy as possible, if you’re new to web design, you still have a lot to learn. Of course, if you need +expert custom Shopify theme development builds, there are Shopify Agencies available.
Branding/UX
The lack of customization on Amazon limits a merchant’s ability to showcase the uniqueness of their business. Although you can make some changes to make your brand stand out (such as adding your company logo), your storefront layout will look quite “Amazony” and you won’t be able to create many unique buying experiences using the platform.
This is beneficial in many respects since Amazon shoppers expect a specific experience, and deviating from this would likely result in lower sales. Shopify gives you a lot more control over your brand and consumer experience through customization when compared to Amazon. Numerous themes and templates are available, and you can modify them to match your identity. Furthermore, if you have the requisite technical skills, you may alter your store’s HTML and CSS code to further customize its appearance and the user experience you provide, or you can start from scratch to create a completely original experience.
This is not the case for Amazon’s designs. Amazon has obviously influenced the general appearance and feel of your store page, even if you are free to upload your own images and descriptions. For example, your competitors’ products are displayed on the homepage alongside those with the Amazon brand. Even if this is ideal for the customer, the intense rivalry may make it more challenging to drive traffic to your own pages.
In contrast to Amazon, Shopify offers a highly customized shopping experience tailored to a particular consumer persona, market, or region. This is made possible by its multi-currency and multilingual features, which allow you to further customize the user experience region by region.
Marketing Capabilities
Shopify and Amazon both have great marketing tools, but they are very different. Shopify has strong SEO and marketing features, including meta tags, alt text on images, auto XML sitemaps, a blog with multiple authors, and tagging. It also integrates with Google and Facebook for ads and has email marketing through Shopify Email with 2,500 free emails. The app store also adds to its marketing capabilities, making it perfect for building a personal brand and store-level content for Google SEO.
Amazon focuses on its marketplace, where sellers optimize product pages for Amazon SEO, not Google. Amazon’s strengths are in its Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) program, which gives customers confidence through reliable shipping, including Amazon Prime. Amazon also has marketing options like Amazon DSP for display and video ads and Amazon Live for interactive shopping experiences.
Both have their strengths, but Shopify stands out for its overall marketing and branding tools, so it’s the better choice for businesses that want to build their personal brand.
Pricing
Selling on Amazon is more costly than Shopify once your company starts to generate a consistent flow of sales because of Amazon’s high fees. However, when you first start out, Shopify is more expensive to set up than Amazon.
Shopify provides 6 price levels and a 14-day free trial. These include:
- Shopify Starter
$5 every month. The checkout and product pages in this layout are ready for design. This package does not include an online store, but it does include a URL that you may share via email, SMS, social media, and other channels.
- Shopify Lite
It costs $9 per month. There is no online store included with this plan. Only a Buy Button can be integrated into an already-existing blog or website. Regretfully, the US and four other countries do not provide this option.
- Basic Shopify
This entry-level account, which costs $29 per month + 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction and has limited features, is suitable for first-time sellers learning how to sell online.
- Shopify (Regular)
$79 per month + 2.6% + 30¢ per transaction. This is the most popular Shopify plan with a few additional features over the basic plan and is great for small to medium businesses.
- Advanced Shopify
$299 a month + 2.4% + 30¢ for each purchase. More services, like third-party-calculated shipping prices and reduced transaction fees, are available with the advanced plan than with the ordinary Shopify account.
- Shopify Plus
$2000+ per month, plus 30¢ per transaction and 2.15%. Shopify’s corporate e-commerce plan is designed for big companies with revenues of millions of dollars.
You can access essential e-commerce features like credit card processing, site security, discount coupons, and unlimited product listings with any of these subscriptions (with the exception of Shopify Starter).
However, Amazon provides the following two plans:
- Individual
Although there are no monthly subscription costs for the individual plan, you are required to pay $0.99 for each item sold. You are not permitted to participate in or advertise on Amazon Brand Registry. Sellers who want to test the waters before deciding to fully commit to Amazon can use this strategy.
- Professional
The monthly subscription cost for this plan is $39.99. You get access to more sophisticated tools like inventory management, Amazon advertisements, and promotions—all of which are critical for managing a profitable Amazon business.
Amazon charges a “referral fee” for each product sold in addition to the expenses mentioned above. The referral fee is typically 15%, though it varies depending on the product type.
Depending on the package weight, size, and season, using Fulfillment By Amazon will cost you an additional $2.92 to $150.94 per unit.
Your sales volume determines how much it costs to sell on Shopify as opposed to Amazon.
Amazon is less expensive than Shopify, costing you $15 if your monthly sales total $100. However, if your monthly sales are $10,000, you will ultimately have to pay $1500 to Amazon, which is significantly more than Shopify.
Shopify is a less expensive option for selling in greater quantities due to Amazon’s exorbitant referral fees. However, while operating a Shopify store, you also need to account for the extra expenses of marketing and sales.
Payment Options
Shopify provides a far wider range of flexible payment choices than Amazon. For instance, whereas Amazon does not accept PayPal, Shopify does. Additionally, Shopify offers its own payment method, Shopify Payments, which is fee-free.
Since the cost of processing payments is covered by the 15% referral fee you pay when you make a purchase, Amazon technically does not charge additional costs for this service.
However, because PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other payment gateways are not accepted, Amazon’s options for processing payments are severely constrained.
On the other hand, Shopify accepts more than 100 payment methods, such as Apple Pay, PayPal, Stripe, and Amazon. Depending on the plan payment option, the transaction cost for these payment gateways might range from 0.05% to 2%.
Credit card payments have a separate charge, ranging from 2.9% + 30¢ to $2.4% + 30¢, depending on the plan.
Setup Time
You want your selling experience to be fun, whether you’re running an e-commerce business or just selling one old motorbike jacket. Fortunately, it’s easy to set up an online business with both Shopify and Amazon.
Just design excellent product listings that adhere to Amazon SEO, register your seller account, and begin selling on Amazon. The best thing is that you get paid!
Amazon handles shipping if you select FBA, which can be a comfort. Additionally, you still have some influence over the procedure. You can choose which products to offer for special Prime free shipping, for instance. Because it has been demonstrated to persuade 60% of internet buyers to make a purchase, we advise utilizing this choice for your best-selling items.
Shopify provides a simple and convenient method for establishing an online store. In contrast to other website builders, Shopify takes you straight to the dashboard, where you can begin adding products and organizing your payment information. Although creating a Shopify website will take more time, there are many free and premium themes available.
Your top goods and sales figures are displayed in the Shopify dashboard. Shopify’s emphasis on sales features is one of its best characteristics; it motivates users to succeed in the e-commerce industry.
Additionally, Shopify has integrated features like Shopify Magic, an artificial intelligence (AI) text generation engine capable of producing product descriptions in a variety of speech tones. This helps you save time on time-consuming chores like preparing FAQs, optimizing emails, and crafting descriptions based on prompts.
Amazon is also not lagging far behind; they now provide generative AI for product descriptions.
Design Flexibility
Shopify offers a lot more design flexibility than Amazon, and you have complete control over how your website looks and how your products are displayed.
Creating a website is easy. Shopify gives you access to 88 stunning themes that you can modify and customize to fit your brand.
Digital markets such as Out Of The Sandbox, Theme Forest, and Template Monster also provide appealing e-commerce themes.
Every element of your website may be fully customized using Shopify, giving you total control over its appearance. However, Amazon does not allow for personalization, and each listing appears identical.
Because of the uniform layout and design of all Amazon pages, it is simple for sellers to make product listings and start selling right away.
Nonetheless, consistency across all sites hinders your ability to differentiate yourself from the competitors.
All things considered, Shopify is the best option for developing a distinctive brand identity and having the flexibility to create your own online store.
Support
Without a doubt, Shopify provides far superior service over Amazon. Amazon is well-known for outsourcing its customer service to non-English-speaking nations like India, and they frequently give unhelpful, pre-written answers.
You have to fight to get through to a customer service agent on the phone because Amazon’s website does not provide a phone number.
On the other hand, Shopify provides round-the-clock phone and email assistance in addition to a wealth of articles, video lessons, and guides that address all of your Shopify-related questions.
It’s simple to explore and use the Shopify Help Center. Additionally, Shopify provides a wide range of support choices, including:
- Forum
- 24/7 phone
- 24/7 live chat
- Social media
- Advanced specialist support
They offer 24/7 support to all merchants, regardless of their plan.
Similar to Shopify, Amazon offers commonly asked questions in its Help Center. Additionally, Amazon has a forum where you may post questions and talk about problems with other retailers.
However, you must use the “Contact Us” button to request a call in order to get someone on the phone. Because Amazon encourages its sellers to use resources like forums, help sites, and tutorials to handle their concerns, this button is frequently concealed.
In general, Amazon support is terrible, and you will wind up wasting a lot of time attempting to get a direct response from a support agent who does not speak English as their first language.
Features And Tools
Compared to Amazon, Shopify has more e-commerce selling tools, but this is mostly because Amazon is less adaptable and does not provide you access to your customers’ data.
You can effectively manage your e-commerce firm with the help of Shopify’s and Amazon’s robust integrated capabilities.
Shopify, for instance, provides the following resources:
To retarget clients who did not finish the checkout process, abandoned cart recovery was implemented.
To improve shipping and inventory management, use an inventory tracking system.
Coupons and discounts are used to attract clients to buy.
To generate logo designs, use a logo maker.
Point of sale for collecting orders in flea markets and trade exhibitions.
In order to keep your customers and encourage repeat business, you can also use live chat, customer loyalty programs, email marketing, SMS marketing, and a host of other tools.
There is an app for every e-commerce need in the Shopify App Store, which boasts over 7000 apps.
Shopify has a number of tools that allow dropshippers to seamlessly import items from AliExpress into their online stores.
Similar to Shopify, Amazon provides a plethora of selling tools that facilitate business operations. However, Amazon’s greatest feature is by far Fulfillment by Amazon.
You don’t need to worry about inventory because Amazon will store, package, and transport your products when you use FBA.
Sending your goods to an Amazon warehouse is all you need to do; Amazon will take care of the rest. FBA costs money, but it spares you the trouble of managing your inventory, shipping, and returns.
Each of Amazon and Shopify has a distinct collection of e-commerce tools and capabilities that the other does not have. It’s a tie, then.
Generating Traffic and Sales
Amazon has a significant edge over Shopify in terms of driving visitors and revenue. With 2.45 billion monthly visitors in the US alone, Amazon offers you immediate access to a large audience for your products.
The only negative aspect of Amazon is the intense competition, which means you have to persuade them to choose you over your rivals.
You start from scratch when you create a store on Shopify. Since there won’t be any traffic to your website, you’ll need to make your own sales using:
- Google Ads
- Facebook Ads
- Search engine optimization
- Email marketing
- SMS marketing
- Blogging
There is a considerable learning curve, and it takes time to acquire these skills. On the other hand, Shopify offers a variety of marketing tools that give you total control over your brand to draw in repeat business, and your website lets you own your customers.
Many people will purchase from you on Amazon, but you won’t be able to identify them, which makes brand-building challenging.
However, because of its enormous client base, Amazon dominates in terms of sheer traffic and sales.
Search Engine Optimization
Amazon has a greater edge over Shopify when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO). Here’s why. It is challenging to rank on Google search when you create a Shopify store with a fresh domain since you have little to no domain authority.
To rank on Google, you need to understand how to optimize your sites for search engines and produce content, both of which can take a lot of effort.
However, your products might immediately rank on Google’s first page when you put them on Amazon. This is a result of Amazon’s strong domain authority and the enormous weight that search engines give to their listings.
Listing a product on both Shopify and Amazon simultaneously increases the likelihood that it will rank higher on Google.
Additionally, more than 50% of US consumers use Amazon’s own search engine to increase traffic and e-commerce sales. All things considered, you will succeed if you comprehend both Google SEO and Amazon SEO.
When To Use Amazon vs Shopify?
Here’s a brief overview of Shopify vs Amazon:
- Amazon is an online marketplace, and Shopify is an e-commerce platform.
- Starting an online business with Amazon is less expensive, but as your sales volume rises, it may become more costly.
- Because Amazon owns your client base, brand building is difficult.
- Shopify gives you the freedom to create your store however you like without any limitations on design.
- Compared to Amazon, Shopify offers superior customer service.
- Amazon and Shopify both provide helpful e-commerce tools. Shopify offers customer loyalty programs, email/SMS marketing, drop shipping, and abandoned cart recovery. One of the most sophisticated fulfillment networks in the world is Fulfillment by Amazon.
Your budget and sales objectives will determine whether you choose to sell on Shopify or Amazon.
Choose Shopify if:
- You want to create a scalable e-commerce company and establish your own brand.
- You desire to be the owner of your own domain.
- You don’t want limitations on your website’s design.
- You’ve got time to study SEO and other marketing techniques.
- You’re prepared to work hard to develop a devoted clientele.
Choose Amazon if:
- Making money as soon as feasible is your goal.
- You have a tight budget.
- You’re not concentrating on creating a brand.
- You don’t want to deal with the headaches of product packaging, shipping, and inventory management.
How to Integrate Amazon with Shopify?
When comparing Amazon to Shopify, you should ultimately sell on both sites in order to increase your reach and sales. Actually, integrating Amazon with your Shopify store is simple.
With just a few clicks, you can market your goods to millions of Amazon buyers and run your own e-commerce company with the Shopify Amazon app.
This is what you require.
- Install the Amazon Integration software for Shopify.
- Create an account as a Professional Seller on Amazon.
- Integrate your Shopify online business with the Amazon Sales Channel.
- You can link goods, sync inventory, and complete orders all from the same dashboard with the Shopify Amazon integration.
Additionally, you may use FBA to have orders from your Shopify store shipped straight from an Amazon warehouse. Amazon multi-channel fulfillment is the term for this.
Amazon vs. Shopify: Which is Best?
Which one is better, Shopify or Amazon? In all honesty, both present excellent commercial potential. The argument between Shopify and Amazon might as well be pointless as you have the option of using both services to support the online expansion of your company. Your company can use Shopify to create a website and sell products on Amazon.
The ideal platform for you will rely on your objectives and business.
My recommended method for new e-commerce entrepreneurs is to begin by selling on Amazon and then move to your own Shopify store once your product has been approved. Start with Amazon if you’re on a tight budget and don’t want to spend money on website design or marketing.
You should think about opening a Shopify store to begin developing your brand after your Amazon store starts making some sales and receiving a respectable amount of traffic. You can gather consumer information with Shopify and utilize it to expand your clientele.
Finally, your goal should be to sell on as many platforms as possible in order to maximize your reach.
Conclusion
Amazon and Shopify are two outstanding venues for sales. In this post, we looked at Shopify vs Amazon, why they are different, as well as their features, pricing, design, and more.
Most significantly, we’ve considered how these items can benefit you.
Shopify is your greatest option if you are motivated by marketing. It is the best option for entrepreneurs who want complete control over product promotion because it doesn’t require any technical knowledge and charges affordable prices.
On the other hand, if you want instant access to a large client base, Amazon can be your best option. It’s important to think about how much time you have to market your company, how much control you want, and how quickly and prepared you are to grow.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do people sell on Shopify instead of Amazon?
Despite being the world’s biggest online retailer, Amazon doesn’t provide the most intimate or personalized buying experience. Shopify’s primary benefit is that it allows companies to market their goods to a specific market and establish a strong brand identity.
Instead of spending their money on the biggest but most reliable internet marketplace, some people would rather purchase from companies that communicate with them directly.
Is selling on Shopify profitable?
Yes, without a doubt. A 2020 Shopify survey found that Shopify stores made an average of $1,579 per month. The top 10% of stores, meanwhile, earned about $10,866 each month. Some Shopify dropshippers make up to $800K a month, which is shocking.
Can you sell on both Shopify and Amazon?
Yes! Your Shopify store can be integrated with Amazon. This implies that you can simultaneously utilize Amazon’s extensive marketplace and represent your own brand in a fully working online store.
