Marketplace or Own Store? 12-Month Simulator
The honest version of this question isn't which channel charges less, it's who creates the demand. A marketplace takes commission and hands you traffic; your own store takes none and hands you an acquisition bill every month.
Currency doesn't matter — keep every field in one unit. The simulation runs the same product on both channels for 12 months.
Ahead after 12 months
Marketplace
A gap of 32.847. This is one scenario — change the inputs and test your own assumptions.
Cumulative profit, month by month
| Month | Marketplace | Own store | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2.496 | -46.827 | ||
| 2 | 14.338 | -47.134 | ||
| 3 | 35.525 | -39.835 | ||
| 4 | 65.633 | -23.300 | ||
| 5 | 105.086 | 3.558 | ||
| 6 | 153.886 | 42.912 | ||
| 7 | 212.030 | 95.304 | ||
| 8 | 279.521 | 162.910 | ||
| 9 | 356.357 | 246.271 | ||
| 10 | 442.114 | 347.561 | ||
| 11 | 537.216 | 467.866 | ||
| 12 | 641.664 | 608.817 |
The own-store column assumes a 25% monthly repeat rate, with no ad cost on repeats. Red rows are months where cumulative profit is still negative.
Your inputs stay in your browser — nothing is sent to a server.
How it's calculated
The simulation runs the same product on both channels for 12 months, accumulating profit month by month. The marketplace side deducts commission and fulfilment per unit; the own-store side deducts payment fees and shipping. Ads are a monthly fixed cost on both.
Repeat purchase is your store's one real advantage, and the model computes it explicitly: each month's new customers join a pool, and a share of them buy again with no ad cost. Raising the repeat rate and re-reading the table is the fastest way to see the channel's true value.
The store's one-off setup cost is charged at month zero, so that column starts negative while the marketplace starts at zero. The break-even rows show when each channel returns what you put in.
The third line — both together — is most firms' real answer. It isn't a theory but a sequence: the marketplace warms cash and tests the product while the store accumulates brand and customer ownership.
What people most often forget
- Traffic to your own store isn't free. Skipping commission doesn't skip acquisition cost, and in most categories the latter is the larger of the two.
- A marketplace customer isn't yours. You pay again for every repeat; no list, no compounding.
- The store's hidden cost is time. Site, content, campaigns and support are someone's job, and that labour is a real part of year one.
- Payments differ. Selling abroad from your own store means handling processors, FX and returns yourself.
- The usual order is marketplace first. It tells you cheapest whether the product sells; building a store on a proven product beats testing an unproven one with paid traffic.
Scope, sources and freshness
This is a scenario tool, not a forecast: you supply the sales assumptions and it computes their twelve-month consequence. Seasonality, stock limits, returns, tax and labour are out of scope. Keep every field in one currency, and read the output alongside your real operating capacity.
Sources last reviewed: 16 August 2026
Frequently asked
Marketplace or own store — which is more profitable?
Per unit your store; across the first year, usually the marketplace. You either pay commission for ready traffic or pay to create it. For high-repeat products the store wins over time.
How do I know my repeat rate?
Check your analytics if you have history. If not, estimate from how fast the product is consumed, and run an optimistic and a pessimistic scenario.
Can I run both?
Yes, and most mature brands do — but not at the start. Get one profitable first.
Why is setup cost entered separately?
Because it is one-off and charged at month zero. Mixing it into monthly costs overstates the store's ongoing burden.
If your product is ready, let's talk about the rest.
A free 30-minute call about your market, your product and the first 90 days. No pitch — just a clear roadmap.