Quick Answer
Marketplaces give you traffic; your own website gives you margin and customers. Amazon, Flipkart and Meesho take a 5–30% commission per sale (often 20–40% all-in with closing and shipping fees) and keep your buyer's details. Your own store on a platform like HOD Media costs a flat ₹299/month with 0% commission, so you keep 100% of your revenue and customer data. The smartest play for most Indian sellers is to use both — marketplaces for discovery, your own store for repeat orders and profit.
The core trade-off: rented traffic vs owned customers
Every Indian seller eventually faces the same question: should I sell on a marketplace, build my own website, or both? The honest answer is that they solve different problems. A marketplace is rented traffic — millions of ready buyers, but you pay for that access on every order and you never really own the customer. Your own website is an owned asset — you bring the traffic, but you keep the margin, the data and the brand.
Marketplace fees in India, line by line
“Free to list” is not the same as “free to sell”. On Amazon India and Flipkart, a single order is usually reduced by several stacked fees:
- Referral / commission fee — roughly 5–25% of the item price, depending on category.
- Closing fee — a fixed per-order charge that hits low-value orders hardest.
- Shipping / weight handling — based on parcel weight and zone (or FBA/Fulfilment fees).
- Payment / collection fees and ad costs to actually rank in search.
Add them up and the all-in cut is frequently 20–40% of order value. Meesho positions itself as low- or zero-commission, but the trade-off is brutal price competition and your own ad spend — you win by being the cheapest, which compresses margin a different way.
Own website vs marketplace — side by side
| Factor | Your own website (HOD Media) | Marketplace (Amazon / Flipkart / Meesho) |
|---|---|---|
| Platform commission | 0% (flat ₹299/month) | 5–30% per sale + closing fee |
| Built-in traffic | You drive it (ads, SEO, WhatsApp) | High — millions of buyers |
| Customer data | You own it (name, phone, email) | Masked / owned by marketplace |
| Brand & storefront | Fully your brand and domain | Generic listing, marketplace brand |
| Pricing power | Full control | Pressured to be cheapest |
| Repeat / WhatsApp marketing | Easy — remarket directly | Hard — no buyer contact |
| Payments | UPI, cards, COD via your own gateway | Marketplace-controlled payouts |
| Best for | Margin, repeat buyers, brand building | First discovery, reach, trust at launch |
What you give up on a marketplace
The fees are the obvious cost. The hidden cost is everything you don't get: you can't message past buyers, you can't build an email or WhatsApp list, and you're one policy change away from losing your best channel. You're building someone else's asset. When a customer loves your product, the marketplace — not you — gets to keep selling to them.
What your own website gives you
- 0% commission — keep every rupee beyond your ~2% gateway fee.
- Customer data you own — turn one order into repeat orders via WhatsApp and email.
- Your brand and domain — yourbrand.in builds trust and ranks on Google.
- India-native checkout — UPI, cards and COD with automatic GST invoices.
- Control — your pricing, your offers, your abandoned-cart recovery, no algorithm gatekeeping.
The smartest strategy: do both (the hybrid model)
You don't have to choose. The brands that scale fastest in India treat marketplaces as a discovery channel and their own store as the profit and retention engine:
- List bestsellers on Amazon/Flipkart/Meesho to be found by new buyers.
- Add a thank-you insert or follow-up that invites buyers to your own store for a better price or offer.
- Run Meta ads that send buyers straight to your own store and WhatsApp — where you keep 100% of the sale.
- Use a multichannel sync (HOD Media's HOD Ecom, from ₹1/order) so marketplace and store orders land in one dashboard.
Over time, more of your revenue shifts to the channel you own — which is exactly how you turn one-time marketplace shoppers into a repeat-buying customer base.
When a marketplace alone makes sense
Marketplaces are a great starting point if you have zero audience, sell a commodity where buyers compare on price, or just want to validate demand before investing in a brand. But the moment you have repeat customers or any margin worth protecting, not having your own store means leaving money — and your customer list — on the table.
How to launch your own store in India
You can go live the same day for under ₹1,000: a hosted store from ₹299/month on HOD Media (0% commission, custom domain, UPI/COD, GST invoices) plus a ₹500–₹900/year domain. See the full breakdown in how much it costs to start an online store in India, or the step-by-step guide to starting an online store. Comparing builders? Read the best ecommerce platform in India.
Is it better to sell on Amazon/Flipkart or my own website in India?
It depends on your goal. Marketplaces (Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho) give you built-in traffic but take 5–30% commission per sale plus closing and shipping fees, and they keep the customer's contact details. Your own website has a small fixed monthly cost (from ₹299/month on HOD Media), takes 0% commission, and lets you keep 100% of your customer data so you can re-sell on WhatsApp. Most growing brands use both: marketplaces for discovery, their own store for margin and repeat orders.
How much commission do Indian marketplaces charge?
It varies by category. Amazon and Flipkart typically charge a referral/commission fee of roughly 5–25% plus a fixed closing fee and shipping/weight handling, so the all-in cut is often 20–40% of the order value. Meesho is known for low or zero commission but you compete almost entirely on lowest price and pay for ads and returns. On your own HOD Media store the platform commission is 0% — you only pay the flat plan fee and your payment gateway's ~2% per transaction.
Do I get my customer's details when I sell on a marketplace?
Mostly no. Marketplaces mask buyer contact details and own the customer relationship, so you cannot easily run repeat-purchase or WhatsApp campaigns. On your own store you capture the customer's name, phone, email and order history — which you can use (with consent) for WhatsApp updates, win-back offers and remarketing.
Can I sell on both a marketplace and my own website?
Yes, and it's usually the smartest strategy. List your bestsellers on Amazon/Flipkart/Meesho for discovery, and drive every buyer back to your own branded store for repeat orders where you keep the full margin. HOD Media's multichannel tool (HOD Ecom) can sync orders from marketplaces into one dashboard from ₹1 per order.
Which is cheaper for a new seller?
For anyone doing regular volume, your own store is cheaper per order. A marketplace looks free to start but its percentage cut grows with every sale, so at scale it quietly becomes your biggest cost. A ₹299/month store with 0% commission pays for itself after just a few orders and never taxes your growth.