Should I sell on Amazon or my own site?

Amazon's referral fee (8–20% depending on category) bundles in far more than payment processing — it covers placement in Amazon search, Prime eligibility, built-in buyer trust, and Amazon's own customer service on the transaction. Your own site's payment processor (Stripe, typically 2.9% + $0.30) only handles moving the money. The fee gap is really the price of Amazon's built-in customer acquisition, which is why it can still be the better deal even at a much higher percentage.

Break-even CAC is the most you could spend acquiring a customer on your own site before Amazon's higher fee becomes the cheaper option per unit. Comparing fee percentages alone is misleading — Amazon's fee already has customer acquisition baked in, while your own site's fee doesn't. Break-even CAC puts both channels on the same footing: if your actual blended ad/SEO cost per sale is below that number, your own site nets more; above it, Amazon wins even with its bigger cut.

Many sellers do, and it's often the right call — Amazon for discovery-driven, price-sensitive buyers and your own site for repeat customers, email subscribers, and higher-margin bundles. This guide answers the narrower question of which channel is more profitable per unit at your current numbers, which is useful for deciding where to prioritise ad spend, inventory, and operational effort even if you keep both channels open.

Yes — the $39.99/month Professional selling plan fee is amortised across your monthly unit volume and included in Amazon's per-unit cost. At low volumes this fee has an outsized effect per unit; at higher volumes it barely moves the number. If you're on Amazon's Individual plan (99¢ per item, no monthly fee) instead, that changes the crossover volume — this guide assumes the Professional plan, which is standard past a handful of monthly sales.

This strips both channels down to referral/payment fees, the monthly platform fee, cost of goods, and your acquisition cost — it doesn't include fulfilment (assumed roughly comparable on both channels, so left out), advertising spend beyond the CAC you enter, returns processing, or the value of Amazon's organic discovery versus building your own SEO and email list over time. Treat the numbers as the fee-and-acquisition-cost economics, then weigh the qualitative factors — brand ownership, customer data, platform risk — separately.