Shopify vs Amazon for a New Brand: Costs, Control, and Risk

Last updated October 23, 2026 · First published November 12, 2026 · By Chad Norris

Amazon gives a new brand traffic you do not have to build, at the price of fees, rules and limited access to your customers; Shopify gives you control of the store and the customer relationship, at the price of having to bring your own traffic. Which costs less depends on your product margin and how you will get your first buyers. This guide lays out published fees as of October 2026, a worked example, and the risks on each side. It does not rank them.

Disclosure: the author runs an Amazon advertising agency (Tide Flow) and builds Shopify apps (Orbitloft), so there is a commercial interest in both channels. We have no affiliate links on this page; all links are plain. See the disclosure and the directory.

Published costs, side by side

Sources: Shopify pricing and Amazon seller pricing, read 2026-10-23.

Referral fees vary a lot by category on Amazon’s page. Examples listed: Home and Kitchen 15%; Clothing and Accessories 5% up to $15, 10% from $15 to $20, 17% above $20; Beauty, Health and Personal Care 8% up to $10 and 15% above; Consumer Electronics 8%; Jewelry 20% up to $250 and 5% above; Media carries a $1.80 closing fee. Look up your own category rather than assuming 15%.

A worked example, fees only

This uses a $30 item, only the fees from the table, and leaves out product cost, shipping, FBA fees, ads and returns. It shows the structure, not your profit.

On these inputs the per-unit fees are lower on Shopify. That is half the story, because on Shopify the missing costs are traffic and fulfillment you manage, and on Amazon the missing costs include FBA fees (fulfillment and storage per Amazon’s FBA page) and ads. A brand with a strong existing audience and a low-ticket item sees one picture; a brand with no audience and a product people search for sees another.

Customer ownership and data

On Shopify the store is yours: you collect emails with consent, run your own flows (see Klaviyo vs Mailchimp for Shopify) and can follow a customer across orders. You are responsible for privacy law compliance for what you collect.

On Amazon the buyer belongs to Amazon’s relationship. Seller-guide summaries of Amazon’s communication rules say sellers may contact buyers only to complete orders or answer service questions, not for marketing, and that permitted messages cannot contain links or promotions; the review-request feature is treated separately. We could not read the current Seller Central text for this page, so check it before designing any post-purchase program. The consequence for planning is simple: Amazon customers are hard to turn into an owned list, which makes repeat purchases depend on Amazon’s listing and ads.

Traffic and ads

Amazon shoppers are already searching to buy, so a listing with good content can get sales without outside marketing. The flip side is a crowded results page where you buy visibility with Sponsored Products. Amazon does not publish a standard price per click; it is an auction. Learn the break-even math before spending (ACoS, TACoS and break-even) and the metrics in PPC metrics that matter.

On Shopify there is no built-in audience. Paid social, search, creators, email and SEO all cost time or money, and a new store has no history. A rough check: if your product gross margin after fees cannot fund the paid traffic needed to get a customer, neither channel works; it just fails differently.

Risk, honestly

We have no verified data on suspension rates for either platform; the table lists exposures, not probabilities.

How to decide

1. Do people already search for this kind of product? If yes, Amazon’s search can help you get initial sales. If your product is new or needs explaining, a store with content and ads may fit better.
2. What is your margin after fees? Do the worked example with your real numbers, including FBA and ads on Amazon.
3. Do you want a customer list? If repeat purchases drive your model, own the data.
4. Can you hold inventory in two places? Selling on both needs a stock plan.
5. What can you operate? Amazon needs account health, listing and ad management; Shopify needs theme, apps and marketing. Our guides on choosing a Shopify agency and choosing an Amazon PPC agency cover outside help.

Limits of this page

We read fee pages, not seller accounts, and fees change. Payment rates differ by country, and Shopify and Amazon pages can vary by region. Verify at checkout, and report changes on the corrections page.

Worked example: the same $30 product with ads included

Add an ad cost to the earlier example. Assume, for illustration only, that you spend 25% of the sale price on advertising on either channel, $7.50 per unit. Fees and ads then total about $8.96 on Shopify Basic and about $12.40 on Amazon (before FBA and shipping). The gap narrows when both channels need paid traffic. If your ad spend on Shopify has to be higher to reach cold audiences, the Shopify advantage can shrink or reverse; if Amazon ads convert at a lower cost because shoppers are already searching, the opposite can be true. Only your own numbers can settle that, so test a small budget on each before committing to inventory.

A sequencing idea, not a rule

Some brands start on one channel, learn the unit economics and then add the second. Starting on Amazon can produce early sales and customer language (search terms, reviews) that informs a store. Starting on Shopify can build an email list and brand content that later supports Amazon listings and Brand Registry work. Neither order is better in general; the constraint is usually cash for inventory and the time to run the channel properly. Do not launch on both with a single batch of stock and no allocation rule.

Questions to answer before you pick

• What is my expected gross margin per unit after product cost and shipping, before any channel fee?
• How many units can I afford to hold, and where?
• What will I do to get the first hundred customers, in each channel, and what does it cost per customer in my best estimate?
• Is my product category restricted, gated or fee-heavy on Amazon? Check the referral-fee table and category requirements in Seller Central before you order stock.
• Do I have the time to answer customer service, handle returns and keep listings or the store current?

If you can answer these with numbers, the choice usually becomes clearer than any general comparison can make it.