The Amazon vs Shopify debate misses the point entirely. Should you rent your customers or own them? The honest answer is: you need to do both, and the brands that figure that out first will be the ones left standing.
Ryan McConnell, President of Ventamatic – a 75-year-old Texas-based manufacturer of commercial and residential ventilation products – has navigated this decision in real time. His company sells through Amazon and runs its own Shopify storefront simultaneously, and his perspective cuts through a lot of the noise that surrounds the difference between Amazon vs Shopify for product-based brands.
The Biggest Misconception About Selling on Amazon
Most people assume Amazon buys your inventory, warehouses it, and resells it. That is not always how it works – and the distinction carries real financial weight.
Amazon actually operates through two distinct models:
- Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA): You send inventory to Amazon’s warehouses. They handle shipping, returns, and Prime eligibility.
- Vendor-fulfilled: Your listing goes live, but you ship orders directly from your own warehouse. Amazon only purchases inventory after something has already sold.
Here is where the cost conversation gets interesting. As McConnell explains:
“Amazon in our product category takes 15% of the total sale, even though they don’t actually physically take possession of the product nor buy it before they’ve sold it.”
Fifteen percent off every transaction – with no inventory risk on their side. It is a remarkable business model, and it is one you are participating in whether you plan for it or not.
Should I Sell on Amazon or Build My Own Shopify Store?
This is the wrong question. The better one is: what happens to your brand if you ignore Amazon?
McConnell has a clear answer. “If you don’t figure out Amazon, then Amazon will figure you out.” What that looks like in practice: third-party sellers listing your products without your permission, sometimes at prices far below your standard rates, sometimes wildly above them. Either scenario damages your brand.
Taking control of your Amazon presence is not optional – it is a brand protection strategy. But control on Amazon is not the same as ownership. That is where Shopify comes in.
“We’d be remiss if we didn’t build the channel ourselves so we’re not renting it from Amazon,” McConnell says. His company runs its Shopify site as a parallel channel, not a replacement. The goal: cultivate an audience the brand actually owns.
Think of it like email versus social media. You can reach more people on social, but you own your email list. Those subscribers trust you in a way a casual scroller never will. A Shopify store gives you that same kind of owned relationship in e-commerce.
What Products Sell Better on Amazon vs Shopify?
The answer comes down to size, price point, and how discovery-driven the purchase is. Here is how Ventamatic thinks about it:
- Amazon is best for smaller items that fit in FBA warehouses, qualify for Prime, and sell on impulse or search intent.
- Shopify is best for larger, higher-consideration products that require education, customization, or a brand relationship before a customer commits.
- Some products that perform well on Shopify do terribly on Amazon – and vice versa. The mix matters.
McConnell is direct about it: “Smaller things go better through the Amazon channel.” For Ventamatic, large industrial ventilation units – some of which fit only 20 per shipping container – are not cost-effective to move through Amazon’s warehouse system. But smaller residential products? Those are built for FBA.
What Are the Real Costs of Selling on Amazon vs Running Your Own Store?
Amazon’s 15% fee is only the beginning. Here is a fuller picture of what each channel actually costs:
- Amazon: 15% referral fee on every sale, plus FBA storage and fulfillment fees if you use that model, plus advertising spend to stay visible in a crowded marketplace, plus the hidden cost of not owning your customer data – Amazon keeps it.
- Shopify: Platform and maintenance fees, plus the significant cost of driving traffic. Unlike Amazon, where buyers are already searching, your Shopify store requires you to build an audience through paid ads, SEO, email, and social content.
As McConnell and Daisy McCarty, Fractional CMO at The Marketing Blender, both noted, advertising spend can erode margins quickly on either channel if return on ad spend is not managed carefully.
Freight is another real cost. Ventamatic built free shipping into their product pricing on both channels – a decision that worked well when logistics costs were stable. With freight prices rising and LTL carriers exiting the market, that bundled model is being stress-tested. Decoupling product price from shipping cost is a conversation more brands will need to have.
How to Protect Your Margins From Amazon Erosion
Running both channels does not automatically protect your margins. You have to build protection into your strategy. Ventamatic uses two primary levers:
- Innovation: Staying on one product style too long invites overseas competitors to copy it and undercut by 25%. Regular updates – even color refreshes – reset the clock and make imitation harder.
- Brand equity: A brand people know, trust, and prefer can hold its price against cheaper alternatives. That is not a soft benefit – it is a pricing lever. And a Shopify channel, with direct customer relationships and full content control, is better positioned to build brand equity than a marketplace listing inside Amazon’s ecosystem.
For Ventamatic, brand-building has meant a YouTube channel called Win Busters – head-to-head comparisons of their American-made products against overseas competitors. It is the kind of content that builds credibility in a way no Amazon listing ever could.
The Hybrid Model Is Not a Compromise – It Is the Strategy
There is a temptation to pick a lane: go all-in on Amazon because the audience is already there, or reject Amazon entirely because the fees are steep and you lose customer data. Both are mistakes.
The brands that win treat Amazon and Shopify as complementary tools, not competing ones:
- Amazon: reach, discovery, and transaction volume.
- Shopify: ownership, relationships, and margin.
This is the same logic that applies to manufacturing, distribution, and product development. The answer is almost never one or the other. It is a hybrid model that plays to the strengths of each approach while protecting against the risks of any single point of dependency.
If you are ready to build an e-commerce strategy that works across both channels – and keeps your brand, your margins, and your customer relationships intact – reach out to The Marketing Blender. We help product brands find the right mix.
FAQs
Is it better to sell on Amazon or Shopify for a product-based brand? Most established product brands benefit from using both. Amazon provides access to a massive built-in audience, while Shopify lets you own your customer relationships and control your brand experience. The difference between Amazon vs Shopify is not about which is better – it is about using each for what it does well.
How much does Amazon take from each sale? Amazon typically charges a referral fee that varies by category. For many product categories, that fee is around 15% of the total sale price – even when Amazon does not purchase or warehouse your inventory. They collect the fee on every completed transaction.
Can a small brand realistically compete on both Amazon and Shopify? Yes, but it requires clarity about what each channel is for. Start by taking control of your Amazon listings so you are not losing ground to unauthorized third-party sellers. Then invest in your Shopify channel as a long-term relationship-building asset – focus on content, SEO, and email to grow an audience you own.
