Shopify vs Amazon: Which is Better for Your Online Business?

Platform Overviews: Shopify & Amazon

Whilst this article does compare both Shopify and Amazon like for like, it's important to note that the fundamentals of each platform including their model are different. Amazon is a marketplace platform that allows brands to sell their products on the Amazon website and gives merchants access to the large amount of traffic that Amazon receives every month. Shopify however is a specialised ecommerce platform that enables brands with the tools to run their own website.

Amazon Platform Overview
Given that Amazon gives merchants a space on their website to sell products it's comparable to owning a stand at a popular street market. Thousands of people flood the area to explore and buy from retailers. The retailers are not responsible for finding customers to come to the market yet customers are often not looking for a particular company but the breadth of products available instead. Amazon offers all the tools brands need to list their products within the marketspace.

Shopify Platform Overview
Meanwhile selling through Shopify is more like leasing a space for your company to operate in. Customers actively search for your store following brand awareness and marketing and they receive a customised unique shopping experience in line with the brand they are shopping within. Shopify offers all the tools you need to develop your own brand identity, website experience and long-term marketing strategies.

These variations allow Shopify and Amazon to serve various kinds of online vendors. Individual sellers all the way up to small and medium-sized organisations can sell on Amazon. Meanwhile, small businesses up to much larger enterprise businesses who are focussed on scaling a brand with large sales volumes in the millions can benefit from Shopify.

Building A Brand

We live in a hyper-competitive digital world whereby building a strong brand identity is an incredibly powerful way to stand out to win new customers but also to create loyalty amongst existing customers to maximise retention. Owning your brand image and identity, not only elevates value and trust but also prevents dependence on a platform such as Amazon for traffic and visibility. Creating a brand however does take considerable amounts of time, investment and experience to develop a visual identity that resonates and manage your marketing channels to consistently drive converting traffic. Shopify gives you the freedom to craft an immersive brand experience and own your customer base meanwhile Amazon trades the ownership of the brand with huge amounts of pre-existing traffic.

Amazon
When selling on Amazon, a merchant's ability to display their brand's personality is somewhat limited due to the lack of customisation available. Although you can make a few adjustments to let your brand image shine (like adding your company logo, for example), your storefront layout will generally seem very "Amazony" and you won't be able to use the platform to build a lot of custom shopping experiences. Customers typically are more product-centric and care less about the brand they are buying from. In many ways, this is advantageous because Amazon customers anticipate a particular experience, and straying too far from this would probably hurt sales.

Amazon's designs are more constrained than this. Although you can post your pictures and descriptions, Amazon has influenced the overall look and feel of your store page. As an illustration, products are shown on the homepage with the Amazon logo next to those of your rivals. Although this is perfect for the customer, it may be more difficult to send users to your pages as a result of this high competition.

Shopify
Shopify allows you a great deal of control over your brand and customer experience through customisation. There are a plethora of themes and templates that may be customised to fit your branding. Additionally, if you possess the necessary technical know-how, you may modify the HTML and CSS code of your store to further personalise its design and the user experience you offer, or you can create it entirely from scratch for a wholly unique experience. As Shopify brands scale, they typically leverage agencies like us to develop bespoke, custom and unique experiences that allow them to stand out in competitive markets but also support the complexities of scale.

Shopify's B2B, multi-currency and multilingual tools let you further customise the user experience region by region; as a result, if you're looking for a highly customised purchasing experience catered to a specific consumer persona, market, or area, Shopify provides this in a way that Amazon does not. However, traffic will only land on your store with a significant investment in marketing.

Ease Of Use

Both Amazon and Shopify are made to be relatively simple for newcomers to ecommerce to start using. Both platforms offer an onboarding setup procedure that guides you through the crucial steps required to begin selling when you sign up for an account. A variety of online tools and video guides are also accessible to support you further. The learning curves for both platforms are very different, although not very steep. You must learn how to use a database used by Amazon, called "Amazon Seller Central" as efficiently as possible. The main issue that brand-new Amazon merchants have is making sure that the requirements for product names, descriptions, and catalogue numbers are met. Setting up product listings on Amazon can involve filling out a lot of forms and data. Additionally, there are a lot of requirements to meet before receiving an Amazon seller account. To simplify the process, many sellers rely on Amazon seller tools that help with keyword research, automated repricing, and inventory tracking, making it easier to manage listings efficiently.

On Shopify on the other hand, you are creating a brand new website. It's easier to add products to your store since you have the freedom to enter as much or as little information about them when you create them. All you need to start using Shopify, at least initially, is an email address and some basic contact information. These are simply entered when a free trial is launched on the platform. Although Shopify has been created to make this as simple as possible, there is still a lot to learn if you are new to web design. Either you'll need to set the theme up yourself or leverage a Shopify expert to support you. Of course, there are Shopify Agencies available should you require professional custom Shopify theme development builds or more complex online requirements.

Features & Tools

Amazon
Amazon offers an all-in-one marketplace where merchants can tap into a massive, ready-to-buy audience. One of its biggest strengths is its trust factor — millions of consumers already shop on Amazon, making it easier to generate sales without heavy upfront marketing. Features like Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) handle logistics, storage, shipping, and even returns, removing much of the operational complexity for sellers. Amazon also offers advertising tools like Sponsored Products to boost visibility in search results, plus access to programs like Prime, which can increase conversion rates. However, sellers operate within Amazon’s tightly controlled ecosystem — with limited design customisation, restricted access to customer data, and fees taken from every transaction.

Shopify
Shopify is a fully customisable eCommerce platform that allows you to build your own standalone online store. Its features are built for brand ownership: from custom domains and flexible storefront design, to built-in blogging and SEO tools, to integrations with hundreds of apps that support everything from subscriptions to loyalty programs. Shopify’s POS and inventory systems enable multichannel selling across web, social, and retail. With full access to customer data, including email addresses and purchase history, merchants can own the relationship and build their own funnels via email marketing, SMS, and retargeting ads. While you’ll need to drive your own traffic and manage operations or hire help, Shopify gives you complete control over how you sell and scale.

Marketing & SEO

Amazon
Whilst it's true that both Amazon and Shopify do require marketing strategies to be successful, they both do require different approaches. Shopify requires your marketing strategy to generate converting traffic to your store, meanwhile, Amazon requires you to optimise your product listings to maximise visibility across the marketplace.

Shopify
To be successful on Shopify you need a marketing strategy to drive customers, which might be paid social ads, offline marketing activations or organic and paid search. Shopify integrates with all major marketing platforms such as Google and Meta however it'll be up to the merchant to make those channels successful.

Shopify provides consumers with a fundamental set of SEO tools to help them improve store-level content to achieve higher SERP positions and increase traffic. In addition to creating 301 redirects and auto XML sitemaps, you can update meta tags and add alt text to photos. Users cannot completely alter their URLs, though. Additionally, Shopify offers other noteworthy blog features including multiple authors, simple tag set-up, and customised SEO criteria.

Furthermore, Shopify Email makes it simple to do email marketing. This program has ready-made email templates and a report generator, just like any email marketing tool. You can send up to 2,500 emails to your clients at no cost. Shopify also includes automated abandoned cart emails, to send emails to customers who are just about to checkout yet bounce.

Beyond the built-in native features of Shopify, it also has a vast range of apps that can be integrated into your store to greatly help improve your marketing capabilities if the above products do not adequately address your demands. See our guide on Best Shopify Apps to see our hand-picked selection. You can always install more marketing apps from the Shopify marketplace if these products do not adequately meet your requirements.

Amazon
Amazon's marketing strategy is the polar opposite of Shopify as the marketplace already has huge amounts of traffic. Instead, it's about gaining more visibility within a crowded and on-site search-focused website. Amazon relies on its internal search and category-based navigation to guide its visitors to products. Therefore brands need to leverage ways to be shown more across the site. Products can rank organically across the site however they must be optimised with highly optimised keywords, compelling imagery and powerful copy. Reviews also influence the rankings of products. Amazon does have its own paid media offering with sponsored products and sponsored brands. The key downside is that Amazon owns the relationship with the customer meaning your business is dependent on Amazon showing you across the marketplace.

Payment Processing

Both platforms manage the payment processing for merchants however there are distinct differences in flexibility between the two platforms.

Both platforms manage the payment processing for merchants however there are distinct differences in flexibility between the two platforms.

Shopify Payment Processing
Shopify's preferred option is their own called 'Shopify Payments' which offers a fast and complete checkout experience accepting major payment methods including Apple Pay and Google Pay. Shopify Payments also offers an accelerated payment option called Shop Pay that allows customers to checkout with just their mobile phone across all Shopify stores. The transaction fees on Shopify Payments attract the lowest fees. If merchants choose to opt for a third-party payment processor then Shopify does charge additional fees on top of the fees by the third party. However, merchants do have the flexibility to integrate third parties such as PayPal, Klarna, Amazon Pay and more. Merchants that opt for Shopify's enterprise-level plan, Shopify Plus can customise the checkout experience to give a branded and unique buying experience. Shopify pays directly into your bank account giving full visibility over transaction data.

Amazon Payment Processing
Amazon, on the other hand, manages the payment processing itself and is this not controllable at all by the merchant. Amazon offers buyer protection and holds payments temporarily, Amazon will then pay out on a set schedule. Amazon customers can use gift cards and a variety of payment methods such as the One-Click checkout feature Amazon offers. Sellers cannot integrate their payment gateways nor can influence the checkout experience.

Shipping & Fulfillment

Shopify
Shopify gives merchants complete control over how they handle shipping and fulfilment. You can set your shipping rates, offer free shipping thresholds, and integrate with third-party logistics providers (3PLs) or in-house warehouse systems. Shopify also supports real-time carrier rates, local delivery, and pickup options. Tools like Shopify Shipping (available in certain regions) provide discounted rates from major carriers and allow you to print labels directly from the dashboard. For growing brands, integrating with fulfilment partners like ShipBob or using Shopify’s own Fulfilment Network (in the US) can streamline operations. The trade-off is that you're responsible for managing inventory, returns, and fulfilment logistics — but in exchange, you retain full flexibility and brand control.

Amazon
Amazon offers one of the most advanced fulfilment networks in the world through Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA). With FBA, sellers ship their inventory to Amazon’s warehouses, and Amazon takes care of the rest — picking, packing, shipping, customer service, and returns. This makes it easy to offer fast, reliable delivery options like Prime shipping, which can significantly boost conversion rates. Amazon also handles multi-channel fulfilment (MCF) if you're selling outside of Amazon. However, using FBA comes with storage fees, strict inventory rules, and less flexibility in how orders are packaged or branded. Sellers who choose to fulfil orders themselves (FBM – Fulfilled by Merchant) gain more control but must meet Amazon’s performance standards to stay competitive.

Pricing & Fees

Of course, a big deciding factor in choosing between Shopify and Amazon can be the price. Both platforms have different plans available to suit different business needs.

Amazon To sell goods online with Amazon, you must register for a "seller account." There are two options for this available. Individual: $0.99 for every item sold. Professional: $39.99 each month (These are US prices; pricing elsewhere varies a bit by territory, but the plan types are consistent).

The 'Individual' plan is a 'pay-as-you-go' plan, meaning there is no monthly subscription fee to be paid; instead, a seller fee is applied to each item. This is one of the main differences between these payment methods. However, this plan prevents you from using any Amazon advertising services, selling more than 40 goods each month, and accessing comprehensive reports.

Since the "Professional" plan is a subscription service, there is an ongoing fee. It enables you to use all of Amazon's selling capabilities, sells across several categories, create your shipping rates, sell an unlimited amount of items, advertise on the site, and add additional users to your account.

In addition to the fees for the plans mentioned above, Amazon also charges fees for each sale. The amount varies greatly depending on the kind of product you're selling, but typical selling fees range from 8 to 15 per cent. Shopify is a better choice if you want to avoid these fees and have extra flexibility with better rates for high-volume sellers. If you use FBA, you’ll also need to consider storage and fulfilment fees, which are based on product size, weight, and seasonal surcharges.

Shopify
On the other hand, Shopify has five different pricing plans available that cater to businesses of different sizes. These plans consist of: Shopify Starter — $5 per month. Basic Shopify — $29 per month. Shopify — $79 per month. Advanced Shopify — $299 per month. Shopify Plus — $2000 per month or a sliding model of 0.25% of monthly revenue. All of these plans give you access to essential ecommerce features, such as limitless access to physical and digital product catalogues, credit card processing, gift cards, abandoned cart recovery, discount codes, and an SSL certificate, but there are some important distinctions between Shopify plans to be aware of.

Instead of allowing you to create a standalone online store, Shopify's "Starter" plan enables you to sell goods via social media platforms, messaging services, or by placing a "purchase button" on an already-existing website. The maximum number of users per account varies significantly depending on the plan. For instance, "Advanced Shopify" allows for fifteen staff accounts while "Basic Shopify" only allows for two. Only the $79 "Shopify" plans and higher offer professional reports. Read our article to learn more about the differences between Shopify Plus vs Advanced.

The "Shopify Plus" plan caters to larger enterprises, and costs vary according to requirements. Shopify Plus has advanced security, API, and fulfilment features, along with dedicated account management. It's worth noting that with the more pricier plans, there are fewer transaction fees for the variety of payment options. If you utilise Shopify Payments, which is the built-in payment gateway of Shopify, there are no transaction fees. If your online store has a large customer base and you are looking for a solution to sell to visitors all over the world, Shopify is perhaps the better choice between Shopify vs Amazon.

Shopify X Amazon Integration

The reality is Amazon can act as an additional powerful sales channel that works in tandem with your ecommerce store. Choosing between Shopify and Amazon doesn’t always have to be an either-or decision. Many businesses successfully use both platforms in tandem to maximise reach and sales. The good news is that Shopify offers a native Amazon Sales Channel integration, allowing you to connect your Shopify store with your Amazon Seller Central account. This means you can run your own branded eCommerce website while also listing products on the world’s largest marketplace — all from a single dashboard.

Once integrated, you can create Amazon listings directly from Shopify, sync inventory and product details across both platforms and manage orders in one place. This streamlines operations prevents overselling, and ensures consistent product information. You’ll still need an Amazon Professional Seller account to access this feature, and product eligibility depends on the category and region, but it's a powerful way to unify your sales strategy. If you’re exploring multichannel selling, you might also consider integrations with other marketplaces like Etsy, eBay, or Walmart alongside Shopify.

Charle X Amazon Brands

In the comparison between leading ecommerce platforms, both Shopify and Amazon offer powerful solutions — from advanced marketing tools and extensive sales channels to robust inventory management and customer support. But in contrast, Shopify stands out for its unmatched customization options, scalable infrastructure, and thriving app ecosystem.

Shopify allows entrepreneurs, individuals, and companies to create bespoke storefronts and websites tailored to their brand identity, without requiring deep coding experience. Whether you're selling books, clothing, or a connected device, Shopify gives business owners full control over product descriptions, images, referral fees, display ads, promotions, and campaigns. With integrated tools like Stripe, deep analytics, and a comprehensive Help Center, it supports long-term growth while maintaining a professional online presence.

Unlike Amazon FBA, where you rent space on a shared marketplace and follow rigid policies, Shopify puts brand ownership front and center. From the App Store to advanced SEO and search engine visibility, it offers lots of opportunities to scale efficiently. If you're still weighing things up in your mind — whether you're launching your first store or migrating from another platform — Shopify is built for flexibility and success.

At Charle, we help brands launch or scale with a fully bespoke Shopify store that prioritises performance and brand equity. If you're an Amazon seller looking to establish your own identity or a DTC brand seeking better tools, we can help with everything from custom design and development to marketing. Explore our services as a leading Shopify Agency, or get in touch for email, SMS, or SEO marketing support. Ready to get started? Contact us and let's chat.