You are paying Amazon 20-30% of every sale. Flipkart takes a similar cut. After referral fees, closing fees, FBA charges, and advertising costs, most sellers keep somewhere between 0.5% and 5% net margin on marketplace orders. You are essentially building someone else’s brand on someone else’s platform with someone else’s customers.
Here is the thing nobody says out loud: you do not have to choose. The smartest brands in India run their own store AND stay on marketplaces. Amazon and Flipkart become discovery channels — the storefronts where new customers find you. Your own website becomes the place where those customers come back, where you keep 98% of revenue instead of 70%, and where you actually own the relationship.
This guide walks you through the exact math, the migration strategy, and everything you need to set up your own store — without abandoning the marketplace sales you already have.
The Commission Math
Before we talk strategy, let us look at the actual numbers. Most Amazon and Flipkart sellers do not add up all the fees. They see the referral commission and think that is the total cost. It is not even close.
What You Pay on Amazon India
Add it all up: Referral fee (15%) + closing fee (2%) + FBA (5-8%) + advertising (5-10%) = 27-35% of your selling price goes to Amazon. On a Rs 1,000 product, you keep Rs 650-730 before your own product cost, packaging, and GST. After COGS, most sellers net 0.5-5%.
What You Pay on Your Own Store
The Case Study: Rs 9 Lakh/Month in Saved Commissions
Let us make this concrete. Consider a brand doing Rs 50 lakh per month on Amazon India. Here is what the numbers look like:
| Metric | Amazon | Own Store | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Revenue | Rs 50,00,000 | Rs 50,00,000 | — |
| Platform Commission | Rs 10,00,000 (20%) | Rs 1,00,000 (2%) | Rs 9,00,000 saved |
| Customer Data | Amazon owns it | You own it | Priceless for retention |
| Repeat Purchase Marketing | Pay Amazon Ads again | Free (email, WhatsApp) | Compounds over time |
| Annual Savings | — | — | Rs 1,08,00,000/year |
Even if you only shift 30% of your marketplace revenue to your own store, that is Rs 2.7 lakh per month in recovered commissions — Rs 32 lakh per year. The store setup pays for itself in the first week.
What Marketplaces Don’t Give You
The commission is the obvious cost. But the hidden cost is what you never get from Amazon and Flipkart — and it compounds over time.
- Customer email and phone number: Amazon does not share buyer contact details. You cannot email your customers, you cannot message them on WhatsApp, you cannot build a relationship. Every sale is a one-time transaction with a stranger.
- Repeat purchase data: You do not know who bought from you twice, who abandoned their cart, or who browsed for 10 minutes and left. Your own store gives you all of this through analytics.
- Brand experience: On Amazon, your brand competes with 50 others on the same page. Sponsored product ads from competitors appear on YOUR listing. On your own store, the entire experience is your brand. No competitors, no distractions.
- Pricing control: Amazon penalizes you if your product is cheaper elsewhere. Flipkart runs flash sales that slash your margins. On your own store, you set the price. Period.
- SEO equity: Every search result that leads to your Amazon listing builds Amazon’s domain authority, not yours. Your own store builds your own SEO over time, creating a compounding asset.
The fundamental problem: On marketplaces, you are renting customers. On your own store, you own them. The longer you wait to build your own channel, the more dependent you become on platforms that can change their fees, suppress your listings, or promote competitors at any time.
The Migration Strategy
This is not about abandoning marketplaces. That would be foolish — Amazon and Flipkart have massive audiences that you cannot replicate overnight. The strategy is to keep marketplaces running as a discovery channel while systematically building your own direct revenue stream.
Build Your Own Store
Get a proper e-commerce store set up with your full product catalog, Razorpay for payments, and Shiprocket for shipping. This is your foundation. On Shopify vs a custom build — either works, but choose based on your catalog size and budget.
Insert Cards and Flyers in Every Marketplace Order
This is the single most effective tactic. Every order you ship from Amazon or Flipkart includes a physical card that says: “Get 15% off your next order at [yourbrand.com].” Include a QR code that goes directly to your website. Amazon does not allow this officially, but most sellers do it. The card goes inside the product packaging, not the shipping box.
Point All Social Media to Your Own Store
Every Instagram post, every Facebook ad, every YouTube link should point to your own website — not Amazon. Your social media followers are YOUR audience. Send them to a platform where you keep 98% of revenue, not 70%.
Shift Ad Spend Gradually
Start allocating 20-30% of your advertising budget to driving traffic to your own store instead of Amazon listings. Run Google Shopping Ads and Facebook/Instagram ads that link to your website. Track ROAS separately for each channel. As your own store gains traction, shift more budget over.
Build the Retention Engine
Once customers buy from your own store, you have their email and phone number. Set up post-purchase email sequences, WhatsApp order updates, and re-engagement campaigns. This is where your own store starts compounding — repeat customers cost nothing to acquire.
Most brands that follow this strategy see 15-25% of their marketplace customers convert to direct buyers within six months. By month twelve, your own store can account for 30-50% of total revenue — at dramatically higher margins.
What You Need for Your Own Store
Setting up an online store in India is simpler and cheaper than most sellers think. Here is the complete checklist. If you want a full cost breakdown, read our guide on how much a website costs in India in 2026.
Total setup cost: Rs 25,000 to 1,50,000 depending on whether you choose Shopify or a custom build, and how large your product catalog is. Compare this to the Rs 5-15 lakh per year you are losing in marketplace commissions. The store pays for itself within the first month for most brands.
Common Fears (Addressed Honestly)
Every Amazon or Flipkart seller who considers launching their own store has the same three fears. All of them are either wrong or fixable.
“I will lose all my sales”
You are not shutting down Amazon. You are adding a second channel. Your marketplace listings stay live, your reviews stay, your sales continue. The only difference is that you now also have a channel where you keep 98% of revenue.
Reality: You keep 100% of your marketplace sales and add new direct sales on top.
“It is too expensive to set up”
A proper e-commerce store costs Rs 25,000 to 1,50,000 to build. If you are doing Rs 50 lakh per month on Amazon, you are paying Rs 10 lakh per month in commissions. The store setup is less than one week’s worth of commission savings.
Reality: Rs 25K-1.5L setup vs Rs 60L-1.2Cr/year in marketplace commissions. It is not expensive — it is the cheapest investment you will ever make.
“I do not know tech”
You do not need to know tech. That is what developers are for. You focus on your products and marketing. Someone else handles the website, the payment gateway integration, the shipping API, and the mobile optimization.
Reality: If you can manage an Amazon Seller Central account, you can manage a Shopify dashboard. And if you want a custom build, we handle the entire technical setup.
How PingPal Sets Up Your Store
We have built e-commerce stores for Indian D2C brands. Here is exactly what you get when you work with us:
We handle the entire technical setup so you can focus on what you do best — running your brand. You should not have to worry about payment gateway integrations or shipping APIs. That is our job. See full details and pricing on our e-commerce store setup service page.