Marketplace vs. Your Own Store: Where Should You Sell Digital Products?

Where you sell matters as much as what you sell. Here's the honest comparison.

Option 1: Marketplaces (Etsy, Creative Market)

Pros:

Built-in traffic — people are already browsing

Easy to list products

No website needed

Cons:

Heavy competition — you're one of thousands

Platform takes a cut (Etsy: listing fees + 6.5% transaction fee)

You don't own the customer relationship

Limited branding and customization

Algorithm changes can kill your visibility overnight

Option 2: Platform Stores (Gumroad, Payhip)

Pros:

Easy setup

Direct link sharing

Some customization

Cons:

Gumroad takes up to 10% of every sale

Limited design control — your store looks like everyone else's

No real website (just a product page)

No blog, no landing pages, no SEO

Option 3: Your Own Store (AwayBase)

Pros:

Complete brand control

Full website with blog, landing pages, about section

Zero platform transaction fees

You own the customer relationship

Built-in SEO, analytics, and email capture

Courses, memberships, events — not just downloads

Cons:

You drive your own traffic (but you should be doing this anyway)

The Verdict

Marketplaces are good for discovery. Your own store is good for building a business.

The best strategy? Use marketplaces as a funnel. List a few products on Etsy or Gumroad to get discovered, then direct customers to your AwayBase store for the full experience and higher margins.

Your own store is the only platform where you control the brand, the margins, and the customer relationship. In the long run, that's what builds a sustainable business.