An online presence is no longer optional for a retail business, whether you sell at markets, from the boot of your car, or through a small shop. The real question is which of the three main approaches actually fits your business.
1. Out-of-the-box platforms
A hosted SaaS e-commerce platform, such as Shopify, suits businesses that want to manage their own store without the hassle of building one from scratch. You pay a monthly or discounted annual subscription in exchange for hosting, security, performance and maintenance all handled for you.
Benefits
- The platform provider handles security, performance and maintenance.
- Free or paid templates get your store looking professional quickly.
- Built-in compliance with payment card industry standards reduces fraud risk.
- A wide ecosystem of plug-ins and add-ons extends functionality and marketing capability.
2. Building your own
A custom-built store suits small brands with genuine ambitions to scale, though it typically requires a proper developer, web designer and user experience specialist to do well.
Benefits
- Complete freedom to customise the store exactly to your specifications.
- Full control over your brand’s presentation.
- Direct access to your customer data and relationship, with no platform intermediary.
3. Marketplaces
An online marketplace acts as an intermediary between buyer and seller, well suited to businesses without the capital, time or existing following to build a standalone store. Marketplaces typically charge a commission and/or monthly fee, and can be horizontal (selling everything, like a general marketplace) or vertical (a curated, specific category).
Benefits
- The marketplace handles admin, marketing, delivery and payments on your behalf.
- Customers get a one-stop shop, with your brand benefiting from the marketplace’s own existing traffic.
- Shared infrastructure and audience across all sellers on the platform, at a genuinely lower cost than building your own.
Frequently asked questions
Which online store option is cheapest to start with?
An out-of-the-box platform or a marketplace typically requires the least upfront investment, since hosting, security and much of the admin is handled by the provider.
Is building a custom online store worth the extra cost?
Generally only once a brand has genuine scale ambitions and the resources to manage a proper development team, since the control it offers comes with real ongoing cost and complexity.
Should I choose a marketplace over my own branded store?
If you lack an existing following or the capital for your own store, a marketplace gets you selling online faster, at the cost of some brand control and a commission on every sale.
Matching the platform to your business’s stage
There’s no single right answer among the three approaches, only the one that genuinely fits your budget, ambition and current stage of growth. Whichever you choose, keep it aligned with your broader brand strategy.
Further reading: Small Business Software and Tech Tools Worth Using Now | Companies and Intellectual Property Commission for official business registration requirements
Originally published in August 2019. Updated September 2026 to refresh this guidance on choosing an online store platform. The underlying comparison remains durable regardless of specific platforms available.
