The moment you decide to sell internationally, the fork appears: list on Amazon, or open your own Shopify store? The right answer depends on your product — but the decision framework is one you already know: do you rent traffic, or build it?
Strip away the details and this is the classic marketplace-vs-own-store decision. Amazon is a rented shelf in the world's busiest store; Shopify is your own land that starts empty. Each choice trades one scarce thing for another.
| Amazon (FBA) | Shopify D2C | |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic | Amazon supplies it (purchase-intent search) | You build it (ads, content) |
| Cost shape | Referral fee + FBA fees — a large slice of revenue | Low fixed + payment fees + your marketing spend |
| Logistics | FBA handles delivery/returns, Prime badge | Direct shipping or your own 3PL |
| Customer data | Amazon's — you don't even get emails | Fully yours — CRM and repurchase possible |
| Brand control | Fixed template, price-war neighbors | Your design, pricing, story |
The price: after referral and FBA fees, thin-margin products barely breathe — run the FBA calculator per product before committing. And the customer belongs to Amazon: repurchases happen inside their walls, and Amazon PPC gradually becomes mandatory.
The price: traffic. You will pay for it with Meta/TikTok ads and content labor, and early CAC can sting. But every customer acquired is an asset you keep.
| Product type | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Searched consumables (beauty single-hero, household) | Amazon | Demand already lives in search |
| Fashion / aesthetic brands | Shopify | Discovery, branding, repurchase are the business |
| Routine consumables (skincare lines) | Amazon for discovery + Shopify for subscriptions | The textbook hybrid |
| High-ticket niche | Shopify + community | Persuasion-heavy sales need your own pages |
Mature cross-border brands usually converge on the same structure: Amazon as the discovery-and-trust storefront, Shopify as the margin-and-relationship home base. Brand inserts in Amazon packages point to the D2C store; social and search traffic land on Shopify; subscriptions and repeat purchases live where the data is yours.
Yes — a Korean entity with a payout solution works for seller registration. A US LLC is a later optimization, not an entry requirement.
They are size- and weight-based, so it depends entirely on the product. Small, light, decent-ticket items thrive; big, heavy, cheap items get eaten. Always calculate per product, never per category.
No shortcut, but a known path: the same grammar you (should) run at home — break-even-disciplined ads, short-form content, influencer seeding. If you have not built that muscle domestically, build it there first; it transfers.
DashBooster keeps revenue, fees and net profit visible in real time, so channel decisions run on numbers.
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