Shopify vs Amazon
Amazon is the most powerful marketplace in the world. It has traffic that no proprietary channel can replicate overnight. But there's a truth that every brand selling on Amazon eventually learns, sometimes the hard way: Amazon is not your partner. It's your distribution channel. And there's a fundamental difference between the two. A partner grows with you. A distribution channel uses you when it suits them, competes with you when it can, and can cut off your access at any time. The Shopify vs. Amazon comparison isn't about which one sells more. It's about which one builds a lasting brand.
When a brand in Mexico, Colombia, or Argentina adds up referral fees, FBA costs, Amazon Ads advertising (necessary for visibility), storage, and returns, the real cost of selling on Amazon often exceeds 30% of the selling price. That's not a sales channel: it's a partner that takes almost a third of every sale you make. With Shopify, you pay a fixed monthly subscription and the rest is yours.
Amazon has a documented history of copying successful products from third-party sellers and launching them under its own Amazon Basics or Amazon Essentials brand. If your product is successful on Amazon, Amazon has access to all your sales data: volume, price, estimated margins, reviews, and buyer behavior. This information can be used to compete directly with you in your own category. This is not speculation: it has happened to thousands of sellers worldwide and has been documented in U.S. Congressional investigations.
Amazon analyzes the sales data of all its sellers and launches its own products in the most profitable categories. Your success on Amazon can become the roadmap for your most powerful competitor.
Seller accounts with years of history and thousands of reviews are suspended by automatic algorithms. The appeal process is slow, opaque, and often unsuccessful. Without your own channel, such a suspension paralyzes everything.
Amazon does not give you the contact information of your buyers. Every customer who buys is an Amazon customer. If you leave the marketplace tomorrow, you lose that entire customer base with no way to contact them.
If you lose the Buy Box due to price, rating, or Amazon policies, your sales can drop by 80% overnight. That decision is made by an algorithm, not by you.
The buyer remembers buying from Amazon. They don't remember your brand. You build recognition for the marketplace, not for yourself. Every sale strengthens Amazon, not your business.
Amazon Ads is increasingly expensive and increasingly necessary for visibility. FBA storage costs regularly rise. Every policy change can impact your profitability without you being able to do anything.
Do you sell on Amazon and want to build your own Shopify channel without stopping sales on the marketplace? I can help you design the right strategy for your brand in Latin America.
Speak with a Shopify expert for Amazon brands →Every buyer in your Shopify store gives you their email and data. You can do email marketing, retention, and loyalty without intermediaries or algorithms.
Complete design of the buying experience. Product pages that tell your story, your purpose, and your differentiation. Impossible on Amazon.
No 8% to 15% commissions, no 15% to 20% FBA, no mandatory Amazon Ads. Your margin is yours. You can reinvest it in growing your brand.
You know exactly which pages your customers visit, where they abandon, what products they view together. On Amazon, that data belongs to Amazon, not you.
No competitors on the same product page. No price war. Your value proposition goes beyond the lowest price.
Your Shopify store is an asset with its own value: customer base, SEO positioning, built brand. It can be sold, scaled, it belongs to you.
| Criterion | Shopify WINS | Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Customer ownership | Every buyer is yours. Email, history, behavioral data. You can contact them, build loyalty, and resell to them without intermediaries. | Buyers belong to Amazon. No access to contact data. If you leave the marketplace, you lose that entire customer base. |
| Cost per sale | Fixed monthly subscription starting at $39 USD. No sales commissions. Your margin is yours. | 8% to 15% referral fee + 15% to 20% FBA + Amazon Ads. Total cost of 30% to 45% of the selling price in many categories. |
| Brand building | Completely personalized shopping experience. Your story, your design, your voice. The buyer remembers your brand and directly seeks you out again. | Standard Amazon experience. Your brand is a secondary element. The buyer remembers Amazon, not your name. |
| Initial traffic | You must generate your own traffic. SEO, paid advertising, and social media are necessary from the start. | Hundreds of millions of active buyers. Massive traffic is Amazon's most powerful advantage and the most difficult to replicate. |
| Business stability | Your store is yours. No algorithm can suspend it. No policy change can destroy your operation overnight. | Account suspensions by automatic algorithms, policy changes without warning, and risk of direct competition from Amazon in your category. |
| Email marketing and retention | Cart recovery, automated email sequences, loyalty programs, and advanced segmentation. Complete tools to maximize customer LTV. | Prohibited from contacting buyers directly outside the platform. Zero possibility of email marketing or direct retention. |
| Proprietary data | Full access to behavioral data: pages visited, products viewed, conversion funnels, traffic sources. Data that belongs to you. | Amazon retains all buyer behavioral data. You only see sales, not the path that led to them. |
| Price control | You decide your price without pressure from competitors on the same page. Your value proposition goes beyond price. | Permanent price war. Amazon can penalize you if your price on other channels is lower than on Amazon (price parity). You lose control of your pricing strategy. |
| Proprietary organic SEO | Your store can rank on Google for searches of your products. Every organic visit is traffic that belongs to you and grows over time. | SEO benefits Amazon. When someone searches for your product on Google and lands on Amazon, they also see your competitors and Amazon's products. |
| Integration with Shopify | Shopify integrates with Amazon to synchronize inventory and manage orders from both channels from a single dashboard. | Amazon can operate in parallel with Shopify through integrations. They are not exclusive: they are complementary with different roles. |
Shopify vs Amazon: They are neither equivalent nor exclusive platforms. Amazon is the distribution channel with the most traffic in the world. Shopify is the platform for building your own brand, owning your customers, and not depending on a third party's rules. For established brands in Latin America, the correct strategy is to use Amazon to attract buyers and Shopify to convert them into customers of your brand. Relying exclusively on Amazon is building on ground that is not yours.
The smartest brands selling on Amazon don't see it as their primary channel: they see it as their acquisition channel. Amazon for new buyers to discover your product. Shopify to convert them into customers of your brand. The transition can be as simple as including a card in the packaging of every Amazon order with an incentive to buy directly from your store: an exclusive discount, access to products only available on your own channel, or a loyalty program.
Over time, every customer you migrate from Amazon to your Shopify store is a customer who no longer pays commissions to Amazon, who knows your brand directly, and whom you can retain with email marketing. This progressive migration of buyers from Amazon to your own customers is the strategy that builds lasting brands in Latin America.
Amazon has a price parity policy that can penalize you if you sell your product cheaper on other channels than on Amazon. This means Amazon can control your pricing strategy across all your channels, not just its own. For brands that want to have a Shopify store with differentiated pricing or exclusive promotions for their direct customers, this policy is a real restriction that must be considered in the dual-channel strategy.
If your brand already sells on Amazon and you're ready to build your own Shopify channel, the first step is to design the right strategy for your category and your market in Latin America.
Request a strategic consultationYou don't have to leave Amazon to launch your Shopify store. The right time is now, while you continue selling on the marketplace. Every day that passes without your own channel is a day you are not building your customer base, not building your brand, and not reducing your dependence on Amazon. The Shopify store can be launched in parallel, and over time it becomes your highest margin and most strategically valuable channel.
If you are in the early stages of your brand and need Amazon's traffic to validate your product and generate your first reviews, Amazon is the right channel to start. If your margin is high enough to absorb commissions and FBA costs, and if your short-term goal is volume rather than brand building, Amazon can be your primary channel for now. But as soon as you have volume and want to build a brand that belongs to you, Shopify is the necessary next step.
Conclusion: Shopify vs Amazon for brands in Latin America. The comparison Shopify or Amazon has a clear answer for established brands that want to build a lasting business: you need both, with distinct roles and a clear strategy to progressively migrate your Amazon buyers to your own customers on Shopify. Amazon can give you sales today. Shopify builds you a brand forever. The smartest brands in Latin America use both.
If you're ready to build your own Shopify channel while continuing to sell on Amazon, I'm here to help you design that strategy correctly.
Speak with a Shopify expert in LATAM