A powerful sales channel, but a time-consuming one
Marketplaces offer immediate access to millions of buyers who are already actively searching, an acquisition lever few online shops can generate on their own. Amazon operates across Europe; alongside it, each market has its own major platforms, such as Cdiscount, Fnac and Rakuten in France, or ManoMano, a French DIY marketplace also present in several other European countries. But what looks like a simple extension of your shop quickly turns out to be a business in its own right: each marketplace has its own product listing rules, its own visibility algorithm, its own tools for managing stock and prices, and its own responsiveness requirements.
It is this management workload, repeated on every platform, that turns a promising sales channel into a time sink for many online retailers, all the more so when they try to be present on three or four marketplaces at once.
What marketplaces really cost
Before getting started, you need to build each platform's real cost into your profitability calculation: commissions vary widely depending on the product category and the marketplace chosen. Figures observed on the French market, where we are based:
Amazon: around 15% on average (8% for electronics, up to 14% for furniture), with conditions depending on the seller plan.
Cdiscount (France): 8 to 14% depending on the category, 10% on average, with a subscription of around €40 a month before VAT.
Rakuten France: 8 to 22% depending on the category and the subscription plan chosen, with four plans ranging from €0 to €499 a month before VAT.
The key point: the commission is only part of the real cost. The time spent managing listings, customer service and stock tracking must be included in the net margin calculation, or you risk discovering after several months that a marketplace generates revenue without generating profit.
These rates are not always fixed, either. Rakuten, for example, varies its commission according to the subscription plan, from a free plan with a higher commission up to a substantial monthly subscription that reduces it: the right choice depends on your forecast sales volume. Amazon and Cdiscount, on the other hand, leave little room for negotiation outside very large volumes. On other European marketplaces, the same logic applies, with their own rate cards to check before listing.
What delegates well
A large part of marketplace work is technical and repetitive: exactly the kind of task that can be structured and automated effectively.
Creating and optimising product listings: titles, descriptions, keywords, visuals. Each marketplace has its own formatting requirements and its own internal visibility levers.
Regularly synchronising stock and prices between your main shop and each marketplace, using approved tools, to limit sales of out-of-stock products or price gaps that undermine trust.
Reporting: tracking sales, margins and performance by platform, after commission, to know where to focus your efforts.
This technical foundation can be handled by an external provider within a defined scope: it is a matter of configuration and optimisation, not decisions that commit your customer relationship.
What must stay under your control
Conversely, some aspects of managing a marketplace have a direct impact on the health of your seller account, and therefore on your ability to keep selling:
Customer service and buyer messages: a response time that is too long or a badly worded reply can affect your defect rate.
Disputes and returns: handling them involves commercial decisions (refund, goodwill gesture, challenge) that commit you directly.
Account suspensions: they require detailed knowledge of your business and its history, which is hard to delegate entirely.
This is not a question of skill but of responsibility: these are decisions that must remain in the hands of you or your team, even if you are supported on the technical side in parallel.
Being present is not enough; you have to be visible
Opening a seller account guarantees no sales. Each marketplace is a search engine in its own right, with its own product ranking, and thousands of sellers compete there for the top positions. On Amazon, winning the Buy Box, the highlighted purchase area, depends on price, availability, delivery times and the seller's reputation. Elsewhere the logic differs, but the principle remains the same: a product poorly ranked in internal search stays invisible, whatever the platform's overall traffic.
This visibility is worked on like search engine optimisation: titles and descriptions optimised for internal search, visuals that meet requirements, competitive prices, well-maintained customer reviews, and sometimes paid advertising on the platform. It is an ongoing effort, very close to a website's SEO, which explains why a mere presence never mechanically produces sales.
Logistics, a choice that changes everything
One trade-off deserves particular attention: who ships the orders? The major marketplaces offer to handle storage and shipping for you, a paid service that often improves visibility and reassures buyers with short delivery times, but which adds fees and means entrusting your stock to the platform. Shipping yourself, on the other hand, preserves margin and control, at the cost of flawless organisation, because the slightest delay affects the metrics that determine your visibility.
There is no universal answer. Outsourced fulfilment makes sense for standardised, fast-moving products, whereas shipping yourself suits a specialised, fragile or low-volume catalogue better. This choice weighs directly on profitability: it should be calculated product by product rather than across the board.
Good news: AI can lighten the repetitive part of customer service
Without handing over responsibility for decisions, automation (with a tool such as n8n) can help prepare answers to frequent questions (delivery times, order tracking, returns procedures), to be approved by your team before sending. It is a good compromise between saving time and staying in control of the customer relationship.
Start with a single marketplace
Rather than launching on four marketplaces at once, it is better to start on one platform suited to your sector and market, check that the model works (net margin after commissions, order volume, actual customer service workload), then expand gradually. Amazon generates the most volume but demands the most investment (Buy Box, A+ content, advertising) and a commission close to 15% on average. In France, Cdiscount, with an average commission of around 10%, or Rakuten, whose lowest plan costs nothing but applies a higher commission, are often more accessible for starting out and testing a catalogue; in other European countries, the leading national marketplace plays a similar role.
A simplified profitability calculation, by example
For a product sold for €50 on Amazon in a category with a 15% commission, allow around €7.50 in commission, plus handling and shipping fees if you use the marketplace's fulfilment service, before even deducting your purchase or manufacturing cost. Always compare this calculation with your usual margin on direct sales to know whether the extra volume really offsets the cost of reaching these buyers.
A channel to integrate, not a dependency
Marketplaces are a formidable accelerator, but they remain rented territory: the rules, the algorithm and the commissions are set by a third party, and an account can be suspended overnight. The soundest strategy is to use them to capture volume and new customers while keeping your own shop as the foundation, where the margin is not eaten into and the customer relationship stays yours. A marketplace drives sales; a shop builds loyalty.
It is in this spirit that we offer support to set up and optimise your marketplaces: account configuration, product listings, regular stock synchronisation and reporting, with customer service and sensitive decisions remaining in your hands. See also our e-commerce maintenance checklist. Contact us to assess which marketplace best suits your business.
Sources (in French): Sellermania, commissions by marketplace · Rakuten France, marketplace commissions