E-Commerce Packages Compared: Why Monthly Fees Keep Growing

Starting in e-commerce, you face three paths: marketplaces, rented platforms (monthly-fee storefront builders), and your own site. Their upfront costs differ, but the real difference emerges over time: as sales grow, what each path costs you changes dramatically. Our own price is at the end — in the open.

Marketplaces: fast start, permanent commission

On marketplaces, setup cost is near zero and traffic is ready-made — the fastest route to a first sale. The price is commission: 15-30% per sale depending on category, plus shipping and service fees. For a business at meaningful monthly revenue, that's a permanent six-figure annual expense. Worst of all: the customer belongs to the marketplace, not you — no email, no remarketing, no repeat-sale channel.

Rented platforms: cheap entry, swelling monthly

Storefront builders look attractive at entry. The swelling comes from three places: volume growth forces plan upgrades (product, traffic and user limits), every needed module (ERP integration, advanced reporting, extra languages) costs extra, and annual price hikes are steep. A system that starts cheap can cost 5-10x at scale. And the store still isn't yours: leave the platform and you rebuild design and customer experience from scratch.

Your own store: high entry, flat cost

Your own e-commerce site has the highest upfront cost — but the cost curve is flat: sales can grow tenfold while your monthly cost stays the same, there's no commission, and customer data is yours. The critical threshold: when commission plus subscription regularly exceeds what a site would cost you, your own store wins mathematically. For most businesses that threshold arrives earlier than expected.

The right sequence: both, in order

These paths aren't rivals; they're stages. The healthy setup is usually: keep selling on the marketplace (ready traffic), build your own store in parallel, and migrate customers gradually (even a discount code inside the package works). The goal isn't quitting the marketplace — it's not depending on it.

Our number — in the open

Our e-commerce store setup is 39,900 TL with 3,900 TL/month care — flat, independent of your revenue, zero commission on your sales. Scope includes online payment (iyzico), product/stock management, shipping integration and technical SEO; the store is built entirely under your name. Not ready for that investment? Our honest middle step: a WhatsApp catalogue — your products in WhatsApp, orders through chat, far cheaper, and a natural first step toward full e-commerce. Message us and we'll do the math on your numbers honestly — sometimes our answer is "stay on the marketplace for now".