DTC vs Marketplace: Getting the Channel Mix Right in Australia

Most Australian retailers do best with both: marketplaces for reach and acquisition, and a direct-to-consumer (DTC) storefront for margin, brand and customer relationships. Marketplaces now take nearly a quarter of online spending and most online households use them, but they come with fees, price competition and limited brand control. The deciding factor is operational: running both only pays if stock, listings and orders are managed from one place.

Where Australians actually buy

Australians spent a record $82.6 billion online in 2025, up 14% on 2024 and about 24% of total retail spending, according to Australia Post. Within that:

• Pure online marketplaces such as Amazon and Temu took $18.9 billion, up 13%, or 23% of total online spending. That figure excludes retailer-owned marketplaces such as BIG W Market and Kmart Marketplace, so the real marketplace share is higher.
• 73% of online shopping households bought from a marketplace in 2025, according to Australia Post's marketplace insight report, and 29% of shoppers start product discovery on a marketplace.
• Shopping on marketplace apps (69%) is now almost as common as shopping on retailer websites (78%).

So the question is not whether shoppers use marketplaces. They do. The question is what role each channel plays for your business.

What marketplaces give you, and what they cost

Australia Post summarises the trade-off plainly. The upside: access to large audiences, built-in trust that lifts conversion for newer brands, and infrastructure that scales. The downside: intense competition, margin pressure in categories with low-cost entrants, and reduced control over brand identity and storytelling.

In practice that means:

• Reach without ad spend up front. Marketplace search puts products in front of shoppers who are already looking.
• Fees and price pressure. Commission, fulfilment and advertising fees come off every order, and buy-box style competition pushes prices down.
• Rules you do not set. Listing standards, image requirements, dispatch deadlines and account health metrics are the marketplace's.
• Limited customer data. You fulfil the order but rarely own the relationship for marketing.

What a DTC storefront gives you

Your own store is where you control price presentation, bundling, content and the post-purchase experience. It is also where first-party customer data accumulates, which matters as privacy expectations rise: the OAIC's 2023 community attitudes survey found 84% of Australians want more control over how their information is collected and used, so a direct, consented relationship is more durable than borrowed audiences. See our guide to first-party data after cookies.

A DTC store also gains a new traffic source. Shopify's Q1 2026 data shows AI-referred visitors to merchant stores convert at nearly 50% higher rates than organic search visitors. A fast, well-structured storefront is what those AI tools link to.

The cost: you pay to acquire every visitor, and you carry the full burden of site speed, checkout, customer service and returns.

A practical way to decide the mix

Australia Post's advice is a hybrid model: use marketplaces as acquisition engines for scale and discovery, and nurture your own channels for brand storytelling, loyalty and margin protection. A simple way to apply it:

1. Map products by role. Commodity, price-compared items often belong on marketplaces. Hero products, bundles and items that need explanation suit your store.
2. Work out contribution margin per channel, after fees, shipping, returns and advertising, not just revenue.
3. Pick marketplaces by category fit. A homewares brand may weigh Temple & Webster and BIG W Market differently from an electronics seller looking at Kogan and Amazon.
4. Build brand recognition through product quality and packaging, staying within each marketplace's rules on contacting buyers.
5. Review quarterly. Fees, competition and shopper behaviour change.

The operational trap

Selling everywhere multiplies admin. Salesforce's 2026 ANZ research found no Australian multichannel organisation reported being free of significant failure points; the most common were inventory not synchronised in real time (46%) and inconsistent pricing and promotions (38%). Overselling on one marketplace because stock sold on another can hurt account health metrics and cost you visibility. The channel mix decision is only as good as the systems behind it.

Key figures

• Australians spent $82.6 billion online in 2025, up 14%, about 24% of retail spending (Australia Post, 2026).
• Pure marketplaces took $18.9 billion, 23% of online spending (Australia Post, 2026).
• 29% of shoppers start product discovery on a marketplace (Australia Post, 2026).
• 46% of Australian multichannel organisations report inventory not synced in real time (Salesforce, 2026).
• AI-referred store visitors convert at nearly 50% higher rates than organic search (Shopify, 2026).

How eComChannels helps

eComChannels is built for the hybrid model: reach on marketplaces, margin and relationships on your own store, one operation behind both.

• Order management brings orders from Amazon, eBay, Kogan, BIG W Market, Bunnings Marketplace, Woolworths Everyday Market, THE ICONIC, your storefront and more into one queue, with stock synced across every channel to prevent overselling and protect account health.
• AI listing optimisation publishes from one master product record to each marketplace's rules, so adding a channel takes approvals, not weeks of re-keying.
• Branded storefronts give you a fast, SEO- and GEO-ready DTC store connected to the same catalogue and stock, so the direct channel costs little extra to run.

More channels, more exposure, without more admin. Book a demo or start a 30-day free trial.

FAQ

Should a new brand start on marketplaces or its own site?

Many start on one or two marketplaces for demand and reviews, with a simple storefront for brand searches. What matters is choosing marketplaces that fit your category and keeping stock in sync from day one.

Do marketplaces cannibalise my DTC sales?

Some overlap is normal. Marketplaces also create awareness that later shows up as direct and branded search traffic. Compare contribution margin per channel rather than revenue alone.

How many channels is too many?

When stock accuracy, dispatch times or listing quality start slipping. With centralised orders and listings, the limit is your stock and fulfilment capacity rather than admin time.