How do you grow beyond Amazon and turn your store into a real, sustainable eCommerce brand? The short answer is that you keep Amazon as a core channel, but slowly add your own sales and marketing engines so your business doesn’t depend on a single marketplace. That way, your growth is more predictable, your margins are healthier, and you’re less exposed to policy changes or account issues.
In this guide, we’ll look at when it makes sense to expand, which channels to add first, and how to keep pricing and operations under control while you grow.
63% of consumers start their search for a new product on Amazon.
What’s the problem with being Amazon-only?
If you want a business that keeps growing even when fees rise, competition tightens, or your account health has a wobble, you need to branch out. Amazon is an incredible launchpad, but it isn’t designed to give you full control over your brand, your margins, or your customer relationships.
Think about your current risk profile. If Amazon throttled your ads tomorrow, changed a fee structure, or placed a temporary hold on your account, what would that do to your cash flow? If the answer is “a lot”, then it’s time to start building more legs under the table so your business stands up even when one leg shakes.
Growing beyond Amazon doesn’t mean walking away from it but rather using Amazon for what it’s great at, while building assets you control, like your own store, your email list, and a loyal customer base that will buy from you elsewhere.
Global eCommerce sales are forecast to reach $6.88 trillion in 2026 and account for about 21.1% of all retail sales.
How do you know when you’re ready to grow beyond Amazon?
A good rule of thumb is that your Amazon operation feels mostly stable, your bestsellers are clear, and you’re seeing repeat demand.
Start by looking at a few basics. Do you have 5 to 20 SKUs that reliably sell each month, with some understanding of who buys them and why? Are your core metrics steady, like Buy Box share, feedback, and return rates? If Amazon itself still feels out of control, it’s usually better to stabilize that before you add more moving parts.
You can also look at your team and tools. If you already have processes for stock checks, customer replies, and pricing updates, you’re in a much better position to extend those to other channels. If everything lives in your head or in random spreadsheets, that’s a sign to tighten the basics first so you don’t burn out when more orders start landing.
Around 80% of Amazon sellers already sell across different platforms instead of relying on a single marketplace.
Which channels should you add after Amazon?
So, once you’ve decided to grow beyond Amazon, you might be wondering where to go first. Rest assured you don’t need to be everywhere overnight. You need one or two extra channels that match your customers, your products, and your capacity.
In this section, we’ll talk through the usual sequence that works well for small and mid-sized Amazon sellers.
Launch your own store alongside Amazon
The most common next step is to launch your own store on platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce. That store becomes your “home base” where you control your brand, your pricing, and your customer data, instead of renting space on a marketplace.
Your Amazon listings become discovery and demand engines. Once a shopper loves your product, you can win them back to your own site with packaging inserts, email flows, or loyalty offers that fit platform rules. Over time, that shift helps reduce your reliance on Amazon ads and gives you room to experiment with higher margin offers, bundles, and subscriptions.
Add one or two new marketplaces
Next, you can test one or two other marketplaces where your ideal buyers already hang out. For many Amazon sellers, that might mean selling on eBay, Walmart, or region-specific platforms like Allegro or Kaufland, depending on where you sell. Avoid falling into the “putting everything everywhere” rabbithole and instead focus on extending your reach in a focused way.
Start with your proven winners. List your strongest SKUs first, make sure product data is clean, and confirm that your fulfillment can handle differences in shipping promises and return expectations. Once those SKUs are stable, you can expand the range gradually instead of doing a big, stressful launch that’s hard to support.
Companies with strong omnichannel engagement strategies retain about 89% of their customers, compared with 33% for weaker strategies.
How do you stop multichannel pricing from becoming chaos?
How do you avoid turning multichannel growth into a multichannel mess? The short answer is that you need clear pricing rules, consistent stock levels, and tools that keep everything in sync. If you try to run it all manually, you’ll either slow down or make expensive mistakes.
In this section, we’ll focus on the pricing and operations side so your expansion doesn’t wreck your margins or your sleep.
Set pricing rules that work across channels
As you move beyond Amazon, your pricing decisions get more complicated. You’re balancing different fee structures, competition levels, and shipping costs across multiple platforms. Without a plan, it’s easy to create accidental undercutting or price gaps that confuse shoppers.
Start with a simple structure. Define base prices for your own store, then decide how Amazon and other marketplaces should sit in relation to that, once fees and typical promo levels are included. You might keep Amazon slightly more competitive on key SKUs for visibility, while maintaining higher margins on your site and lower touch marketplaces. The important thing is that those differences are intentional rather than random.
Use repricing software to stay competitive without chaos
As you add more SKUs and channels, it becomes almost impossible to track competitor prices, Buy Box trends, and margins by hand. That’s where a rules-based repricer like RepricerExpress helps you to stop guessing and turn pricing into a system.
You can set minimum prices that protect your profit once fees and shipping are paid, choose strategies that aim for Buy Box share or margin depending on the SKU, and even slow sales if you’re low on stock. Instead of manually hacking prices on Amazon and hoping the numbers work out, you let automation follow your rules in the background while you focus on brand building.
RepricerExpress also plugs into your existing Amazon setup, so you’re not rebuilding your catalog from scratch. You bring your current listings, your preferred strategies, and your channel mix, then tune pricing logic once instead of fighting with it every day.
Here’s the bottom line (and your next steps)
Before we go, let’s bring everything together so you can build the strong brand you’ve been dreaming of.
Remember:
- Amazon’s a great growth engine, but relying on it alone leaves you exposed to fee changes and policy shifts.
- Growing beyond Amazon means adding your own store and a small set of extra channels instead of abandoning marketplaces entirely.
- Your own store gives you control over brand, pricing, and customer data so you can build long-term relationships.
- Extra marketplaces help you meet shoppers where they already are, as long as you don’t overload your team.
- Clear pricing rules and automation keep margins healthy when fees, competition, and demand vary by channel.
- Tools like RepricerExpress let you stay competitive and protect profit while you focus on building a real brand.
Do these next:
- Map your current dependence on Amazon, including the % of revenue and profit that comes from it.
- Identify your top 5 to 20 SKUs that could carry over to new channels with minimal changes.
- Choose one store platform and one extra marketplace to test, based on where your buyers already shop.
- Define simple price bands for each channel so you know how fees and margins stack up.
- Trial a repricing workflow in RepricerExpress so your Amazon pricing supports your wider brand strategy.
If you want your pricing to support brand growth instead of holding it back, RepricerExpress can help. You can tune your rules around real-world costs, channel strategies, and capacity, then let automation handle the busywork.
Are you wondering how this would work with your own catalog? Book a free demo and talk it through with the team.
FAQs
Do I need to leave Amazon to build a real eCommerce brand?
No, you don’t need to leave Amazon. For most sellers, Amazon stays as a key channel for discovery and volume, while brand building happens mainly on their own site and owned channels. The goal is to reduce overdependence, not walk away from a channel that brings in meaningful revenue.
Which should I launch first, my own store or another marketplace?
If you want a long-term brand, it usually makes sense to launch your own store first, then add one extra marketplace. Your own site gives you a place to send repeat buyers and build assets like email lists. Extra marketplaces then act as additional “front doors” instead of new owners of your customer relationships.
How many channels are realistic for a small team?
Most small teams do best with Amazon plus one store platform and one or two more marketplaces. Beyond that, the complexity and support load can balloon unless you have strong systems and tools. It’s better to run three or four well-supported channels than seven that constantly feel on fire.
Will multichannel selling always lower my margins?
It doesn’t have to. New channels bring fees and overhead, but they can also bring new audiences and higher average order values. When you set prices intentionally per channel and use tools like RepricerExpress to protect your floors, you can grow top-line revenue without quietly erasing your profit.
How long does it take to see results from growing beyond Amazon?
Results vary of course, but many sellers see early signs within a few months, especially if they move proven SKUs into well-chosen channels. The bigger payoff comes over time, as more of your revenue comes from repeat customers, owned channels, and a mix of marketplaces that don’t all rely on the same rules and fees.
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