Marketplace or your own store this Diwali? What each one costs you
A marketplace brings you buyers, and in return it takes commission and keeps the customer. Your own store keeps the margin and the customer, and in return you bring the buyers. So the honest answer depends on one question: can you reach people yourself? If you have followers, contacts or a shop counter, open your own store. If you have none, list on a marketplace and open your own store beside it. Diwali is on Sunday 8 November 2026, which leaves six weeks, and that changes a few things.
Key takeaway: use a marketplace to be found by strangers and treat its commission as the price of a new customer. Use your own store for everyone you can reach yourself, for hampers and personalised gifts, and for repeat orders. On SitesPlaced your own store is free with 0% commission and can be live today, so trying it costs nothing even if you list on a marketplace too.
TL;DR
- • Marketplace wins on: traffic, a checkout buyers already trust, and festive sale events.
- • Your own store wins on: margin, the customer’s details, gifts made to order, and your own rules.
- • The Diwali twist: time. A store is live the same day; marketplace approval runs on the marketplace’s clock.
- • Doing both: standard products on the marketplace, everything personal on your own store, stock split between them.
- • After Diwali: only your own store lets you message this year’s buyers next year.
Side by side, for the Diwali weeks
| A marketplace | Your own store on SitesPlaced | |
|---|---|---|
| Where buyers come from | The marketplace’s own shoppers, already searching | You: Instagram, WhatsApp, your shop counter, word of mouth |
| What you pay | Commission and fees on each sale, set by the marketplace | ₹0 to SitesPlaced, 0% commission. Your payment gateway charges its own fee on online payments |
| Who keeps the customer | The marketplace | You. Name, phone and address come with every order |
| When you are paid | On the marketplace’s payout cycle | Online payments go to your own gateway account; COD comes through your courier |
| Time to start | Seller sign-up, documents and listing approval | The same day |
| Hampers and personalised gifts | Fixed listings work best | Build-your-own hamper page, a gift note and a photo upload on a product |
| Returns and packaging | The marketplace’s rules | Your rules, written on your own policy pages |
| Your last order date | The marketplace’s delivery promise | You set it, show it in the announcement bar, and pause ordering when you stop |
This post is about the Diwali weeks only. The year-round version of the choice, with a fee example worked line by line, is in marketplace vs own website, and the method for selling with no commission at all is in how to sell online without marketplace commissions.
What a marketplace does well in a festive season
Be fair to it. A marketplace has the one thing a new seller cannot make in six weeks: shoppers. People open it to search for “diya set” or “dry fruit box” with money ready. They trust its checkout and its returns. Its festive sale events are built to bring even more of them.
If your product is standard and boxed, the kind of thing people search for by name, and nobody knows your brand yet, a marketplace listing can sell units your own store would not. The commission is what you pay for a buyer you did not have.
What it costs you: the margin
Commission is the cut of each sale the marketplace keeps. As of September 2026, our marketplace guide puts typical commission at 5–25% of the sale price, depending on the marketplace and the category, with closing and payment-collection fees on top. Fees change, so read the fee page for your own category. Here is what the two ends of that range do to one ₹1,200 hamper. It is a worked example, not a quote from any marketplace.
| Per hamper | Marketplace at 5% | Marketplace at 25% | Your own store |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hamper price | ₹1,200 | ₹1,200 | ₹1,200 |
| Commission at 5% and at 25% | ₹60 | ₹300 | ₹0 |
| Payment gateway fee (2% as a round example) | Set by the marketplace, not counted here | Set by the marketplace, not counted here | ₹24 |
| Left before product, packing and delivery costs | ₹1,140 | ₹900 | ₹1,176 |
Example only. Marketplace closing and collection fees are not included because they differ by marketplace. The 2% gateway fee is a round figure; check your gateway’s rate. A direct UPI transfer or a cash-on-delivery order has no gateway fee, though your courier may charge to collect cash. Delivery costs apply on both sides.
On fifty hampers, the gap in this example is between ₹1,800 and ₹13,800. That is money for packaging, or for a better box. Put your own numbers into the profit margin calculator before you decide.
What it costs you: the customer
A marketplace buyer is the marketplace’s customer. You ship the parcel, but you cannot message that person when your next range is ready. Next Diwali you start again and pay the commission again.
On your own store, every order arrives with a name, a phone number and an address. A gift buyer who was happy this year is the easiest sale you will make next year, and the wedding season follows straight after Diwali. How to bring them back is in how to get repeat customers.
Four things that are different in the Diwali weeks
- 1. Time. A marketplace has its own seller sign-up, document checks and listing approval. Ask how long each takes before you plan around it. A SitesPlaced store can be live the same day: the importer builds one from your Instagram, website or PDF catalogue in about a minute.
- 2. Gifts made to order. Diwali buyers want to choose what goes in the box and add a name or a message. A fixed listing handles that poorly. Your own store has a build-your-own hamper page, free, where the buyer picks the items and you set the price by the number of items. A product can also ask for a note and a photo. See how to sell Diwali gift hampers online.
- 3. Your last order date. On your own store you decide it. Ask your courier for their last pickup that still arrives before Diwali, put that date in the announcement bar, and pause ordering with your own message when you stop shipping.
- 4. When the money arrives. You buy Diwali stock before you sell it, so cash timing matters. A marketplace pays out on its own cycle; ask what it is. On your own store, online payments go to your own Razorpay, PhonePe or Cashfree account and settle on that gateway’s schedule.
What your own store will not do
It will not bring visitors by itself. A new store starts with the people you send to it: your Instagram bio, your stories, your WhatsApp status, the QR code on your counter or in your parcels. If you have no way to reach anyone, a store alone will be quiet.
Once visitors do arrive, mostly on phones from a story or a WhatsApp message, the first moment matters. On every paid plan, from Starter at ₹199/month, store pages answer about 4× faster than on the free plan: about 75 ms instead of about 330 ms, measured on live paid stores on 28 September 2026. “Answer” means the moment the page starts arriving, before the photos load. Starter also puts the store on your own domain, which can help a first-time buyer trust a shop they have not heard of. More on that in how to make customers trust your online store.
When to do both, and how to split it
| What | Where | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Boxed, standard products people search for by name | Marketplace | Search traffic is the reason to be there |
| Build-your-own hampers and personalised gifts | Your own store | They need choices, a note or a photo from the buyer |
| Followers, contacts and walk-in customers | Your own store | You found them. Don’t pay commission to reach them again |
| Bulk and corporate orders | Your own store and a direct quote | One invoice, one price, agreed directly |
| Repeat buyers after Diwali | Your own store | You have their number and can tell them what is new |
- Split your stock at the start. The marketplace and your store count stock separately. If you have 100 boxes, decide how many each gets, and move stock by hand when one side runs low.
- Send your own audience only to your own store. Your bio link, your stories and your WhatsApp status should never point at a listing that charges you commission.
- Read the rules before you add an insert. A marketplace may have a policy about cards that send buyers elsewhere. Parcels from your own store can carry your store’s QR code, which you download from the dashboard.
- Take bulk orders directly. An office ordering forty hampers wants one quote and one invoice. That is covered in winning corporate Diwali gifting orders.
The verdict
A marketplace is a good place to be found and an expensive place to stay. For Diwali 2026, open your own store first, because it is free, takes 0% commission and can be live today. Then add a marketplace for the products that need strangers, if its approval comes through in time. Everyone you can reach yourself should land on a store that is yours. All five selling options are compared in the best platform to sell online this Diwali, and the week-by-week plan is on the Diwali hub.
Frequently asked questions
Should I sell on a marketplace or my own store this Diwali?
If nobody knows your brand, a marketplace is where new shoppers are, and that is worth its commission. If you already have followers, WhatsApp contacts or a shop with regular customers, send them to your own store and keep the margin and the customer. With six weeks to Diwali on 8 November 2026, you can also do both: a few bestsellers on a marketplace and everything else on your own store.
How much commission do marketplaces charge?
It depends on the marketplace and the product category. As of September 2026 our marketplace guide puts typical commission at 5–25% of the sale price, with closing and payment-collection fees on top. Fees change, so read the fee page for your own category before you list, and work out what one sale leaves you.
Is it too late to get listed on a marketplace before Diwali?
It depends on the marketplace. Each has its own seller sign-up, document checks and listing approval, and those run on its timeline, not yours. Ask how long approval takes before you count on it. Your own store can be live the same day, so open it first and add the marketplace if it comes through in time.
Can I sell on a marketplace and my own store at the same time?
Yes. Keep standard, boxed products on the marketplace for discovery, and hampers, personalised gifts, bulk orders and repeat buyers on your own store. Stock is counted separately in each place, so split it at the start and update both by hand when something sells out.
Can I put my store link inside a marketplace parcel?
Check the marketplace’s seller policy first. A marketplace may have rules about inserts that send buyers elsewhere, and you agreed to its rules when you signed up as a seller. Parcels you ship from your own store can carry your store’s QR code freely.
What does my own store cost on SitesPlaced?
The free plan is ₹0 with 0% commission and no limit on products or orders. Starter at ₹199/month adds your own domain, removes the badge and makes store pages answer about 4× faster than on the free plan. Growth at ₹499/month adds Buy X Get Y offers and the sales boosters. The code FREE7 gives 7 days free on Starter or Growth with autopay.
Keep the margin and the customer
Open your own store free, with 0% commission, UPI, cash on delivery, WhatsApp checkout and a hamper page. Add a marketplace beside it if you need the traffic.
