# Choose where to sell online: my own store or marketplaces

Compares running your own store against marketplaces for your products, costs, and goals, then recommends a starting setup.

- Topic: Business Strategy & Startups
- Framework: Few-Shot
- Level: Standard
- Tags: Finance, Analyze, Fill-in Template
- Source: https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/prompts/choose-where-to-sell-online-my-own-store-or-marketplaces

## Prompt

```text
Help me decide where to start selling my products online.

**What I sell:** [PRODUCTS, price range, handmade / resale / private label / digital]
**Target customers and how they shop:** [DETAILS]
**Options I'm considering:** [e.g. "my own store on a hosted platform, Etsy, Amazon, a local marketplace, social selling"]
**Monthly budget for tools and ads:** [AMOUNT]
**Hours per week:** [NUMBER]
**My strengths:** [e.g. "good at photos and social content", "no audience yet"]
**Previous step (optional):** [PASTE my margin calculation, so fees can be compared against real margins]

Compare the options on:
- Built-in traffic vs. needing to bring my own visitors.
- Fees and how they hit my margins (use my numbers; mark unknown rates [CONFIRM]).
- Control over branding, pricing, and customer data (emails, repeat buyers).
- Rules and risks: product restrictions, account suspension, policy changes, review requirements.
- Setup effort and ongoing work.
- Fit with my product type and customers.

Then:
1. Recommend a starting setup (often one main channel plus one secondary), and explain why.
2. Give me a setup checklist for the recommended channel(s): account, store settings, payments, tax settings, shipping profiles, policies, and legal pages.
3. Name the signal that should trigger adding a second channel.

Output: a comparison table, the recommendation, and the checklist. Remind me to check sales tax/VAT collection rules for where I sell; this is general information, not tax advice.
```

## What to fill in

- DETAILS
- AMOUNT
- NUMBER
- e.g. "good at photos and social content", "no audience yet"
- CONFIRM

Free to copy and use. From ThinkWithPrompt (https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/), a library of 2,663 curated AI prompts.