You probably know the name Amazon pretty well, but have you ever wondered what it takes to get your product into one of the world’s biggest online marketplaces?

For small business owners, access to an online store like Amazon or Walmart can increase sales, add to the bottom line and help to turn your brand into a recognizable household name.

But not all marketplaces are created equal. A great starting point is to look at a few options and figure out which ones are a fit for your business.

As a business owner, your priority is to keep your business growing and balance the books. In general, there are three factors that can help you answer the question “is it worth it?”

1. 1. Margins. Are their fees low enough to make it worth your while selling on the platform? For example, if your product costs $4 to make and you sell it on your own website for $8, then you’d make a profit of $4. However, if you sell on a platform that takes a $3 cut, then it may not make sense to use that external platform because you’d only be making a $1 profit per unit.
   2. Exposure. How much traffic will the platform send to your page and product compared to your current selling methods?
   3. Conversions. Are the people already on the platform your target customer? Have you done customer discovery to see if they’ll convert into sales? Pro tip: look for competitors or peers on the platform and see how they’re doing.

Pro tip: when you start using an e-commerce site like Amazon, go back and look at 1, 3, and 6 months profits, costs, and seller fees to make sure it’s worth the amount of time and energy you put in.

If you can make these three factors work for you and your products, then it’s likely worth the effort to test a new platform to support your existing online sales.

As you increase sales through platforms like Amazon, Walmart, Etsy, and eBay, a positive side effect is they can legitimize your business and build your brand. Your own website will almost always operate at higher margins, but that extra exposure can lead to better brand recognition, more people searching on Google, finding you on social media etc.

For example, LeGlue, which was featured on Shark Tank and received an investment, noted that at one point they were selling 25 items on Amazon for every 1 on their own site.

Of course they would have preferred to sell more on their own site, but the increased traffic to their products through Amazon outweighed the benefits of the greater short-term profit per unit sold on their own site.

While it will depend on the products you sell, below are a few popular e-commerce platforms to consider testing out.

A good rule of thumb is to have at least 1 owned property (your website and/or brick & mortar store) while using 2 to 3 additional channels like Amazon or eBay, so that if the margins and fees change you are prepared to minimize risk for your business.

Amazon is a household name around the world, and offers the most traffic and exposure for brands. With “fulfillment by Amazon” aka FBA, you can send large quantities of your product to an Amazon fulfillment center, and they will take care of the orders and shipping once sales come in.

Rakuten is a global marketplace based in Japan, and is the fourth largest e-commerce marketplace, which means that like Amazon it can help you reach an international audience. Similar to competitors, you can customize your storefront, return and privacy policies, and start selling.

Etsy products do not necessarily need to be handmade but do require some type of personalization to be posted on the site. In other words, the product can’t be mass produced. Customers that browse Etsy are generally looking for more personalized items than on Amazon so if your product is somewhat homemade and personalized, then Etsy may be the platform for you.

Walmart is relatively similar to Amazon and an easy platform to set up. They typically don’t promote products as intensely as Amazon, but offer another selling stream for your company. If your company does well, you can also access free 2-day shipping and outsourced fulfillment options for your products.

eBay is the easiest of all platforms to set up. Historically, it has been used to sell secondhand items, but these days, it sells up to 75 percent new items. It is another great way to gain exposure for your business.