Amazon destroying your D2C? | Upside #90

Strategy

11 Jun

Amazon vs DTC: Do You Really Own Your Customer?

"I own my customer because I sell on my own website" is one of the most common things brands say to justify skipping Amazon, and it doesn't really hold up. This episode makes the case for why your brand, not your website, your email list or your infrastructure, is the only thing you actually own, and why that changes where you should be selling.

In this episode: the team debates the real difference between selling on a marketplace and selling direct, and where each one actually earns its place.

Key takeaways

The idea that selling on your own website means you "own the customer" doesn't hold up: your website runs on rented infrastructure (Shopify, Google traffic, social ads, tools like Klaviyo for email) just as much as a marketplace listing does.
What you actually own is your brand, that's the real IP worth protecting, regardless of which channel you sell through.
Marketplace customers aren't exclusive to you: the same shoppers get retargeted by competitors' ads on Amazon itself, so staying off the marketplace doesn't protect the relationship, it just hands the sale to a competitor.
If cash is limited, start on the marketplace rather than your own website: it needs the least upfront investment since the traffic and trust infrastructure already exist, and roughly 86% of shoppers start their search on Amazon.
Even well-funded DTC-first brands still leak sales without an Amazon presence, since their own brand-awareness advertising drives searches that end up on Amazon anyway.
Amazon and DTC serve different customer behaviours rather than competing for the same one: Amazon sells convenience and certainty (same-day or next-day delivery, established trust), DTC captures impulse and considered purchases built on brand affinity.
The practical strategy for most brands: use the marketplace as the demand-capture layer where customers already are, and use your own website to build trust, retention and a destination for repeat purchases.

Timestamps

00:00 — The real IP you own is your brand, not your infrastructure
00:31 — Why "I own my customer" doesn't hold up
02:00 — Your brand is the real IP, whichever channel you sell through
04:04 — The counter-argument: losing email and remarketing by selling on Amazon
06:58 — Why competitors are already marketing to "your" customers on Amazon
07:23 — If cash is limited, start on the marketplace, not DTC
09:01 — Why even well-funded DTC brands still need Amazon
09:38 — WhatsApp marketing, and why it hasn't taken off in the UK and EU
11:58 — Amazon convenience vs DTC impulse: different customer behaviours
14:03 — Confidence and trust: why Amazon wins on certainty
16:19 — The actual strategy: budget and goals decide the platform split

The detail

Why "owning the customer" is mostly an illusion
Selling direct feels like ownership because you control the email list and the checkout, but almost everything underneath that is rented: Shopify hosts the site, Google and social platforms supply the traffic, Klaviyo or similar sends the emails, and a third-party carrier handles the actual delivery. What's genuinely owned in that whole picture is the brand itself, not the infrastructure around it, and that's true whether the sale happens on a marketplace or a branded website. More on this in You Don't Own Your Amazon Customers. You Don't Own Your Website Ones Either.

If cash is limited, start on the marketplace
Building a DTC-first brand from scratch requires funding brand awareness before any sales materialise, since the audience and trust have to be built. A marketplace like Amazon requires far less upfront investment because the traffic, search intent and buyer trust already exist, roughly 86% of shoppers start their product search there. For a cash-constrained brand, that makes the marketplace the lower-risk starting point, not the compromise option.

Even well-funded DTC brands leak sales without Amazon
Brands with real marketing budgets to run DTC-first, paid social and content to build a following, still see a meaningful share of that same traffic search for the product on Amazon before buying. If the listing isn't there to catch that demand, that traffic and ad spend effectively goes to fund a competitor's sale instead. The practical advice for well-funded brands: run both rather than picking one.

Amazon convenience vs DTC impulse: not really a competition
Amazon shoppers are typically solving a need with urgency and want certainty: same-day or next-day delivery from a platform they already trust. DTC purchases tend to come from impulse or a considered decision built on brand affinity, retargeting, and enough exposure to build trust in a less familiar site. Because these are different buying moments rather than the same customer choosing between two options, a strategy built around "either/or" misses that both moments are real and both are worth capturing. See also On Amazon, Your Brand Is the Only Thing You Actually Own.