Build your own ecommerce site – rely less on marketplaces, own your brand store

Why build your own ecommerce site: five risks of marketplace dependence

Marketplaces bring traffic and are a great place to start. When most of your revenue depends on them, though, these risks build up over time.

• Thin margins: store fees, referral fees, payment fees, point programs and in-marketplace ads add up, and less of each sale stays with you
• Someone else sets the rules: when fees, search ranking logic or policies change, your sales feel it directly
• Limited customer relationships: you have restricted ways to use buyer contact details for your own newsletters or repeat offers
• Price comparison: competitors sit on the same screen, so shoppers often pick by price or point rate
• Little room for your brand: page layouts are fixed, leaving little space for your story and style

Your own store is where you decide all of this. A useful first step: put last year's marketplace sales next to everything you paid the marketplace. Seeing your real margin shows how much to invest in your own site.

Keep the marketplace: how the two channels work together

Starting your own store does not mean leaving Rakuten or Amazon overnight. Most brands run both and give each one a clear job.

• Marketplace: reaching new shoppers who search by product name, and volume during big sale events
• Your own site: repeat orders from people who know your brand, subscriptions, bundles, limited items, gifts and brand stories
• Social media and shops: where people discover you. Point those links to your own store so customers build up with you

Own stores grow fastest for repeat-purchase goods such as food and consumables, products with a strong maker story, and brands that already have fans on social media or in a shop. Products compared by model number, like electronics, usually do better on marketplaces. For the brand-led approach, see how to start a D2C brand.

Build options and typical costs

There are four main ways to build your own ecommerce site. Costs vary widely with the partner and the level of customization, so treat the figures below as typical ranges in Japan.

• BASE and similar free-to-start services: low or no monthly fee, with a fee per sale. Good for a small range or for testing demand
• Shopify: monthly plans plus apps for subscriptions, multiple languages and international sales. An agency build on an existing theme typically starts from a few hundred thousand yen; a fully custom design often goes past one million yen
• WordPress + WooCommerce: flexible and easy to combine with a blog or editorial content. You are responsible for hosting, plugin updates and security over time
• Ecommerce packages or a full custom build: for special needs such as links to internal systems. Typically several million yen or more, aimed at larger businesses

Plan for running costs too: monthly plan fees, payment processing, paid apps, hosting and advertising. Put what you pay the marketplace and what you would pay for your own store in one table – the right option becomes much clearer. Our page on ecommerce site development explains how to choose a partner and read a quote.

How to build your own store: steps and what to prepare

The process usually looks like this. For a store with a few dozen products and materials ready, one to two months is a common timeline.

• Goals and range: decide which products lead on your own site and how pricing and range differ from the marketplace
• Platform: choose based on product count, who will update the store and plans for subscriptions or overseas sales
• Product data and photos: names, descriptions, prices, variants, stock and images in one sheet
• Payments and shipping: cards, convenience store payment, pay-later options, shipping rates, carriers and gift wrapping
• Required pages: the legal notice under Japan's Act on Specified Commercial Transactions, a privacy policy and return terms
• Design and pre-launch checks: a test purchase on a phone, order email wording and GA4 tracking

Have ready: logo files, product photos, your marketplace product page URLs, your shipping table and common customer questions. Register the domain, payment and analytics accounts in your own name so the store stays yours. Legal notice rules are updated from time to time, so check the latest Consumer Affairs Agency guidance before launch.

Moving from marketplaces: pitfalls to avoid

An own store does not bring visitors by itself. Know the common traps in advance.

• Expecting marketplace-level traffic with no budget or time set aside for marketing
• Promoting your own site to marketplace buyers through package inserts or emails in a way the marketplace prohibits – rules differ, so check the current terms
• Managing stock separately for each channel, leading to overselling or stockouts
• Charging more or higher shipping than on the marketplace, without a clear reason to buy direct
• Copying marketplace product descriptions as they are, so the brand story never comes through

The most sustainable reasons to buy direct are limited items, subscriptions, gift service, the maker's story and member news. For building traffic after launch – SEO, social media and Google Shopping ads – see ecommerce marketing.

How UNANOBO builds your own store: a free demo first

Before you commit, UNANOBO builds a free demo of your own ecommerce site from your current products and brand. Send us your marketplace product pages or current website, and you get a working store to click through. Looking at the demo, we decide together whether Shopify, BASE or WooCommerce suits you best.

The process is simple: free demo, feedback, launch, growth. The founder handles every project personally, so you keep one contact from the first demo to marketing after launch. Everything runs by message, in Japanese or English. After launch, SEO, Google Shopping and Meta Ads gradually grow the share of sales on your own site.