Many shops start selling online by opening a shop on Shopee, which makes sense: people are already there looking for things every day. After a while, though, many shops run into the same questions. Why does the profit per item keep shrinking? Why don’t customers who bought once come back to us? And what happens to the shop if the rules change one day?

The answer isn’t to stop selling on Shopee. It is to understand what a marketplace does well, and what a shop should build for itself.

What selling on Shopee gives you

Shopee is a marketplace: a big online market where many shops sell in one place. Its strengths are clear.

  • People are already browsing, so even a new shop can be seen without building an audience from zero.
  • Customers are familiar with it, and many trust the platform’s payments and returns.
  • Shipping and campaigns are built in, such as big sale days and free-shipping promotions.

If you want strangers to discover your products, Shopee is a good channel.

What you give up

The convenience of a marketplace comes with conditions.

  • Fees on every order: a commission by product category, a payment fee, and service fees for optional programmes such as free shipping or cashback. Together they often come to double-digit percentages of the item price, and the platform can change rates several times a year. Check the current rates in Shopee’s Seller Centre.
  • Price competition with the shop next door. Customers see similar products side by side and can sort by price. Shops that don’t want to cut prices have to compete on something else.
  • The customers belong to the platform. People remember “I bought it on Shopee” more than your shop’s name, and Shopee’s rules don’t allow inviting customers to buy outside the platform.
  • The rules aren’t yours. Fees, the algorithm and policies can change, and the shop has to adapt.

What your own shop website gives you

Your own shop website is a shop that is truly yours.

  • Your brand. The link has your shop’s name, the shop has your colours and logo, and customers remember your shop rather than a platform.
  • No percentage taken from sales. With Tellsell, buyers pay by PromptPay straight to your account. You pay only a monthly plan, and you can start free.
  • Regulars come back to you. Customers who like your products save your link and order again without you competing on price with anyone.
  • Your prices don’t have to match the marketplace. With no commission, you can give regulars a better price or keep more margin.

What you do yourself is bring customers in: social media, LINE chat, walk-in customers and word of mouth. Your own website doesn’t have passers-by the way a big market does.

Side by side

Selling on Shopee Your own shop website
Being found the first time Easy, people are already searching You bring customers in yourself
Fees on sales On every order None (Tellsell)
Price competition Similar shops right next to you Customers see only your shop
Brand Under the platform’s name Your shop name in the link, or your own domain
Repeat customers Come back to the platform Come back to your shop
Rules Set by the platform Set by you

Using both well

Most shops that go far don’t pick one side. They let each channel do what it is good at.

  • Shopee for new people to find you. Treat it as your stall in the big market, and follow the platform’s rules.
  • Your own website for regulars and your brand. Put the shop link in your social media profiles, send it in LINE to customers you already talk to, and put a QR code at the counter.
  • Special products or gift sets can be sold only on your own website, so customers have a reason to come to you directly.

That way the shop doesn’t depend on one platform. If fees go up or marketplace sales drop one day, you still have customers of your own.

Your own shop website without extra work

The reason many shops still don’t have their own website is the fear of one more place to look after. Tellsell is built to solve that. You run the shop from the LINE chat you already use every day: send a photo, say or type the name and price, AI writes the product page, and you tap Publish once. Orders, stock and the PromptPay QR run by themselves.

  • A yourshop.tellsell.app link from the Free plan
  • Your own domain on Business and Pro
  • No percentage taken from your sales

Open a shop on Tellsell for free, no card needed. Or read How LINE MyShop differs from your own shop website and How to sell online as a beginner.