10 Alternatives to Amazon for your ecommerce

Reading time6 minutes
Lucas C.
Lucas C.
Ninja do Suporte

Like most ecommerce giants, Amazon allows you to register a store and sell your products through it in exchange for charging a fee per every product sold. The solution is good because of the great visibility and access of the store, but of course, it also has its disadvantages.

One of these disadvantages is the market rate, which varies according to the products you plan to sell. The other is the policy of the platforms themselves, which can change without any prior notice or impose restrictions that undermine your business. It's like having a small kiosk inside a large store: you can be independent, but you are subject to the rules of the storeowner. So, check out these 10 alternatives to Amazon for your ecommerce!

Tip: Before reading our post, check out our text how to calculate the value of the customer's lifetime in ecommerce

1. eBay

Just as Amazon is one of the main [alternatives to eBay] (/blog/tools/alternatives-to-ebay.html), the reverse also applies here. Despite having a higher cost than Amazon and having the same problems, eBay – has the same visibility, which is a bonus – also allows you to hold auctions of your products, offering another alternative to your sales. For instance, this can be useful if you need to quickly get rid of items that have been in your stock for a long time. Click on the link to access eBay and learn more about it.

eBay

2. Rakuten

One of the largest ecommerce platforms along Amazon and eBay itself, Rakuten is also available worldwide, including in Brazil. The site has options in different categories, such as clothing and appliances and, unlike the mentioned examples, it lays its focus on a loyalty system, giving points for each purchase. The site consists of two types of paid platforms for your ecommerce, one for beginners and another for established vendors. One of its advantages is that is allows you to use own domain (in both options). Hence, it is possible to create your own ecommerce through it. Go to Rakuten.

3. Overstock

A platform created to resell products from ecommerces that were shutting down, Overstock also started selling new items from active online stores. Overstock also allows the sale of used products in different categories. Just as a note, the form that needs to be filled in order to start selling only allows the registration of American and Canadian companies. Learn more about Overstock at their official website

Read: [How to take great pictures of your products for ecommerce] (/blog/ecommerce/how-take-product-photos-ecommerce.html)

4. Major retail chains

If the goal is not to totally change the way you sell online, but to diversify your earnings, you can also register for large retail chains, such as Submarino or Lojas Americanas in Brazil or Best Buy and Walmart in the United States. It is good to research about the internal policies for suppliers, as well as the fees applied by these businesses, before deciding which major retail store you will sign up for.

WalMart

5. Mercado Livre

One of the largest auction and ecommerce sites in Latin America, Mercado Livre has reached the continent as an alternative to eBay, since the US platform is still very limited for shipments outside the USA. This has made Mercado Livre an option that is still much more viable than the American correspondent.

Brazilians still have one more advantage, they can pay through Mercado Pago, a digital payment service that brings greater security to online purchases, acting as an intermediary between payment and receipt of the merchandise. So, Mercado Pago receives the payment, the seller sends it to the buyer and, when the product is received, Mercado Pago releases the payment to the seller – it works like an escrow. Learn more about Mercado Livre on the site.

6. Craiglist

A trend that has been growing, the Craiglist website is a kind of online "garage sale", promoting sales of new products – usually handmade – and owned products. In case you want to sell your own self-made items, websites like Enjoei can be a great help, as it usually bring in a more engaged audience, even if it's smaller than large retail chains or sites like eBay. Learn more about how the platform works by clicking on the link.

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7. Estante Virtual

In the earlier years, Amazon focused only on selling books and eBooks, a focus that remains to this day. Although in the United States it sells everything, the greatest results from Amazon Brazil come from this area. Despite this, this website is not the only one in the industry. Estante Virtual is an ecommerce platform for selling new and used books, serving as a kind of online second hand store. Estante Virtual has monthly subscriptions that start at R$ 49.90 and goes up to R$ 159.00, destined to bookstores with bigger collection.

8. Selz

Like the Estante Virtual, Selz focuses on selling books, but with a different approach to Estante Virtual and Amazon itself. The ecommerce platform is focused on copywriting, offering less costly solutions to those who want to publish independently. Selz takes care of the entire sales process, including file hosting, checkout process and download links in various formats, offering more options to buyers.

It is worth mentioning that it is also possible to open your ecommerce just to sell books, even if you are not an author. Click on the link to access Selz, which has a free trial period of 14 days.

Selz

9. iBooks

The last of the options dedicated to selling books online, this website doesn´t require you to keep stocks of physical books, as it focuses only on e-Books. Apple has its own e-Books selling platform. Although it is not good for bookstores or ecommerces, launching your own copyrighted work at Apple may be a good choice because of its high visibility. However, even on mobile devices, you may face problems, such as the huge competition, especially with best-sellers already consolidated. Check out the iBooks support page to learn how to publish your books in the virtual store.

Be sure to read: 11 tips to have an online business without spending too much

10. Your own ecommerce

We will end this text in the same way we did in the text that talked about eBay alternatives. We are doing this to stress the importance of having your own e-shop – even if you use some of the platforms we described above – or Amazon itself. With your own website, it is easier to track and follow the growth of your ecommerce, and not depend on third-party services to solve problems, among other advantages.

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How to start my own ecommerce?

To help you with this task, check out these [20 websites to start your ecommerce] (/blog/ecommerce/websites-to-start-ecommerce.html) or these [9 WordPress plugins for your ecommerce] (/blog/ecommerce/wordpress-plugins-for-ecommerce.html) if you choose to use a blogging platform. Also, consider adopting Jivochat's online chat for your online store, which has options to include the chat on mobile apps and can be accessed from any device. Learn more about our features and plans!

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