Many people will look at this and conclude that Amazon is the more profitable ch
By Jon Derkits · October 21, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Many people will look at this and conclude that Amazon is the more profitable channel for brands.
But that conclusion misses a key detail...
The table below show illustrative economics on PAID sales.
And, sure, on the surface, there's a ~7 percentage point contribution profit advantage to selling on Amazon.
But PAID sales do not equal TOTAL sales.
In both channels, brands earn sales ORGANICALLY -- i.e., without any ad spend.
And, for those sales, channel profitability will be closer to Gross Profit in this chart, where we see Shopify with an ~11 percentage point advantage.
Despite the inferior economics on paid sales, the reason that many brands claim that Shopify is the more profitable channel is because 1) they "own" the customer relationship and, as such, 2) can dial up more "organic" sales, more easily (e.g., through email marketing to customer list).