Frequently asked Short answer: the marketplace captures the traffic, the margin and the customer data — your brand site lets you keep them. Selling through a marketplace gives you fast volume but makes you dependent: it owns the customer relationship, banks the highest margin and sets the rules. For an established brand, the point is to win back your direct sales.
| Criterion | Marketplace | Your brand site |
|---|---|---|
| Branded demand (your name) | Often captured by the marketplace | Belongs to you |
| Margin | Wholesale price + commission taken | Full retail price |
| Customer data (email, history) | The marketplace's | Yours |
| Repeat purchase / loyalty | Hard, customer "stolen" | Direct, programmable |
| Dependency | High (rules, fees, visibility imposed) | You're in control |
| SERP (Google) | The marketplace ranks on your product | Your page has to win |
The trap: a well-optimised marketplace can rank above your own product page on the name of your best-seller. The customer was looking for you — and buys from a third party, in your place.
A marketplace can stay an acquisition channel, as long as it doesn't replace your site. For an established African & Black-owned brand, the priority is to reclaim your direct demand: win back your branded SERP, win on your category queries, become the first point of sale for your own name again. That's exactly the capture problem AfriRank solves — see reclaim the demand captured by marketplaces.
Not necessarily. A marketplace can stay a complementary acquisition channel. The problem is when it becomes your main point of sale and captures the demand for your own brand. The goal is to rebalance toward direct.
Because it has enormous SEO authority and pages that are often better optimised than yours. Without work on your site, it wins even on your own product names. It's a capture problem, not a fame problem.
Yes, generally: full retail price, no commission, and above all the customer data that enables repeat purchase and loyalty. A direct sale is worth far more than an equivalent marketplace sale over time.
By first reclaiming your branded SERP, then your category queries, with a technically healthy site and content that answers the intent. The Diagnostic quantifies the leak and prioritises the work.
The Diagnostic quantifies the organic revenue captured by marketplaces and resellers in your place, and maps the plan to win it back. €290 (~$310), credited toward your first month if you continue.
