Etsy, Amazon, eBay, Shopify: where should you sell POD products?

Almost everyone who starts selling with POD asks the same first question: where should I sell? The answer isn't a single platform, it's a sequence. Each platform differs in where its traffic comes from, how much it takes in fees, which rules you'll run into and how much work it creates. The right strategy is usually to start with one platform and expand to the others once your system is running smoothly.

In this article we compare the four major channels, Etsy, Amazon, eBay and Shopify, from the point of view of a POD t-shirt seller. Fees are the figures listed on each platform's official pages as of September 2026.

Fees at a glance

Fees alone shouldn't make the decision. On Shopify, the fee per sale looks low, but you have to bring the traffic yourself, and ad spend is a cost too. On Etsy and Amazon, you pay fees for access to ready-made buyer traffic.

Etsy: the natural place to start

Etsy is a marketplace built for personalized, niche and gift-focused products. That makes it a good match for design-driven, personalizable POD t-shirts. It explicitly allows POD: you can work with a production partner, as long as the design is yours and you disclose the production partner on your listings.

• Pros: ready-made buyer traffic, an audience focused on gifts and personalization, low startup cost.
• Watch out for: crowded categories, sensitivity to intellectual property reports, and an extra ad fee of up to 15% (or 12%) on orders from Offsite Ads.
• Success factor: listing SEO. A 140-character title, 13 tags of up to 20 characters each; shops that use these fields well get seen.

eBay: a different audience

eBay is one way to reach buyers beyond Etsy, and it charges no listing fee for up to 250 listings a month. Moving your Etsy catalog to eBay is a fast way to reach a new audience with the same designs. But eBay's rules are different: titles up to 80 characters, up to 250 variations per listing, and category-specific item specifics instead of tags.

• Pros: an additional audience, a free listing allowance, and fixed-price Good 'Til Cancelled listings.
• Watch out for: the 250-variation limit on multi-color, multi-size products, eBay's intellectual property policy and seller performance standards. A “Below Standard” rating adds an extra 6% to the final value fee.
• Success factor: the right category, complete item specifics and on-time shipping.

Amazon: huge traffic, strict rules

Amazon has enormous buyer traffic, but its own specific rules for categories and product information. The referral fee is tiered by sale price and rises to 17% for apparel above $20. Amazon also has its own POD program, Merch on Demand: in this model Amazon produces and ships the product, and you set the price and earn a royalty on each item sold.

• Pros: huge buyer traffic.
• Watch out for: referral fees, category rules and competition. A Professional account is $39.99 a month.
• Success factor: the right price tier, complete product information, and consistent stock and delivery performance.

Shopify: your own brand, your own traffic

Shopify is not a marketplace; it is the platform you build your own store on. Design, pricing, the customer list and the brand are entirely yours. As of September 2026, the Basic plan is $39 a month ($29 a month billed yearly); new accounts get a 3-day free trial followed by a starter offer of $1 a month for 3 months.

• Pros: brand control, customer data stays with you, repeat sales via email and SMS.
• Watch out for: traffic doesn't come on its own; you bring it with ads, social media or content.
• Success factor: a specific niche, a strong brand story and repeat customers.

Decision table: which channel for which situation?

Whichever channel you start with, the first goal is collecting sales data. Once you learn on one channel which niche, which design and which price works, moving to other channels with that knowledge is far more efficient than testing from scratch on each one.

In what order should you expand?

1. Start with Etsy: collect your first sales data with ready-made traffic and a POD-friendly audience. Learn which niches and designs work.
2. Move your proven sellers to eBay: open the same catalog to a new audience. Watch the variation limit and title length.
3. Build your brand with Shopify: once you have repeat customers and a strong niche, open your own store.
4. Add Amazon: once your operations are running smoothly, tap into its huge traffic by getting product information and price tiers right.
5. Keep an eye on new channels: channels like TikTok Shop and Walmart, and Turkish marketplaces such as Trendyol and Hepsiburada.

The hidden cost of multichannel selling: workload

Selling on four channels means four separate dashboards, four separate order lists and four different product editing screens. Remove a design on one channel but forget it on another, and you end up with orders that can't be printed and customer complaints. What makes multichannel selling sustainable is managing it from one place.

In Custombull, orders from all connected channels come into one dashboard; products move between Etsy, eBay, Shopify and Amazon, color and size templates work across all channels, and copyright checks and product photos are prepared for every channel. A change you make in one place carries over to your other channels once you approve it. Plan pricing is fixed per shop: 5 shops on Bronze for $29.99, 10 shops on Gold for $99.99; the price doesn't go up with the number of products. TikTok Shop and Walmart connections are in early access, and Turkish marketplaces are coming soon.

The product side of the workload can shrink too. Custombull's Automated Production scans trends for ideas, creates the design with AI, prepares the mockup and listing copy, runs a copyright scan, and uploads to Etsy with your approval or with auto-publish turned on. From there you can transfer products to your other platforms. A block of 100 products costs $25 (or 63 credits).

Frequently asked questions

Can I sell the same product on all four platforms at once?

Yes. What matters is preparing listings that follow each platform's rules and making sure orders reach the producer with the right product, color and size. Keeping SKUs identical across all channels is the foundation of that.

Can I sell on Amazon and eBay from Turkey?

Seller registration requirements vary by country; check the documents required during registration on each platform's own seller page. When production and shipping happen in the US, the buyer's experience is the same.

Which platform has the lowest fees?

Fees per sale look lowest on Shopify, but traffic and ad costs are on you. Marketplaces charge higher fees, but you get access to ready-made buyer traffic. Compare on total cost per order: platform fees, ads, product and shipping costs all need to be counted together, because any single item on its own can be misleading.

Should I open more than one Etsy shop?

Keeping different niches in separate shops can make sense for brand consistency. Etsy's own help page explains how to open a second shop. In Custombull, the number of shops you can connect per plan is 5 on Bronze and 10 on Gold; an extra shop is $9.99 a month on Bronze and $6.99 on Gold.

Are Trendyol and Hepsiburada supported?

Turkish platforms such as Trendyol and Hepsiburada will be supported on Custombull soon. You can join the early access list for TikTok Shop and Walmart.