Unit Economics
D2C vs Marketplace — True Margin Comparison for Indian Brands
By Sylvr Founder's Desk · Last checked 4 Nov 2026
Why D2C gross looks better
No marketplace commission. For comparison, Amazon's referral fee for make-up above ₹1,000: 7%. Amazon (sell.amazon.in), read 4 Nov 2026. Nykaa publishes no seller rate card for beauty (public pages, checked 4 Nov 2026). No marketplace shipping mandate. Full control of returns. But you pay for the customer: ads to your own site usually cost more per customer than organic marketplace search. We do not publish a figure for Meta Ads CAC for beauty yet.
Source: sell.amazon.in/fees-and-pricing, read 4 Nov 2026.
Why marketplace CM2 can win
High-intent marketplace search usually converts better than ad traffic to a D2C site. We do not publish a figure for marketplace search conversion for beauty yet. The CAC math works when the marketplace's organic intent does the customer-acquisition work for you. Repeat orders, however, structurally favor D2C.
Sources
Every figure above is here. A page with a figure and no source here does not publish.
- sell.amazon.in/fees-and-pricing, read 4 Nov 2026. Open the source ↗
Questions founders ask
What's a typical Indian D2C site conversion rate?
It depends on the traffic source; measure yours. We do not publish a figure for D2C conversion from ad traffic yet. Repeat customers and email-list traffic convert higher.
Is D2C always lower CAC than Amazon?
No. Amazon Sponsored Products on high-intent skincare keywords can compete with Meta Ads to a D2C site on cost per customer; compare your own. We do not publish a figure for Amazon Sponsored Products CAC for skincare yet.
How should I split inventory between D2C and marketplaces?
Many Indian D2C brands sell across their own site and the marketplaces, with marketplaces driving acquisition and the own site driving repeat; we do not publish a typical split yet.