Is the marketplace making you money, or just making you busy?
Amazon and TikTok Shop are where a great deal of buying now starts. They are also where margin quietly disappears into fees, advertising and discounting nobody is modelling.
Revenue on a marketplace is easy. Profit on one is the job.
Selling on a marketplace is a different discipline from selling on your own site. The listing is the landing page, the algorithm is the traffic source, and the fee structure means a campaign that looks profitable on a return-on-ad-spend dashboard can be losing money per unit.
We run these channels on contribution margin after fees, advertising and returns — not on platform-reported ROAS. That occasionally produces the unwelcome recommendation to stop selling a product, which is a conversation worth having before a year of it rather than after.
The mistake we see most often is treating a marketplace as another traffic source and running it on the same targets as the website. It is a different economy: the listing is the landing page, the algorithm is the traffic source, and the fee structure means a campaign showing a healthy return on ad spend can be losing money on every unit sold.
It also does not stay in its box. Marketplace visibility moves branded search and direct sales on your own site, and your own marketing moves marketplace rank. Run as two separate accounts by two separate suppliers, that interaction is invisible and both get optimised against the wrong number.
Send us your product list and fee structure. We will come back with contribution margin per line — often the first time a client has seen it.
Find out what your marketplace is really earningWhat you end up with
Profit you can see per product
Contribution margin after every fee, so decisions about price, promotion and range are made on the real number.
Listings that convert
The single highest-leverage asset on a marketplace, and usually the most neglected.
A defensible Buy Box position
Stock health, pricing and account standing managed as a whole, rather than discovered when the Buy Box is lost.
One view across channels
What the marketplace does to your own site, and what your own marketing does to the marketplace.
Is this right for you?
This is for you if
- Your product economics survive marketplace fees, or you want to find out honestly
- You want listings and advertising run by one team accountable for the result
- You are willing to act on margin findings, including delisting something
It probably is not if
- You want revenue growth regardless of whether it is profitable
- Your product is considered, high-price or B2B, where marketplaces rarely fit
- You cannot hold stock reliably; nothing survives repeatedly going out of stock
“They communicate very well. I have worked with the Neige team for a few years now in multiple markets across the country. They do an amazing job and know exactly how to interact with our demographic. They communicate very well and have yet to turn down a request. I highly recommend their team for any of your social media needs.”
What's involved in marketplace management?
- Amazon Seller & Vendor Central
- Sponsored Products & Brands
- Amazon DSP
- A+ Content & Brand Stores
- Listing & Keyword Optimisation
- TikTok Shop
- Marketplace Creative
- Review & Rating Programmes
- Inventory & Buy Box Health
- Margin & Fee Modelling
- Marketplace SEO
- Cross-Channel Attribution
How we run marketplaces
- 01
Model the unit economics
Referral fees, fulfilment, storage, returns, advertising. Before anything is optimised we establish what each product actually earns you at each price point.
- 02
Fix the listings
Titles, imagery, A+ content and reviews are the conversion rate. Advertising into a listing that converts poorly is buying traffic for a competitor’s comparison.
- 03
Advertise against margin
Campaigns structured around what each product can afford to spend, not a single blended target that quietly subsidises your worst performers with your best.
- 04
Watch the halo
Marketplace activity moves branded search and direct sales on your own site. We measure that rather than treating the channel as a closed box.
- 05
Decide what not to sell
The output of the margin work is sometimes that a product should not be listed, or should not be advertised, or should be repriced. That is a real finding and we will bring it, because the alternative is a year of efficient loss-making.
Questions people ask us
If yours isn’t here, ask us directly — we’ll give you a straight answer, including when the answer is that we’re not the right fit.
Should we sell on Amazon if we already have our own store?
Usually yes, provided the unit economics work after fees, because a significant share of product searches begin on Amazon rather than a search engine — a listing there is often reaching buyers your own site never will. The decision should be made on contribution margin per product rather than on total revenue, since some products are profitable on your own site and loss-making on a marketplace.
What is a good ACoS or ROAS on Amazon?
There is no universal figure, because the number that matters is what a product can afford after referral fees, fulfilment, returns and cost of goods. Two products with identical ACoS can be one profitable and one loss-making. Work backwards from contribution margin and set the target per product rather than per account.
Is TikTok Shop worth selling on?
For visually demonstrable, impulse-priced consumer products, frequently yes — discovery there behaves differently from search, so products that struggle to find demand elsewhere can find it here. For considered, high-price or B2B purchases it is generally a poor fit. It also demands a continuous supply of creative and creator partnerships rather than a listing you set up once.
Do you manage the ads, the listings, or both?
Both, deliberately. Advertising and listing quality determine each other on a marketplace: ads into a weak listing waste budget, and a strong listing without visibility earns nothing. Splitting them between two suppliers is how accounts end up with nobody accountable for the result.
How long does it take to grow on Amazon?
Listing and content improvements can move conversion within weeks because the traffic already exists. Building organic rank on competitive terms takes months and depends heavily on sales velocity and review volume, which is why advertising and organic have to be run together rather than sequenced.
Do we need to be on TikTok Shop as well?
Only where the product suits it: visually demonstrable, impulse-priced and consumer-facing. Discovery there behaves differently from search, so products that struggle to find demand elsewhere sometimes find it here - but it needs a continuous supply of creative and creator partnerships, not a listing you set up once. For considered or high-price purchases it is usually the wrong channel.
Find out what your marketplace is really earning
Send us your product list and fee structure. We will come back with contribution margin per line — often the first time a client has seen it.
- A 30-minute call. No pitch deck.
- We audit what you have and tell you what we’d do first.
- You decide. No retainer, no lock-in, nothing to cancel.