Selling on Marketplaces vs Your Own Online Store in Spain

Why Spanish retailers are rethinking the marketplace habitFor many shops in Lleida, Girona, Tarragona and Barcelona, the first step into ecommerce was...

Why Spanish retailers are rethinking the marketplace habit

For many shops in Lleida, Girona, Tarragona and Barcelona, the first step into ecommerce was a marketplace listing. It is quick, it brings traffic, and it removes the need to think about hosting, checkout or logistics software. But a recent regulatory signal from Spain's competition authority is a good moment to revisit that assumption. The CNMC has opened sanction proceedings against two of the largest platform operators for allegedly failing to comply, on time, with an earlier order to stop restricting competition on a major marketplace in Spain.

You do not need to follow every twist of the case to draw the useful conclusion: the rules of the game on a third-party platform are written by someone else, and they can shift under your feet. For a brand that has built its whole online revenue on rented ground, that is a strategic risk worth measuring properly.

What the case actually illustrates

The original decision concerned contractual clauses that, according to the regulator, limited how many resellers of a brand could operate on a large marketplace in Spain, restricted advertising space for competing products, and blocked marketing campaigns aimed at certain customers to offer rival brands. The platform operators were ordered to remove those restrictions. According to the authority, the clauses stayed in place for a considerable period after the deadline, and the matter is now heading towards a fresh penalty procedure while appeals continue in court.

Set aside the specific companies involved. The pattern is familiar to anyone who sells online: visibility, pricing and advertising on a marketplace are governed by private rules that can favour the platform's own interests or those of the biggest brands. When those rules change, a merchant has little leverage beyond waiting, complaining or leaving.

The real cost of renting your shopfront

Marketplaces are not villains. They deliver demand that a new store simply does not have on day one. The problem is treating them as the whole strategy rather than one channel. Consider what you give up:

Customer data. Under GDPR, consent and lawful basis matter, but on a marketplace you rarely own the relationship. You cannot easily re-engage a buyer, build a loyalty list or run a win-back campaign without going through the platform.
Margin. Referral fees, fulfilment costs and advertising bids stack up. A healthy gross margin can look thin once every layer is deducted.
Pricing control. Competing listings, automatic repricing and platform promotions can drag your prices down in ways you did not plan.
Brand experience. Your packaging, your storytelling and your after-sales tone are compressed into a template shared with thousands of other sellers.
Continuity. Account suspensions, policy updates and category restrictions can pause your revenue overnight, with limited appeal routes.

When an own online store makes commercial sense

A dedicated store is not a vanity project. It starts paying off when you have repeat-purchase products, when your brand carries weight with customers, when you sell configurable or high-value items, or when you want to run promotions and content on your own terms. It is also the natural home for B2B ordering, subscription models and anything that needs a quote or a tailored price list.

The honest answer for most retailers in Catalonia is a hybrid: marketplaces for reach and discovery, your own store for margin, data and loyalty. The two can coexist, provided the store is built to convert rather than simply to exist.

Choosing the right platform: PrestaShop or WooCommerce

These are the two workhorses we recommend most often, and the choice depends on how you actually operate. PrestaShop suits catalogues with many variants, complex tax and shipping rules, multi-store setups and businesses that want a mature back office out of the box. WooCommerce suits brands already invested in WordPress, content-led marketing and a wider plugin ecosystem, and it integrates naturally with editorial and SEO work.

Either way, the platform is only the starting point. What separates a store that sells from one that sits idle is the work around it: fast hosting on European infrastructure, a checkout that survives real-world payment methods such as cards, Bizum and bank transfer, clean product data, structured shipping thresholds for peninsular and island deliveries, and invoices that comply with Spanish electronic invoicing requirements.

Conversion is a discipline, not a checkbox

Traffic without conversion is an expensive hobby. Practical priorities for a Spanish ecommerce build include:

Speed on mobile. Most sessions start on a phone, often on a mobile network, so image weight and script bloat matter more than design flourishes.
Clear delivery promises. State costs and timelines before checkout, including any Canary Islands or Balearic specifics, to avoid abandoned carts.
Trust signals. Visible returns policy, contact details, secure payment badges and reviews that are genuinely collected.
Frictionless checkout. Guest checkout, saved addresses and a short form. Every extra field costs orders.
Measurement. Consent-aware analytics that respect GDPR while still telling you which pages and campaigns earn their keep.

A pragmatic route forward

Start by auditing where your revenue actually comes from and what it costs you to get it. Then decide which products belong on a marketplace and which deserve their own storefront. Build the store on a platform that matches your catalogue and your team, keep it fast and compliant, and treat conversion optimisation as an ongoing programme rather than a launch task.

At ALMC.es we build online stores that genuinely sell: tailored PrestaShop and WooCommerce development, conversion optimisation and the full technical stack behind a successful ecommerce operation, from hosting and security to invoicing and analytics. If you are weighing up a marketplace-only strategy against owning your channel, it is worth a conversation before the next platform rule change decides it for you.

Put these ideas into practice

Talk to ALMC about a solution for your business. Explore your options or contact our team.

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