Solutions · Marketplace Escape
Stop Paying 30% to Marketplaces. Own Your Customers.
Etsy, Amazon, eBay, DoorDash, Instacart, Faire all take 6-30% of every order and keep your customer data. Build your direct store on $0/month and keep 94% of every sale, plus the relationship that drives the next one.
Run alongside marketplaces or replace them entirely · No exclusivity · Repeat customers move first
The Marketplace Tax: What You're Paying Today
Marketplaces helped you start. Now they're the largest expense on your P&L.
| Marketplace | What you pay | Vertical |
|---|---|---|
| Etsy | 6.5% transaction + listing fees + ads | Handmade, vintage, craft |
| Amazon | 8-15% referral + FBA fees + storage | Almost everything |
| eBay | 13.25% final value + payment fees | Used, collectibles, electronics |
| DoorDash / UberEats | 15-30% per order + delivery fees | Restaurants, food |
| Instacart | 10-15% + delivery fees + price markup | Grocery, specialty food |
| Reverb | 5% selling fee + payment fees | Music gear |
| Mercari / Poshmark | 10-20% sell fee + payment processing | Apparel, used goods |
| Faire / Tundra | 15-25% on first orders, 15% reorders | B2B wholesale |
Plus: marketplace ad spend (the only way to be visible), customer data theft, algorithm changes that can kill your business overnight.
Three Costs Marketplaces Don't Show on the Invoice
Customer ownership
Marketplaces keep customer email, phone, and purchase history. You can't email a buyer about a new release. The marketplace can, promoting your competitor.
Algorithm dependency
An Etsy ranking change, an Amazon policy update, a DoorDash featured-restaurant rotation. Any of them can cut your sales in half overnight. You\'re not building a business; you\'re renting one.
Forced ad spend
"Promoted Listings" on Etsy. Amazon Sponsored Products. Featured restaurants on DoorDash. The "free" exposure disappeared years ago. Now you pay commissions AND ads to be seen.
What You Get When You Build Direct
All features below are LIVE today.
$0/month, 6% per order
No subscription. No setup fees. Pay only when you sell, and keep 94% instead of 70-85%.
You own every customer
Email, phone, order history, yours forever. Email them, remarket to them, build loyalty without a marketplace in the middle.
Custom domain
Your store lives on yourbrand.com, not a marketplace subpage with competitor ads next to your products.
Code-gated for B2B / regulars
Optional private mode for repeat customers and corporate accounts. Or fully public, your choice.
Sub-1-second pages
Static HTML on a global CDN. Faster than Shopify, much faster than any marketplace listing page.
AI-readable catalog
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI can read your products directly. Marketplace listings are buried. Yours surface in AI shopping.
5 shopping channels included
Auto-synced feeds for Google, Facebook, Bing, Pinterest, TikTok. Reach customers without paying marketplace ads.
Direct payment to your bank
Stripe, Amazon Pay, Authorize.net, cash. Money goes straight to you. No 14-30 day marketplace payout hold.
Per-customer pricing
Loyalty discounts, wholesale rates, friends-and-family, all enforced automatically. Marketplaces force one price for everyone.
Branded transactional emails
Order confirmations from yourbrand.com, not "Order from Amazon." Customers remember who they bought from.
Premium Add-on
LIVEOne AI Add-on. Replaces the App Stack You'd Build on Shopify.
Don't escape one tax just to pay another. The AI add-on replaces what would be 5-10 separate Shopify apps (Klaviyo, ReCharge, Judge.me, Loox, Gorgias), running heavy operations decoupled from your storefront.
AI-Driven Integration
Connect your existing email, accounting, fulfillment systems. No custom code.
AI-Driven Observability
Track which marketplace customers are converting to direct. Surface repeat-buyer patterns.
AI-Driven Communication
Post-purchase emails that bring marketplace buyers to your direct store. Loyalty automation.
Available as an optional add-on on any tier. Starts at $99/mo. Talk to us about pricing →
Find Your Vertical
Marketplace escape looks different for every business type. Pick your vertical for the specific playbook.
D2C Brands
Escape Etsy, Amazon, eBay marketplace fees. Branded storefront with shopping channel feeds.
Restaurants & Food
Escape DoorDash, UberEats commission. Code-gated regulars portal, catering quotes.
Grocery & Specialty
Escape Instacart commissions. Independent and ethnic grocer ordering portal.
Wholesale
Escape Faire, Tundra, and B2B marketplace fees. Code-gated catalog with full B2B enforcement.
See a Live Store
uSetGo INC, a live storefront built on BusinessCart.ai. Custom domain, sub-second pages, full catalog. Their direct store, not a marketplace listing.
Pricing That Scales With You. Every Feature, Every Tier.
Your tier auto-applies based on monthly order volume — no manual upgrades, no feature locks, and tier changes only at month boundaries so you always see them coming. Your customers pay you directly through your own payment accounts. BusinessCart invoices you separately at month end — we never hold or deduct from your revenue.
Included in every tier — Starter through Enterprise
Starter
Up to 100 orders / month
$0 / mo
6% on orders under $83 · capped at $5 above that
Invoiced monthly — never deducted from your sales
→Moves to Growth when you cross 100 orders/mo — always at month boundaries, never mid-month
Growth
101 – 1,000 orders / month
$499 / mo
+ 1% per order
Invoiced monthly — never deducted from your sales
Dedicated success manager
SLA-backed uptime
White-glove onboarding
30-day money-back guarantee
→Moves to Enterprise when you cross 1,000 orders/mo — always at month boundaries, never mid-month
Enterprise
1,001+ orders / month
$1,999 / mo
+ 0.25% per order
Invoiced monthly — never deducted from your sales
Dedicated success manager
SLA-backed uptime
White-glove onboarding
30-day money-back guarantee
→Moves here when you cross 1,000 orders/mo — always at month boundaries, never mid-month
A $10,000 wholesale order costs $5 in platform fees. The cap is designed for B2B — high-value orders, low platform cost.
Optional AI integration add-on: starts at $99/mo, available on any tier. · 30-day money-back on Growth and Enterprise · No setup costs · No long-term contracts · No fee on purchase orders or offline payments. Ever.
Frequently Asked Questions
I make 80% of my sales on a marketplace. Can I really replace it?
Probably not all of it, at least not at first. The realistic path is gradual: keep selling on the marketplace, add a direct store, and start funneling repeat customers to it via post-purchase emails and packaging inserts. Over time, your direct channel grows and your marketplace dependency shrinks. We do not require exclusivity, and we recommend running both in parallel during the transition.
How do customers find my store if I leave the marketplace?
Multiple channels: (1) Existing customers: once they've bought from you on the marketplace, they'll come direct to save money or get loyalty rewards. (2) Google Shopping, Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok feeds, all included. (3) AI-readable pages get cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI for shopping queries. (4) SEO: sub-second static pages rank well.
What about marketplace customer service and trust signals?
Marketplace trust is real (returns, escrow). To match it: offer clear return policies on your store (templated for you), use Stripe or Amazon Pay (familiar consumer trust marks), display shipping/returns badges. We don't replicate Etsy's buyer protection, but you also don't pay 6.5%+ to Etsy.
Do I have to abandon my marketplace listings?
No. Many sellers run both: marketplaces for discovery, direct store for repeat customers. The math: a customer who buys from your marketplace once costs you 15-30%. The same customer buying from your direct store costs you 6%. Each repeat purchase you redirect saves real money.
How is BusinessCart different from Shopify for marketplace escape?
Shopify is $39+/mo before your first sale and requires $300-500/mo in apps for SEO, reviews, email, etc. BusinessCart is $0/mo, includes shopping channel feeds, AI-readability, and per-customer pricing built in. For escaping marketplaces, the unit economics matter. You do not want to swap a marketplace tax for a SaaS tax.
What are realistic results in the first 6 months?
Honest answer: results vary widely by category, customer base, and how aggressively you funnel marketplace buyers to your direct store. The math is asymmetric. Even a modest percentage of customers moved off-marketplace recovers significant margin, because you go from paying 15-30% per order to paying 6%. We do not have benchmark data to publish yet; talk to us about your specific category and we will share what we are seeing in similar verticals.
Build the Channel That Marketplaces Can't Take Away.
$0/month · Keep 94% · Own every customer · Run alongside marketplaces or replace them