DTC vs marketplace, judged on real profit

Item: Profit Bid
Rating: 5
Author: Noah T.

A fashion brand ran Shopify DTC and Amazon in parallel. Marketplace fees and ad models made channel comparison murky until profit was unified across both.

Store: Shopify + Amazon
Ads: Google Ads + Amazon Ads
Duration: 120 days

The challenge

Amazon showed strong ACoS but referral and FBA fees ate margin. DTC had higher CAC but far better contribution per order. Without a unified profit view, budget split was based on gut feel, not margin.

Approach

Unified profit across Shopify and Amazon net of all fees.
Computed POAS per channel on true contribution margin.
Compared DTC acquisition profit vs marketplace profit.
Reallocated budget toward the higher-profit channel by SKU.
Kept marketplace for discovery, DTC for margin and LTV.

Performance

Profit mix by channel

Profit Bid

Once fees were netted out, DTC carried most of the profit — so budget shifted there while Amazon stayed for reach.

Blended POAS161%
+42 pts
DTC profit share63%
Margin-led shift
Amazon fee leakageQuantified
Netted into POAS

Results

Blended POAS

119%161%

+42 pts

DTC profit share

44%63%

Margin-led shift

Amazon fee leakage

HiddenQuantified

Netted into POAS

Gross profit/mo

$52k$79k

Reallocation

“Amazon's ACoS looked great until we netted the fees. Unified POAS finally told us which channel actually made money.”
— Noah T., Omnichannel director, fashion brand