Short answer
For most Thai sellers the answer is a combination: Shopee, Lazada or TikTok Shop for new buyers, plus a LINE OA and an own store for repeat buyers. Marketplaces bring traffic but take a share of every sale, about 19.5% of a 500 baht Shopee Non-Mall order in most categories since 4 August 2026. A custom store pays off only with high repeat sales, about 230,000 baht a month in a worked example, or when no ready-made tool fits how you sell.
Which online channel should you sell on? The short answer
Start where the buyers already are. Marketplaces such as Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop bring traffic, trust, payment and delivery on day one, which is why almost every Thai seller uses at least one. The price is a share of every sale, a share that went up again in 2026, and a customer relationship that stays with the platform rather than with you.
The setup that works best for most growing sellers is both: marketplaces for reach, plus a channel you own for repeat customers. That owned channel is usually a LINE OA, an own online store and a customer list you control, so the second and third order from the same person does not pay a marketplace commission.
Custom software comes later, and only for a reason. It makes sense when your own store or your back office has outgrown what off-the-shelf tools can do: made-to-order products, dealer price lists, or four channels and a warehouse that have to agree on stock. For a new seller with an unproven product, it is almost always too early.
What online selling platforms are there in Thailand?
Thai sellers mix six kinds of channel. They are not rivals so much as layers: a marketplace for reach, social media for attention, LINE OA for conversation, an own store for repeat buyers, and an order tool that ties them together. Fees below were read from each provider's own pages on 23 September 2026 unless the source says otherwise, and they change often, so check before you plan around them.
| What it is | How it helps you sell | Main cost | Who holds the customer data | Main limitation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marketplaces: Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop | Shopping apps where buyers search, compare and pay, and where you open a shop inside | Millions of buyers already there, ratings, payment, COD, delivery, campaign days and ads | Commission by category plus a payment fee of about 3.21%. On Shopee most Non-Mall categories pay 16.05% commission from 4 August 2026 | The platform. You get what you need to ship the order, and Shopee's chat rules forbid promoting contact channels outside Shopee | Fees rise, rivals sit next to you on the same page, and the buyer belongs to the platform |
| Social commerce: Facebook and Instagram | Posts, live video and chat, closing the sale in Messenger or Instagram messages | Reach through followers, shares, live selling and targeted ads | No commission on sales. You pay for ads and for staff time answering chats | Meta holds the page, the followers and the reach. Chats live in Meta's inbox | Reach depends on the algorithm and ad spend, and every order is taken by hand |
| LINE OA and MyShop by LINE | Your business account in LINE, with an optional shop connected to it | Reach customers in the app they open every day, send offers, and sell in chat | LINE OA Free, or Basic 1,280 and Pro 1,780 baht a month before VAT. MyShop fees start at 3% | Your friend list lives in LINE. You can message friends but do not get their phone numbers unless you ask | Brings few new buyers by itself. It works best for customers who already know you |
| Own-store builders: Shopify, WooCommerce, LnwShop | A website store under your own name and domain, built from a ready-made platform | Repeat orders without commission, your own brand, promotions and member prices you set | Shopify Basic USD 39 a month, plus a 2% fee because Shopify Payments is not offered in Thailand. WooCommerce is free but needs hosting. LnwShop has a free package | You, within the builder's export and terms | No traffic of its own: you have to bring every visitor |
| Order and stock tools: ZORT, Page365 | Back-office software that pulls orders from several channels into one list | One stock count across channels, faster packing and labels, chats and bills in one place | A monthly or yearly package by order volume. Page365 starts at 799 baht a month for 800 bills | You, inside the vendor's system | Works within what each platform's connection allows, and does not change how you sell |
| Custom store or ordering system built by SyncEdge | A store, portal or ordering system built for how your business sells | Fits made-to-order, bundles, dealer prices and B2B credit, takes PromptPay, 2C2P and Omise, and connects to your stock, accounting and couriers | The build, then hosting and maintenance. Payment gateway fees only, with no share of sales | You, completely | Up-front cost and someone to maintain it. Still no traffic of its own |
How do platforms help you sell more?
For a new seller, a marketplace does in a day what would take months to build alone. The help is concrete:
- Traffic: buyers are already searching for your product inside the app, so a good listing can sell without any ads
- Trust: ratings, reviews and the platform's buyer protection persuade a stranger to pay a shop they have never heard of
- Payment: cards, PromptPay, wallets, instalments and cash on delivery are all built in, with no gateway contract of your own
- Delivery: shipping labels, pickup and tracking come with the shop, and the platform settles delivery problems with the buyer
- Campaign days: 9.9, 10.10, 11.11 and 12.12, plus payday sales, bring waves of buyers the platform pays to attract
- Ads and affiliates: you can pay to appear higher in search, and creators can sell your product for a commission
- Live selling: TikTok Shop, Shopee Live and Facebook Live let you demonstrate a product and take orders while you talk
How much do Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop charge in 2026?
Each platform charges three layers: a commission on the product price that depends on the category, a payment fee of about 3.21% including VAT, and on Shopee and TikTok Shop a fee of 1.07 baht per completed order, which both waive for shops with 100 orders or fewer in the past 30 days. Optional programmes such as free shipping and coins cashback, ads and affiliate commissions come on top.
All three raised commissions in 2026. Shopee raised its sales fee three times, from 7 April, 1 June and 4 August. Lazada raised its marketplace fee twice, from 1 May and 1 August. TikTok Shop raised its commission from 5 July, and from 21 March it started calculating its order fee on the price before platform discounts. Most categories on Shopee's Non-Mall list went from 13.91% to 16.05% in the August round alone.
Worked through for a typical Shopee Non-Mall order of 500 baht in a 16.05% category: 80.25 baht commission, 16.05 baht payment fee and 1.07 baht per-order fee, about 97 baht or 19.5% of the sale. Before 4 August the same order cost about 87 baht. Shipping, programmes and ads would change the figure, and small shops with sales under 10,000 baht in 30 days get a commission discount of 0.5% to 1.5%.
| Shopee | Lazada | TikTok Shop | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commission now | 7.49% to 17.12% including VAT, most categories 16.05%, from 4 August 2026 | 5.5% to 16% before VAT, about 5.89% to 17.12% with VAT, from 1 August 2026 | 6.42% to 11.77% including VAT, from 5 July 2026 |
| Commission before that change | 7.49% to 14.98%, most categories 13.91% | 5.5% to 13% before VAT | 6.42% to 9.63% |
| Payment fee | 3% plus VAT, on price plus shipping | 3.21% including VAT | 3.21% including VAT, on price before platform discounts |
| Per-order fee | 1 baht plus VAT, waived up to 100 orders in 30 days | None published | 1.07 baht, waived up to 100 orders in 30 days |
| Commission rises in 2026 | Three | Two | At least one |
| Mall or official stores | Up to 19.26% including VAT | Up to 17.5% before VAT | Up to 13.91% including VAT |
What are the limits of selling on platforms?
None of these limits is a reason to leave the marketplaces. They are reasons not to depend on them for everything.
- Fees rise and you cannot negotiate: the 2026 rounds added about two percentage points of commission in most Shopee categories, taken straight from your margin or passed to your price
- The buyer belongs to the platform: you ship to them, but Shopee's chat rules forbid promoting other contact channels, so turning a marketplace buyer into your own repeat customer is hard by design
- Sales depend on the algorithm and on ads: a change in search ranking or a competitor's ad budget can halve your orders without warning
- Price competition is one tap away: your product is shown next to rivals, often cheaper ones, which pushes margins down
- Rules and account risk: a policy change or a penalty can limit or close your shop, and programmes can be switched on for you. In August 2026 the Trade Competition Commission fined Shopee Thailand about 3.48 million baht for enrolling shops in its free-shipping and coins cashback programmes without their consent, according to Prachachat's report
- Limited customisation: your shop looks like every other shop, and bundles, made-to-order options or dealer prices only work as far as the platform allows
- Limited data and integration: you see your own reports, but exporting customer data or connecting the shop to your accounting and stock depends on what the platform's API and reports allow
- Stock chaos across channels: one item sold on Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop and Facebook at once is easy to sell twice, and an oversold order can mean a cancellation penalty
Is your own online store worth it? Monthly cost, worked through
It depends on how much you sell to customers who already know you. An own store brings no new buyers by itself, so the fair comparison is for repeat orders: customers who would come back to you directly if you gave them a way to. The chart prices those orders three ways. It is an illustration on stated assumptions, not a quote.
Assumptions. Average order 500 baht. Marketplace: Shopee's most common Non-Mall rate of 16.05%, the 3.21% payment fee and 1.07 baht per order, about 19.5% in total, with shipping, programmes and ads left out. Own store on Shopify Basic: USD 39 a month at 35 baht to the dollar, 3,000 baht a month for apps, the 2% third-party fee, and a LINE OA Basic plan at 1,369.60 baht with VAT. Custom store: an 800,000 baht build spread over 36 months, maintenance at 15% of the build a year, 5,000 baht a month for hosting and the same LINE OA plan. Both own stores pay card and PromptPay fees at Opn Payments' published 3.65% and 1.65% plus VAT, half and half, about 2.84% on average.
The result: on repeat orders a builder store costs less than the marketplace from about 40,000 baht a month, and a custom store passes the marketplace at about 230,000 baht a month. On fees alone, the custom store only overtakes the builder at about 1.6 million baht a month. So the case for custom is rarely the fee saving by itself. It is the fit, the data and the integrations covered further down. What the chart leaves out is the cost of winning new buyers to an own store, through ads, content or LINE OA broadcasts, which marketplaces include in their commission.
- Marketplace, about 19.5% of sales
- Own store on Shopify Basic
- Custom store, build spread over 3 years
| Monthly sales | Marketplace | Shopify store | Custom store |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100,000 baht | About 19,500 baht | About 10,600 baht | About 41,400 baht |
| 300,000 baht | About 58,400 baht | About 20,200 baht | About 47,100 baht |
| 600,000 baht | About 116,800 baht | About 34,700 baht | About 55,600 baht |
| What drives it | A share of every sale | A small fixed cost plus about 4.8% of sales | A large fixed cost plus about 2.8% of sales |
Which setup fits your business? Four example scenarios
The four businesses below are illustrative composites of common situations, not our clients. Find the row closest to yours, then read the matching sections of this guide for the detail.
| Situation | What usually fits | Why | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A new seller testing products | One person selling phone accessories, not yet sure which products will sell, around 50 orders a month | A marketplace shop, plus a free LINE OA to collect the buyers who ask questions | Traffic and payment come ready-made, per-order fees are waived at this volume, and nothing is spent building before the product is proven |
| A growing brand with many repeat buyers | A skincare brand selling mostly on Shopee and TikTok Shop, where many orders come from the same customers every month and fees rose again in 2026 | Keep the marketplaces, and add an own store, LINE OA and a CRM for repeat buyers, with member prices only there | Every repeat order moved to the own channel saves most of the commission, and the brand finally holds its own customer list |
| A seller on four channels overselling stock | A clothing shop on Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop and Facebook, updating stock by hand, and cancelling orders every week for items already sold | An order and stock tool such as ZORT or Page365, or an integration into the stock system you already use | One stock count that updates every channel stops the overselling and the penalties, without changing where you sell |
| A wholesaler whose way of selling no platform fits | A supplier selling building materials to 300 contractors, each with their own price list and credit terms, taking orders by LINE and phone | A custom ordering system or dealer portal connected to stock and accounting | Marketplaces show one price to everyone and pay on delivery. This business needs per-customer prices, credit and invoices, which only a system built around it handles |
A store builder, or a store built by SyncEdge: what is the difference?
For a small or new seller, a store builder such as Shopify, WooCommerce or LnwShop is usually the right choice. It opens quickly, costs little each month, and its themes and apps cover most of what a retail store needs. A store built by SyncEdge is worth it when the way you sell does not fit those themes and apps, or when the store has to work as one system with your stock, accounting and LINE OA.
We build on Shopify or WooCommerce when a ready-made platform fits, and write the store or ordering system ourselves when it does not. The table compares a store you set up yourself on a builder with one we build for you.
| Store builder such as Shopify, set up yourself | Store built by SyncEdge | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to launch | Days to a few weeks: pick a theme, add apps, start selling | Longer, depending on your catalogue and the systems it connects to, with the scope agreed before work starts |
| Cost pattern | A monthly plan and app fees, plus a 2% fee on Shopify because Shopify Payments is not offered in Thailand | A build cost up front, then hosting or the platform's plan, and a monthly retainer if we maintain it. No commission on sales |
| Fit to how you sell | As far as the theme and apps allow. Retail with one price for everyone fits well; dealer prices, credit terms and made-to-order products usually need workarounds or extra apps | Product pages, checkout and ordering designed around how you sell: B2B price lists, made-to-order options, bundles and dealer portals |
| Thai payments | Through a third-party gateway such as 2C2P or Opn Payments, which you connect and test yourself | 2C2P, Omise, PromptPay QR and Thai bank transfers set up for you and tested on Thai mobile banking apps before launch |
| Connection to marketplaces, stock, accounting and LINE OA | Through apps and order tools, as far as each connection allows | Connected to your stock, accounting, LINE OA and couriers such as Kerry Express, Flash Express and J&T, and to marketplaces as far as their APIs allow, so an order is entered once |
| Customer data | Yours, held in the builder's system and exportable on its terms | Yours. When we write the store ourselves, the database sits where you choose, which helps with PDPA |
| Who maintains it | Shopify runs the platform for you; on WooCommerce you look after hosting and updates yourself | SyncEdge on a monthly retainer covering updates, security, monitoring and small changes, or your own team if you prefer |
| New buyers | None by itself: you bring every visitor | None by itself either: visitors still come from your ads, content, marketplaces and LINE OA |
How do you stop overselling when you sell on several channels?
Keep one stock count and let every channel read from it. With two channels and a few dozen products, a disciplined spreadsheet and a daily update can hold. Beyond that, an order and stock tool that connects to Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop and your own store cuts the stock in every channel the moment an order lands anywhere. If you already run a stock or ERP system, connect the channels to that instead, so there is never a second count to reconcile. Our guide to stock control in Excel covers the signs that a spreadsheet has stopped coping.
When is it worth building your own store or ordering system?
When the way you sell is part of what makes your business different, or when the tools you rent keep forcing workarounds. We build online stores, ordering systems, dealer portals and the integrations between them, so we are on the build side of this question. Here is where we think a build is worth it, and where it is not.
It is usually worth it for these reasons:
- Owning the customer: every order, contact and purchase history in your own database, so you can run repeat-purchase journeys through LINE OA and a CRM instead of renting access to your own buyers
- A store shaped around your products: bundles, made-to-order options, subscriptions, B2B price lists, credit terms and dealer portals that a template store or marketplace cannot express
- One flow instead of five: marketplaces, own store, LINE OA, stock and accounting connected, so an order is entered once and flows through to packing, invoicing and reports
- Not paying a share of every sale for ever: once repeat volume is high enough, a fixed running cost beats a commission that rises every year
- Data where you need it: customer data stored where you choose, which matters under PDPA
When is it too early to build?
Do not build while the product is still unproven, while sales are small, or while a builder like Shopify or LnwShop does everything you need. At a few hundred orders a month, the build cost and maintenance of a custom store will outweigh anything it saves, as the chart above shows. Start on marketplaces, add a LINE OA and a builder store, and let the workarounds tell you what, if anything, is worth building. When you do build, build the smallest piece that removes the biggest workaround first. Our guides to SaaS versus custom software and to CRM go deeper on that choice, and our LINE OA guide covers what can be built on LINE.
Before you choose or change your selling channels
- What share of each sale do you actually pay each marketplace after the 2026 changes, including programmes and ads?
- How many of your orders come from customers who have bought before?
- Do repeat customers have a way to reach you directly, such as a LINE OA or your own store?
- Do you keep your own list of customers, with their consent to be contacted, outside the platforms?
- Is there one stock count that every channel reads from?
- If your marketplace shop were suspended tomorrow, how much of your revenue would stop?
- Does any part of how you sell, such as dealer prices or made-to-order, force a workaround today?
- Is your product proven and your volume high enough that a build would pay back within three years?
Frequently asked questions
Which online selling channel is best in Thailand?
For most sellers the answer is a combination: a marketplace such as Shopee, Lazada or TikTok Shop for new buyers, and a LINE OA with an own store for repeat buyers. Marketplaces bring traffic and trust but take a share of every sale. The own channel brings no traffic by itself but costs far less per repeat order and lets you keep the customer.
What online selling platforms are there in Thailand?
The main ones are the marketplaces Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop; social selling on Facebook and Instagram; LINE OA with MyShop by LINE; own-store builders such as Shopify, WooCommerce and the Thai platform LnwShop; and order and stock tools such as ZORT and Page365 that connect the channels. Custom-built stores and ordering systems sit on top for businesses whose way of selling does not fit a ready-made tool.
How are Shopee's fees calculated?
Shopee charges a sales commission by category on the product price after your own discounts, a payment fee of 3% plus VAT on the price plus shipping, and 1 baht plus VAT per completed order, waived for shops with 100 orders or fewer in 30 days. From 4 August 2026 most Non-Mall categories pay 16.05% commission including VAT. On a 500 baht order in such a category, the three fees come to about 97 baht, before any optional programmes or ads.
Is building your own online store worth it?
It is worth it once you have a steady flow of repeat customers. In our worked example, a Shopify store costs less than marketplace fees on repeat orders from about 40,000 baht of monthly sales, and a custom store from about 230,000 baht. But an own store brings no buyers by itself, so it complements a marketplace rather than replacing it.
How do you manage stock across several channels without overselling?
Keep one stock count that every channel reads from. An order and stock tool such as ZORT or Page365 connects Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop and other channels and deducts stock everywhere when an order lands anywhere. If you already run a stock or ERP system, connect the channels to it instead so there is only one count.
Are there free online selling channels?
Yes, to start. Opening a marketplace shop, a Facebook page and a LINE OA on the Free plan costs nothing up front, and LnwShop has a free store package. None is free once you sell: marketplaces take a commission and payment fee on each order, social selling needs ads and staff time, and card or PromptPay payments carry a gateway fee.