All online marketplaces are ecommerce platforms however, not all ecommerce platforms are marketplaces. This is because ecommerce and marketplaces consist of online stores however, ecommerce platforms support only a single seller, the owner of the store, whereas the marketplace enables multiple sellers to offer products through the same storefront. As such, for the final customer who is buying or renting products or services from the marketplace, there will be no practical difference in the shopping experience for ecommerce vs marketplaces.

However, although it is irrelevant to the final buyer, it is the opposite for the actual business owner and in fact, choosing between the different models implies a huge difference in the business operations.