What is Ghost Commerce? Key Benefits and Drawbacks in 2025

May 22, 2025
6 min read

A detailed guide to what ghost commerce is, its key benefits and drawbacks in 2025, along with some best practices to help you build a successful ghost commerce store.

In 2025, ghost commerce is a trending marketing strategy of e-commerce. Whether you are already running an e-commerce store or thinking of starting a new one, ghost commerce is a good option. It is a powerful approach that allows e-commerce store owners and business professionals to expand their business without worrying about manufacturing, store, and inventory costs.

In this blog, we’ll learn more about what ghost commerce is and how it works. Alongside the benefits and drawbacks of using it in 2025 and the best practices to use it successfully for your business.

What is Ghost Commerce?

Ghost commerce relates to running an online store like e-commerce, however the owner is not manufacturing or storing products themselves. They consult third parties to manufacture, store, and deliver products to their customers. For this reason, owners can concentrate on marketing and branding which results in high sales.

As e-commerce evolves, ghost commerce is the preferred choice of many modern entrepreneurs because it is secure, beginner-friendly, and easy to manage. This model is often confused with dropshipping or affiliated marketing, but they are different. Dropshipping is how orders are completed, marketing is not a compulsory requirement here. Affiliated marketing is promoting third-party products to get a commission, without owning the brand as in ghost commerce.

How Ghost Commerce Works

Here stores work by unifying your online store with third-party providers or producers of products. Here is a brief step-by-step overview:

Step-1: Build an online store on a platform like Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, or Squarespace.

Step 2: Select products that you are going to obtain from manufacturers, wholesalers, suppliers, or dropshipping suppliers.

Step 3: Add the list of products to your online store and start promoting them through different channels such as social media platforms, email marketing, or hiring promotors.

Step-4: When a customer puts an order, share details with suppliers or automate this process of sharing the order.

Step-5: After fulfilling the order requirement, the supplier sends it to the customer by mentioning your store name or their name as per the terms and conditions decided before.

Step-6: You will get the payment online or COD and will pay the supplier wholesale cost of the product and take your commission.

There are many tools with the help of which automation of each step is done, including order processing, tracking, fulfilling, shipping, and payment. You can consult Bizmia to provide you with expert support in setting up your ghost commerce business.

Key Benefits of Using Ghost Commerce in 2025

There are several benefits to using ghost commerce for your store, some of them are the following:

1. Minimal Cost Start-Up

Opening an e-commerce store does not require a lot of investment. The reason is the owner is not taking care of manufacturing, inventory, or storage. So, they don’t need money to buy a warehouse or a lot of inventory to start a business. This significantly will reduce financial risk and make opening a business more convenient.

2. Flexibility

As you are not playing the role of manufacturer, you can easily switch between products, niches, and markets. It also offers to change the number of products depending on the customer’s buying behavior. Moreover, there are no restrictions on handling your business from anywhere at any time.

3. Digital Privacy

Privacy is the concern of both owners and customers; hence ghost commerce is providing it by providing businesses and customers with personal data. The owner does not always want to go viral in the market. While on the other hand, customers need security, they are concerned about all the private information they provide to online stores.

4. Automation Potential

With the rise of AI trends for e-commerce, you can arrange a ghost commerce store that needs little to no manual work. By using AI tools, you can automate multiple processes such as inventory management, order handling, customer care, and promotions.

5. Concentrate on Marketing and Branding

When you do not have to focus on manufacturing, storing, shipping, or inventory management, you can easily focus on marketing and branding your online store. This is done by examining customer’s buying behavior and trying new marketing strategies which increase sales.

Drawbacks of Using Ghost Commerce in 2025

In this competitive world of 2025, with many benefits ghost commerce has also some flaws such as:

1. More Competitive Edge

Ghost commerce became word of mouth back in 2023, so it is not very new in the market. It already has almost every market captured, which is why it is not easy to give something different than others. It just excels with smart branding and creative marketing to gain customer’s attention.

2. Limited Control

As you are not manufacturing products on your own, therefore you have less control over the product’s quality, standby inventory, and shipping. This will surely affect the brand or store image, and customers will get detached from you.

3. Third-Party Reliance

Your operations completely depend on third parties such as manufacturers, wholesalers, and suppliers. They can negatively impact delivery times, quality of products, and availability of stock.

4. Less Profit Margins

The base cost is decided by the supplier and you as the owner add up the selling cost of the product as your commission. But the problem is you can’t decide it above the market price. And often there is a middleman who also can influence the price margin.

5. Engagement Gap

When you are not producing products, you cannot give personalized experience to your customers. Which results in a lack of trust and attachment to your products. So, there is always an engagement gap between the Ghost Commerce store and its customers.

Best Practices for Ghost Commerce Growth

Here are some practices to run a successful store:

1. Select Niche Smartly

Select the niche that is in demand but has less competition. Perform market analysis to understand opportunities, threats, strengths, weaknesses, and what are the demands of customers. This will help you to get loyal and long-term customers.

2. Build a Strong Online Store

Ensure to provide user-friendly and attractive features at your online store. That is possible with the help of selecting the right platform that offers more customization options, a variety of themes, and secure payment methods. You can get help from trusted agencies like Bizmia to help you build a store that truly reflects your brand.

3. Enhance Shopping Experience

In 2025, it is essential to identify the importance of e-commerce in Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) development so you can increase the performance of your store. PWAs are fast, reliable, and engaging. It provides a seamless shopping experience on mobiles and desktops.

4. Use AI tools

To use time and resources effectively, using AI tools is compulsory. It ensures to reduction of manual tasks such as stock management, sending promotional campaigns, customer service agents, and personalized messages, etc.

5. Make Strong Partnerships

To provide quality products, make sure to do partnerships with trusted suppliers. Plus, always follow terms and conditions as decided per contract to maintain a good relationship. And keep a backup plan to avoid any kind of disturbance.

Conclusion

Ghost commerce has become a new trend in e-commerce this year. It offers businesses flexibility, cost-effectiveness, digital privacy, and broad automation. It also has some drawbacks like more competition, limited control, and less profit margin. But still, by applying best practices, you can enhance the growth of your ghost commerce store. Therefore, for growing e-commerce businesses and startups, ghost commerce is the right option that demands minimal investment.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is ghost commerce in simple terms?

Ghost commerce is operating an online store without manufacturing and keeping inventory, just consulting suppliers to deliver products to your customers.

How does ghost commerce work?

Products from third-party suppliers are added to your online store, and then customers place an order, and the supplier fulfills that and delivers to their doorstep.

What are the main benefits of ghost commerce?

There are several benefits including minimal investment cost, more flexibility, digital privacy, automation opportunities, and effective marketing or branding.

Is ghost commerce legal?

Yes, according to e-commerce rules, taxes, and supplier’s consent it is considered legal.

Is ghost commerce the same as dropshipping?

No, we can say dropshipping is one aspect of ghost commerce, it is considered as a fulfillment method, and it does not need marketing as in ghost commerce.