Can Shopify Compete With Amazon Without Becoming Amazon? (Published 2020)

Last October, Shopify Inc. CEO Tobi Lutke said his company’s goal was to “arm the rebels” against the Amazon.com Inc. empire. Since then, the mantra has become a rallying cry for Shopify’s employees and the merchant customers that use its e-commerce store software. And now, the business turmoil sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic is creating an opport... See more

In a multi-pronged competition with Amazon, Shopify has to shed its DNA as a technology company and become a consumer company. Impressively, Shopify did another shift well enough - from being a tech company to an infrastructure company. It's preparing for the next orbital shift - moving from being an infrastructure company to a consumer company.

Last month, Tobi Lutke, the co-founder and CEO of Shopify, was asked if ‘Shopify was the next Amazon.’ His response was incredible, and he said this: “Amazon is trying to build an empire and Shopify is trying to arm the rebels.”

That gets to the real problem with the Shop app: it is not simply that it will likely fail, but more importantly it is a distraction from very real problems that Shopify is uniquely positioned to solve. Instead of competing with its own merchants to see who can do a better job of acquiring customers, Shopify should be pushing even more aggressively... See more

Because Shopify powers so many stores — more than 1 million worldwide — it’s in a good position to build a “global” profile for consumers for personalized recommendations.