Platforms in an Aggregator World

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

Shopify’s big strategic question is how it can build network effects. It wants to sell higher-margin products to merchants for the money, but it might be more important in the long term that those products build a network, pull more merchants and users into the system, and make the core business more sticky. Shop Pay is one building block, but an a... See more

I think it’s inevitable that Shopify will become a consumer destination, but the way it monetizes demand gen will need to be aligned with its role as a Platform.