Shopify and the Hard Thing About Easy Things

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

Said differently, if your business is standalone e-commerce selling third-party brands, good luck. You can’t generate enough operating profit to scale beyond getting noticed, counter-attacked, and at best acquired.

For a long time, retail survived on taste and real estate — curation and distribution. The internet made it possible for regional clothing stores like Need Supply to sell to a global audience and build larger businesses. But then it also made it easier for consumers to find everything, anywhere — at the lowest price — challenging any sense of loyal... See more