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Now Bigger Than eBay, Shopify Sets Its Sights on Amazon

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Re: Now Bigger Than eBay, Shopify Sets Its Sights on Amazon

#21

Post by throwaway082319 »

scabbycakes wrote: post #19

As someone who worked developing Shopify apps (NOT a Shopifyt employee to be clear), I can attest to the incredibly high percentage of shops that evaporate from the platform on a nonstop basis. Something like 80% of the people that would install our apps in their shops would be gone or in limbo after a couple months. (Not an app uninstall, their shops actually no longer existed.) The charts we see from Shopify like t…

Indeed -- same position here. The trouble with developing Shopify apps is that your own application churn is additive with Shopify's. While that's the case with every platform, Shopify's churn rate is eye-wateringly high.

Re: Now Bigger Than eBay, Shopify Sets Its Sights on Amazon

#22

Post by blairanderson »

kolbe wrote: post #11

I don't get it at all. In my model, Shopify spends 75% of Gross Profit on sales to simply maintain existing customer levels. It doesn't seem like customers are very sticky, so they constantly have to pay huge amounts for sales to get new customers. So, what's the best case scenario? They go from $800m in revenue now to $5bn? Even if they don't increase R&D, that means they're profiting $500m a year. That's an 80 P/E…

- logistics (shopify shipping)

- shopify PLUS memberships (+$2K/month)

- enterprise level products (handshake, etc)

I think the fact that their enterprise sales are growing is a huge indicator. Its replacing legacy ERP systems in sales organizations because of the flexibility and value add.

I run a consulting company[0] for Amazon suppliers, and about 90% of our clients don't have "real time" inventory counts. 50% are someone automated but 100% have to enter at least 1 order MANUALLY each month because outdated technology. ORders with hundreds/thousands of line items entered manually will seriously mess up your day.

- [0] https://www.andersonassociates.net

Re: Now Bigger Than eBay, Shopify Sets Its Sights on Amazon

#23

Post by fourseventy »

throwaway082319 wrote: post #21
scabbycakes wrote: post #19

As someone who worked developing Shopify apps (NOT a Shopifyt employee to be clear), I can attest to the incredibly high percentage of shops that evaporate from the platform on a nonstop basis. Something like 80% of the people that would install our apps in their shops would be gone or in limbo after a couple months. (Not an app uninstall, their shops actually no longer existed.) The charts we see from Shopify like t…

Indeed -- same position here. The trouble with developing Shopify apps is that your own application churn is additive with Shopify's. While that's the case with every platform, Shopify's churn rate is eye-wateringly high.

I'm about to dev a Shopify app myself. How hard is it to stand out on the shopify app store and get some traction?

Re: Now Bigger Than eBay, Shopify Sets Its Sights on Amazon

#25

Post by chrischen »

DavidAdams wrote: post #9

I know that a lot of activity on Shopify is from ambitious but deluded people setting up dropshipping businesses. Shopify is just selling picks and shovels to a lot of prospectors in a particularly unfruitful gold rush. I'm wondering whether they'll see a contraction as the enthusiasm wears off.

I run a non-Shopify online store and maybe like 80% of my competitors are running a Shopify-powered drop-shipping operation. There's always new ones of these Shopify stores popping and and disappearing every few months.

Re: Now Bigger Than eBay, Shopify Sets Its Sights on Amazon

#26

Post by hrshtr »

kaiby wrote: post #7

This interview with Shopify's CEO about how the company grew / his mindset was interesting [1]. He said a lot of things that sounds similar to the author’s quotes in the article. [1] https://fs.blog/tobi-lutke/

+1 to the podcast. He seems to be a calm guy and it is good to hear about his thought process and the vision he has. Interestingly he loved playing video games and he owes playing video game to help him in critical thinking.

Re: Now Bigger Than eBay, Shopify Sets Its Sights on Amazon

#27

Post by scabbycakes »

fourseventy wrote: post #23
throwaway082319 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed -- same position here. The trouble with developing Shopify apps is that your own application churn is additive with Shopify's. While that's the case with every platform, Shopify's churn rate is eye-wateringly high.

I'm about to dev a Shopify app myself. How hard is it to stand out on the shopify app store and get some traction?

REALLY hard.

What you might be seeing a lot of these days is that app dev companies go around buying up other well-established apps and/or their development companies just because they can't find an app to make or get traction with apps they make at this point in the game. Even with great teams and money coming out their ears, they're having a hard time getting established with new apps.

There are 20 apps all doing the same thing competing with each other and all of them have had years head start, so having zero reviews compared to hundreds of favourable reviews can almost be insurmountable for a newcomer. Having said that, if you have 50 subscribers for your possibly obscure app, you can still eke out a good living.

Keep in mind there's a review process though, so just because you make it doesn't mean it will be published in their marketplace. Shopify tries hard to maintain an air of fairness but a large part of getting visibility with your app is who you know, too.

Re: Now Bigger Than eBay, Shopify Sets Its Sights on Amazon

#29

Post by dang »

raws wrote: post #17

A lot of people seem to be able to read the article which is behind a paywall for me! (Quite often the case on hn)

If there's a workaround, it's ok. Users usually post workarounds in the thread, and there are some in this one.

This is in the FAQ at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html and there's more explanation here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989

https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...

Re: Now Bigger Than eBay, Shopify Sets Its Sights on Amazon

#30

Post by Axsuul »

throwaway082319 wrote: post #21
scabbycakes wrote: post #19

As someone who worked developing Shopify apps (NOT a Shopifyt employee to be clear), I can attest to the incredibly high percentage of shops that evaporate from the platform on a nonstop basis. Something like 80% of the people that would install our apps in their shops would be gone or in limbo after a couple months. (Not an app uninstall, their shops actually no longer existed.) The charts we see from Shopify like t…

Indeed -- same position here. The trouble with developing Shopify apps is that your own application churn is additive with Shopify's. While that's the case with every platform, Shopify's churn rate is eye-wateringly high.

While that may be true, consider the amount of customers that wouldn't have signed up in the first place if it weren't for Shopify's app store.
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