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OpenStore Raises $75M to Acquire More Shopify Sellers

forbes.com

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Re: OpenStore Raises $75M to Acquire More Shopify Sellers

#31

Post by melony »

boringg wrote: post #18

Seriously this sounds like a isht business. End result is squeezing all the merchants into one giant crappy company - all profit rolls up to OpenStore. This also kills off any creators willingness to bring newer products to the market on a continual basis as they no longer own the store. I guess alternatively what you end up is with a bunch of people who make stores quickly off a new product and sell to OpenStore, ri…

I don't understand the hate for this company. YC has funded multiple such aggregators (see Moonshot Brands) and I don't see any negative complaints about those.

Re: OpenStore Raises $75M to Acquire More Shopify Sellers

#32

Post by jeltz »

melony wrote: post #31
boringg wrote: post #18

Seriously this sounds like a isht business. End result is squeezing all the merchants into one giant crappy company - all profit rolls up to OpenStore. This also kills off any creators willingness to bring newer products to the market on a continual basis as they no longer own the store. I guess alternatively what you end up is with a bunch of people who make stores quickly off a new product and sell to OpenStore, ri…

I don't understand the hate for this company. YC has funded multiple such aggregators (see Moonshot Brands) and I don't see any negative complaints about those.

Personally I hate all of them. Companies like these are just harmful to the market in my experience.

Re: OpenStore Raises $75M to Acquire More Shopify Sellers

#33

Post by tmp_anon_22 »

melony wrote: post #31
boringg wrote: post #18

Seriously this sounds like a isht business. End result is squeezing all the merchants into one giant crappy company - all profit rolls up to OpenStore. This also kills off any creators willingness to bring newer products to the market on a continual basis as they no longer own the store. I guess alternatively what you end up is with a bunch of people who make stores quickly off a new product and sell to OpenStore, ri…

I don't understand the hate for this company. YC has funded multiple such aggregators (see Moonshot Brands) and I don't see any negative complaints about those.

"Nobody has complained about similar companies yet" is not a foundation to build on.

Re: OpenStore Raises $75M to Acquire More Shopify Sellers

#34

Post by jeltz »

echelon wrote: post #2

When a merchant sells their long-tail business, can these folks run it just as well? I'm incredibly skeptical of that claim. Long tail screams boutique, special interest. Holy water blessed dog cushions, handmade driftwood furniture, custom embroidered Naruto vests, sex toys, and other random things. Can the venture equivalent of private equity really run these businesses and not drive them into the ground? Do the ma…

> When a merchant sells their long-tail business, can these folks run it just as well? I'm incredibly skeptical of that claim.

Based on my experience from another industry: no, they will run it worse but that does not matter since the difference in valuations between the seller and buyer is big enough.

Re: OpenStore Raises $75M to Acquire More Shopify Sellers

#36

Post by antisthenes »

cm2012 wrote: post #35

I'm skeptical. Long tail Shopify businesses are kept alive with hustle and spit since they don't have enduring brands. With the founder gone, most will plummet in value.

Openstore just has to keep the facade going long enough to exit. Perhaps even quick enough to ride the pandemic demand train.

Re: OpenStore Raises $75M to Acquire More Shopify Sellers

#37

Post by ab_testing »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #19

Wait, so they buy Shopify sellers, and move them off Shopify onto their own platform? Do I understand this right? Or do they leave them on shopify? What an odd business model. To focus only on businesses using the shopify platform. I wonder how Shopify views this?

They leave them on Shopify. Basically it is a way for owner operators to cash out if their Shopify stores have reached a certain level of revenue and the business is kinda automated.
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