The world of e-commerce has exploded in the 21st century. That explosion has been lead by Amazon which is now a trillion-dollar company. However, in the last few years, Ottoaw based Shopify has become one of the biggest disruptors in the e-commerce world. In fact, Shopify is said to be Amazon’s biggest competitor when it comes to an e-commerce business.
Disrupting the E-Commerce World
Shopify is a platform that allows almost anyone to open their own e-commerce business in minutes. Clients can go to the Shopify website and open a store with a 14-day free trial. Afterward, the client pays a monthly fee and can sell anything from digital products to jewelry. Shopify is home to some of the biggest e-commerce sellers on the planet including Kylie Kardashian and Hasbro.
Started by a Twentysomething Entrepreneur
The roots of Shopify go back over a decade ago when Canadian-German computer programmer Tobias Luke was looking for a better way to sell things online. Today, Tobias is a billionaire and Shopify is worth north of $50 billion dollars. The company has a publicly-traded stock that has been one of the biggest performers of the past five years.
Leading the E-Commerce Entrepreneur Wave
The one thing that has really lead to the explosion in the popularity of Shopify is its ability to create opportunities for entrepreneurs. Because of the free trial feature and the relatively low price of operating a Shopify website, young people have been able to create big businesses right from their laptops or even their phones. In fact, there have been a number of teenagers who have made well over seven figures by selling items on Shopify.
Shopify as a Leader in Dropshipping
Many people use Shopify as a way to dropship products from places like China. The process works like this: Someone opens a Shopify store and looks for products that they can drop ship from China. Usually, this means doing a search on the Chinese website Alibaba. From there, the owner of the Shopify store will advertise his store. The store will get sales. The Shopify owner will order the items through Alibaba and ship them to the customer. This model is so easy to use that millions of people are now doing business on the Shopify platform.
Attracting Big Brands and Big Celebrities
Small entrprenuers aren’t the only ones doing business on Shopify. Celebrities like Kylie Kardashian sell their products via the Shopify platform. Also, Hasbro now operates their website through Shopify. Thanks to the platform’s ability to handle high amounts of traffic, Shopify has been the e-commerce platform of choice for more and more businesses.
What the Future Looks Like For Shopify
Shopify has exploded in size thanks to its stock price performance and the COVID-19 situation. The risk in the stock price obviously gives the company more capital to work with. Also, the COVID-19 situation has caused many more people to buy online. Because of these two factors, Shopify is looking to expand even larger over the next decade.
Potential Collision Course with Amazon
While Amazon is still many times larger than Shopify, the Ottowa based e-commerce platform is starting to make some serious inroads into the trillion-dollar giant. Right now, there are hundreds of thousands of companies that sell their items through Amazon via the Fulfill by Amazon (FBA) program. However, more and more companies are looking to have their own e-commerce website to control their own brand image. It is too early to tell if Amazon will take on Shopify directly with its own platform service.
Making E-Commerce Easier Than Ever
As Shopify continues to grow and attract bigger brands, the company will continue to make e-commerce more accessible to more and more people. This could allow Shopify to expand even further and become one of the biggest players in the e-commerce world.
