How Shopify Can Be A Kingmaker

eCommerce
Written By Rick Watson

Shopify the investor has been almost as successful as Shopify the platform. This is why its investment in Global-E is a warning to other players in the cross-border enablement space.

It profited handsomely from its pre-IPO investment in Affirm for example which is incidentally its chosen vendor for its Shop Pay "pay later" functionality. If history plays out as before, there will be a standard provider which is integrated by default- while at the same time there are options for other providers to provide alternatives.

From my conversations with other vendors in the space, the margin for these kinds of deals is often extremely small but the vendors still benefit from the volume and the Shopify stamp of approval.

Previously, Global-E was already an extremely popular platform in the UK and Europe and gaining more traction in the US as well.

Rick Watson

Rick Watson founded RMW Commerce Consulting after spending 20+ years as a technology entrepreneur and operator exclusively in the eCommerce industry with companies like ChannelAdvisor, BarnesandNoble.com, Merchantry, and Pitney Bowes.

Watson’s work today is centered on supporting investors and management teams incubating and growing direct-to-consumer businesses. Most recently, in partnership with WHP Global, Rick was a critical resource in architecting the WHP+ platform, a new turnkey direct to consumer digital e-commerce platform that powers AnneKlein.com and JosephAbboud.com.

Watson also hosts a weekly podcast, Watson Weekly, where he shares an unbiased, unfiltered expert take on the retail sector’s biggest players.

In the past year alone, Rick has spoken at many in-person and virtual events as well as podcasts on topics ranging from retail/ecom to supply chain/logistics and even digital grocery including CommerceNext IRL, ASCM Connect, and Retail Innovation Conference.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/
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